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Hi from Greece on a sailboat, great site and a ton of info. I am looking at a 52 again after i toured her in 2015 and we are ready to change but honestly there are still some doubts. I still have the feeling that the hull, even if beeing quite tall and the design is superb, but the installation, plumbing can make life complicated. I know from dutch boats that they put all technical equipment from engine to aircon, heater, inverter water maker in one big engine room.,Looks overwhelming but you see problems easily. In the 52 it seems its placed all over the boat, in cabinets, under beds etc which make things not easier. Additional when boats get older parts have to be exchanged or some material like brass in aircon manifold or wrong gasket in tanks or cooler will show up after 10 years only and out of guarantee. So how to you see NH ageing over time and how often did you yell f****** why its so difficult to reach things…..,In the end the small bits can make it difficult. I have a oneoff with 90 pct superb installation but the last 10 pct drives you crazy…,,.Carsten
Many Nordhavns including the 52 look high and I’ve heard many observers concerned about the stability of the vessel but, what you don’t see, is the 6’7″ (on Dirona) of below-the-waterline weight. Dirona has over 6,000 lbs of ballast, up to 1,750 gallons (more 10,000 lbs) of fuel,as much as 400 gallons (3,200 lbs) of water, and an incredibly thick and heavy hull. There are downsides of all this mass including slightly lower fuel economy but it allows the boat to be incredibly stable in even very rough seas and to carry a lot of above the waterline space. The N52 is designed to pass Class A Ocean (highest rating). More data here: https://mvdirona.com/2019/03/deck-fuel-and-vessel-stability/
The short form is these boats are built tough and crazy heavy but, the more difficult the weather, the happier we were in that boat.
On service space, just about no boast is as big as you might like when servicing but Nordhavn’s are all serviceable. I did just about all service on our N5263 over the 10 years and more than 12,000 hours we owned the boat and I know it very well. I’ve also helped other Nordhavn owners over the years and I’ll admit that a N68 is much easier to work on than a N52. Smaller boats are almost always more challenging to service than large boats but the work can be done.
There were numerous times when more service space would have been really nice but Nordhavns of all sizes have been designed to be services and, in my opinion, the brand is above average by that measure. If you flip through the blog, you can get a rough perspective on how much service is required when a boat is used heavily with high annual hours and it’ll also give you good read on how accessible components are on the 52.
Dear James and Jennifer. Funny coincidence — I’ve been scouting for a good travel charger, and I just noticed in your photo (at the Granville Island Hotel) you’ve got one that looks like it could charge two laptops at once. What model is that? Looks like exactly what I need.
It’s a great charger and it can run two laptops at once if they are modern and fairly efficient. The max power delivery from this unit is 100W. It works perfectly for our two 13″ HP Dragonfly G4s. This is the Anker Prime 100W: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CZ6LXL8R.
Wow, I actually bought that one just last week—but I was a bit worried it might only offer slightly more power than my 65W ThinkPad charger.
By the way, do you usually rely on having power sockets available when you travel, or do you also carry a power bank for your laptop?
I was looking into this Anker model (A1340, ASIN B0BYP2F3SG) for that reason:
https://a.co/d/aMlud75
We also use this power bank that can drive a full 65W on demand: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DBHC9F8B.
I have liked your website for a long time. The content, layout, and especially the live and interactive map is fantastic. Can you give a bit of insight on how difficult this was to create and manage? Could a mid-level-technical (no computer programming) person manage/update this site? I am interested to have something similar but I am quite intimidated. Thanks ahead for any insights or recomendations.
A simple WordPress site is easy to setup and maintain. Other than the interactive map, that’s all our site is. You could easily do it. The map is a lot of custom code and would take time but the rest is easy for non-programmers. My recommendation is to dive in and chose a WordPress theme and bring up a site. Try changing themes as you learn more. Have book on WordPress to consult when you are stuck. It’s all easy and no programming expereince is needed.
Thanks for your quick response. It does seem like a basic site based on one of their templates shouldn’t be too hard. That is about my technical level. I was hoping you had an easy secret…. Thanks for sharing your adventures. I am super impressed that you have been to both poles. Happy travels.
When are you heading to outer space?? I am sure you have looked into it. It is about the only place left!
Yes, your right. If we could afford it, we would definitely do an orbit of earth.
Have you shared any details about your custom raspberry pi watch commander replacement anywhere? I searched the site and did not find anything beyond the initial mention. Thanks!
The details on what the watch commander does and how it behaves are described here: https://mvdirona.com/2022/03/watchkeeping-revisited/.
The software is fairly simple. It’s just a timer driving a set of 5v digital outputs each of which drives a relay and the relays control power to warning lights and/or alarms. It also has one digital input that senses when the user presses the switch confirming the operator is alert and another digital input that is used to activate/deactivate the device.
A recent post in the Puget sound boating Facebook group says that Cruising the Secret Coast is sold out everywhere and is in demand.
It’s true, The Secret Coast is no longer in print. We would prefer to see it in market and easily available to those that want it but the publisher didn’t see sufficient demand to justify an additional print run. For us, we’ve never cared about revenue from the book — we just want it widely available to those cruising the area.
We’ll follow up with the current publishing rights holder that doesn’t plan to further monetize the book and request republishing rights.
Just checking on you two, I recently viewed several video’s , I was always impressed with your skills, and confidence in motoring around the world. Hope you two are healthy and enjoying life.
All good on our end. I’ve been in a role at work where being in Seattle is much more effective so I’ve been working in that model for the last three years. We’re still adventuring though having been to the North Pole, the South Pole, other parts of Antarctica, Greenland, Iceland, Switzerland, Italy, and others.
Hello there!
Today I have discovered your blog by pure luck and I am litteraly impressed of how good you are in balacing hyper techincal work and enjoying life. Right now, I am spending hours reading around your blog. And I truly admire you.
I have spent the last 17 years pushing hard my limits… Improving both technical and soft skills… Reaching whatever I set as career goal… (e.g. now I am Director of a Cybersecurity Lab. I do exactly what I wanted to do. Hacking, Researching, etc.) But at the cost that my wife cannot withstand me anymore… and soon will leave with together with the kids.
Logically speaking, I can’t blame her. Job was always my first priority.
As a person that reached that level of expertize at work… but in the meantime still enjoying family and life… what advice would you give?
Shall I keep push further my limits to reach yet another career goal?
Shall I slow-down and enojy more life, knowing that the rest of the world won’t wait for me and will keep going & advancing… meanwhile… me… if I slow down I will just be left behind (form a technical skillset POV)?!
P.S. Apologies for this rant. I have not even close friend left to talk with.
Dear Jennifer and James,
Given your extensive experience with cruising, even if not specifically with sailing yachts, I wanted to get your thoughts on the tragic sinking of the Bayesian in Italy on August 13th at 4:30 AM.
How could a 56-meter (183 ft) sailing yacht collapse in under a minute while anchored just half a mile off the coast of Porticello, Palermo (Sicily, southern Italy)? (I’ve included a video that appears to capture the sinking.)
The Bayesian had a 75-meter (246 ft) mast—making it 34% taller than the yacht is long. Could this have been a balance issue, or is that too simplistic an explanation?
Investigations have revealed that the mast remained intact; it didn’t snap. Is it possible that wind alone caused the sinking? Gusts in the area were estimated to be around 50 knots, possibly reaching 70 knots at the incident site.
I’ve often heard the saying, “the sea knows everything you did wrong,” and I greatly value your analytical approach to incidents like these, especially in identifying potential causes to avoid similar tragedies in the future.
The captain, James Cutfield, was reportedly very experienced—a 51-year-old from New Zealand.
It’s a heartbreaking loss for the families involved.
complete analysis by BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy0nwe4d7k5o
video of sinking: https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/naufragio-palermo-riprese-ricerche-dispersi-speleosub-nuovo-azione-AFjQ9UTD
Its definitely a tragic situation. Small to medium sized recreational craft generally don’t have water tight compartments and, for those boats that do have them, they only help if closed. Without watertight compartments, bulk water ingress if it occurs will sink a boat amazingly quickly.
The mast is tall but relatively low mass relative to the keel, hull, and machinery in a well designed sail boat. Where the mast will certainly have contributed to the problem is the wind pressure on the mast will blow the boat over unusually far and higher winds will blow over to greater angles. If the boat had open toy garages, windows, or doors, as the boat inclines over unusually far, it can take on water quickly. Even if the boat was sealed up, there is an inclined beyond which the boat will suffer water ingress as engine room intakes and other openings allow water to rush in. In our boat, this angle was 61 degrees. Beyond this angle, the boat would take on water.
I expect we’ll learn that the boat was blown over unusually far for at anchor conditions and suffered rapid water ingress and this sunk the boat.
A question I have is that in all of your cruising did you ever encounter any unusually wild weather conditions or hear other cruisers mention something like this?
We have never in weather that would be classified as wild but we have been in sustained 40 knot winds with well developed seas (around 20′) 3 or 4 times and don’t love it but the good news is it didn’t feel unsafe. We have never seen roque waves or truly dangerous weather. We know that our boat and us are fairly comfortable in 20′ seas but we don’t really know the limit having never seen worse. But, I suspect that double what we have seen, which definitely does happen, would be high risk and fairly uncomfortable.
Another question I’m curious about is that in all of your cruising, and land travels outside the US how accurate did you find the forecasts issued by local weather offices?? Were there countries more accurate than others?
When we are offshore we show the ECMWF, PWG, PWE, Spire, WWW3, and GFS models through PredictWind. The ECMWF model is our primary go to model but, when we see great variation with the others, we dig deeper and use more caution. We’re generally impressed with both PredictWind and the accuracy of these weather models when off shore. Near shore, we find local weather forecasting from the host country more accurate and more detailed than the models. There are definite differences in the accuracy of the local forecasts depending upon how much the host country invests in weather forecasting and whether the prevailing wind patterns were over land where there is lots of information or over water where there is less.
Good-morning James and Jennifer,
My husband and I are currently anchored in “the Wizard” after two nights in Echo Bay off Stryker Island. Both of these anchorages we chose because of your book “Cruising the Secret Coast” and we couldn’t be more thrilled. We have had our boat “Slow Dance” (a Kadey Korean Whaleback) for four years now but this is our first season North of Cape Caution. We are so grateful for your book and that you so generously shared these beautiful anchorages with other boaters. Thank you. Best regards and good luck with your ongoing travels and adventures. Edan and Andrea Oestreich
That’s kind of you to take the time to pass on the feedback on “Cruising the Secret Coast”. Thanks and happy cruising.
Hi James and Jennifer
Fist of thank you for this great blog. It has certainly inspired me to remember to be adventurous with my travels and get better at documenting where I go and what I see.
On that note, I very much like how you display all your GPS tracks and photos on google earth, make me want to do the same thing. What do you tend to use for GPS tracking for your flights, hikes and trips.
A small Garmin perhaps? I’d be curious to know, I have trip to multiple destinations in Asia coming up and would like to collect GPS tracks while flying, sailing, driving and walking :)
On another note I hope you enjoyed your trip to Greenland via Iceland.
I’m actually from Iceland although I live in London and spend a lot of time in the US for work, in Jersey City at the moment. So anyway if you ever go to Iceland again and want to explore perhaps more off the beaten path I can give some pointers and ideas.
All the best
Arni,
Thanks for the feedback on the blog, and for the offer of Iceland tips. We’ll certainly return so will take you up on that when we plan our next trip.
For most tracks we use the Android Geo Tracker app (https://play.google.com/store/search?q=geo%20tracker&c=apps) on our phones. This works well except on ships, planes, and rail where the signal is often blocked. To handle the ships case we hang a Garmin inReach Mini 2 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09PSSSFPF) outside on a balcony rail so it gets a clear signal. For planes and rail, where putting the tracker outside isn’t practical, we just use the InReach inside since it has a better antenna than the phone and it does somewhat better.
Jennifer
Thanks for the information on how you do GPS tracking, the Garmin inReach Mini 2 sounds like a good option, I had been looking at it and the way you use it make sense, I’ll get one for my next trip.
Yeah feel free to drop me an email any time you might be thinking about planning a trip to Iceland, I can certainly share some ideas for interesting places to see there, etc.
There are plenty of places that are well off the beaten track that are interesting to visit.
Perhaps your next trip there might be to see the 2026 total solar eclipse that will be best visible from the tip of the Vestfjords.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_12,_2026
Arni
Hello James and Jennifer,
We are planning a trip down the Columbia River. I know you did this back in 2012 and I have a couple of questions about the trip.
1. Do you have a recommended guide for the extended Columbia/Snake Rivers?
2. Why didn’t you travel farther up the Columbia River to Wenatchee, the Grand Coulee Dam, or beyond? Does the river get too shallow?
3. Any tips or warnings for the trip? Favorite moorages or restaurants?
I guess I should say UP the Columbia River…
Griff,
1. The two guides we used were “Umbrella Guide to Exploring the Columbia-Snake River Inland Waterway” (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0945397585/) and “Boating Guide to the Lower Columbia and Willammette Rivers” (https://columbiariversailing.org/boating-guide-to-the-lower-columbia-and-willamette-rivers/). The first isn’t specific to boating, but gave lots of good information on what to see and do.
2. Beyond Hanford, our charts didn’t have any soundings. We stopped at the confluence with the Snake and ran the tender up the Columbia to check out Hanford
3. Our best tip is to go outside the summer locking schedule for recreational craft to give you more flexibility on when to lock through. See https://mvdirona.com/category/destinations/north-america-pacific-coast/columbia-river for a detailed description of where we went, what we did, and our impressions.
Enjoy your time on the river system—it’s a fabulous adventure!
Jennifer
Hello, james:
I’ve been following your blog for a long time and I love it.
Thank you very much for your continued sharing about the data center.
For the frequent power and cooling failures of Google and Azure in the past two years, AWS has not happened for a long time. What is the secret or improvement?
The sad reality of really focusing on operational excellence is that outages are always noticed but avoiding them seldom is. Thanks for the feedback.
Our approach is to go with simple approaches to design redundancy and then years of honing operational practices where every event where systems or the team performed short of perfect gets analyzed deeply. It’s amazing what can be learned from even very minor operational or system glitches.
Dear James,
Thank you so much for continuing to share such important content.
As you say, “Outages are always noticed but avoiding them seldom is.”
Power and cooling failures in data centers have been the source of Scale failures.
Reducing or even eliminating these Scale failures through design redundancy of infrastructure or design redundancy of services is certainly good news for the data center.
I sincerely hope that an innovative architecture can be found to support this goal.
We have good sized teams on both the hardware infrastructure side and the systems software and applications side focused on resilience and availability. We constantly tune operational processes and design choices to deliver stable systems that just about never skip a beat. We all appreciate your feedback.
In you picture of Langley Harbor – what classic old cruiser is it passing south to north in the upper right?
Good to hear from you John. Unfortunately don’t have a good enough resolution photo to determine the name of that vessel. We had a great weekend in Langley–it’s been ages since we visited and staying on shore rather than anchored off as we used to gave us a different perspective.
— Jennifer
Thanks for continuing to take us on your journeys. Thought of you today when N92 Warbird pulled into our anchorage at Cambridge Cay, Exuma, Bahamas. Do you still have plans to do the loop someday?
Thanks for the feedback on the blog. Yes, we would like to do the Great Loop sometime but don’t have immediate plans.
Dear James,
I’ve noticed that no matter where you go, you always have your trusty Sonos Roam with you. I remember you wrote a thorough review about it a while back. You mention that it can also function as an Echo/Alexa speaker, even without the physical Echo device. I assume it works as a Bluetooth speaker for your Alexa phone app but I’m a bit confused because you mentioned not using the Bluetooth feature. Does that mean it connects directly to the Alexa service on the internet itself?
By the way, do you have a Spotify playlist? What kind of music do you usually listen to while traveling, just background tunes, or do you have specific songs or artists you prefer?
Ciao !
Raffaele,
The Sonos Roam supports the Alexa service and can operate just like an Echo device. For music, we listen to the same thing at home or away, mostly modern rock. Some of the bands we like now are The Fumes, The Brew and Henry’s Funeral Shoe. We’re listening to The Fumes right now over the Sonos Roam while in Belgrade, Serbia on a Danube River cruise.
Jennifer
Hi James and Jennifer,
Long time follower, and love your blog. Thank you so much for continuing to share such interesting and consistent content!
I think the boat you posted in your recent Puget Sound crossing is actually a Wellcraft 355, not an Axopar. They look very similar although the Wellcraft is a bit beamier and slightly higher freeboard.
See here: https://www.wellcraft.com/us/boat/wellcraft-355
Cheers, and thanks again for providing such an interesting blog of your adventures!
Jake,
Thanks for pointing that out—we’ve updated the text. The Wellcraft looks like an interesting boat—we’ve not come across it before.
Jennifer
In reference to the Aldebrook resort.
Say hello to Bill !
You might be next to where Bill Gates famously spent his notable “think weeks” and I believe I spotted this spot featured of the Netflix documentary “Inside Bill’s Brain” at S1:E2 min 02:45. You should take a look ! (By the way, fantastic documentary!)
Alderbrook has had many big visits and special visitors over the years and it’s perfectly believable that Bill Gates would have done a Think Week or two there. They definitely have a relaxing environment ideal for detailed thought.
Hi, I was hoping you could cast some light on traveling with a pet:)
My family and our dog will sail to French Polynesia on a very similar route to yours on a pleasure boat leaving our homeport San Francisco mid July.
1. We will depart from California – Hawaii with all the necessary International health certificates.
2. Sail via Kiribati: I battle to get information regarding what is required to disembark and where we could do so; I read that you did it but have failed to make contact with anyone.
3. I believe I must complete the 211 A form to enter the French Polynesia 4. Our first port of arrival will be The Marquesas Islands; if we were to first go to Tahiti, which seems to be required for the vet check, we would miss the Marquesas and be out at sea much, much longer:(
5. Do you know of any way around this? Any DBS on the Marquesas Islands or veterinarians that can stamp our dog’s health certificate? I appreciate your taking the time to assist me in these matters and make our family visit successful. Yours Sincerely, Karin Hoole
Karin,
You’ve got a fabulous adventure ahead of you!
Cats are a little easier than dogs as they don’t need to go ashore, so can be confined on board and thus not formally imported. We didn’t import our cat into Kiribati or French Polynesia.
For information on Kiribati, I started with the Kiribati Tourism Office: https://www.kiribatitourism.gov.ki/.
For French Polynesia, we used Kevin Ellis of Yacht Services Nuku Hiva and recommend him for clearing through. He should be able to provide more information on the current formalities for pets: https://www.yachtservicesnukuhiva.com
Noonsite.com also might have some helpful information on both these topics.
Have a safe and wonderful trip!
Jennifer
Thank you, Jennifer, we are excited!
Hello James & Jennifer;
I was doing a bit of family history research, which included a quick google search for one of the location of a resettled community on the south coast of Newfoundland, namely “Sam Hitches” when I stumbled across part of your log showing your voyage to this area of the world.
It is certainly a rugged coast and your pictures and comments captured it very nicely. I was intrigued and so I followed your trail along the coast which included your stop in Hr. Breton where you landed not more than a 50 meters from my home in the inner harbour. I also followed your trek across the ocean and dropped in to visit a few of the other locations that you have visited.
This contact is only intended to comment on my sense of envy/joy/awe about your journeys and I want to wish both of you safe travels for the future. I have added your site on my bookmark list & look forward to taking another trip with you.
Cliff
You definitely grew up in a beautiful part of the world. We really enjoyed our time there. Thanks for the blog feedback.
Hello James and Jennifer
This is Stuart from N6052, currently located at Fairlie Quay in Scotland hauled out .
First of all, when I looked at your site for the first time in moths, I was so sorry to hear about the loss of your lovely Spitfire. Liz and I also lost our 14 year old Golden Retriever Sadie just after we flew the dogs back to Canada in October. We can all take some solace in the fact that Spitfire and Sadie BOTH lived very long happy lives BUT losing them is still so heartbreaking. We have added a new puppy to the clan as we and our older male Golden were all feeling like there was a large hole in our lives and our daughter agreed to take on the puppy should she outlive us.
Otherwise, we hope that you are enjoying life ashore and wonder if you have any plans for another boat in the future.
I wanted to ask for some advice on managing our double stacked Fernstrum keel cooler as I am planning to paint mine as you did yours.
Sitting in the water, primarily at Kip Marina, for the past two years, the cooler had acquired a lot of hard white worm casts and mussels on the tubes as well as worms and barnacles on the box ends. Pressure washing and a hard plastic Lee Valley scraper have removed the bulk of the growth but the cooler is not yet suitable for painting. Dropping it for cleaning or salt blasting in situ seem to be the current options. Our coolant system is due for a flushing and coolant change in either case .
We are having our hull blasted with a material that is harder than soda and more like a salt according to Marineblast. We are doing this as the antifouling placed in Spain or the Bahamas by the former owner was likely incompatible with a red Pettit undercoat according to Steve D, who surveyed the boat for us. Delamination of the antifouling was evident but minor at survey in 2019 and although it has progressed somewhat since then, growth on the antifouling was remarkably minor.
I was thinking that I need to drop the cooler to allow full cleaning and painting of the cooler and to allow blasting and painting of the hull behind the cooler. Spraying paint is not allowed in Scottish marinas as you likely know from your time in Stornoway.
Did you routinely drop the keel cooler for cleaning and painting? I noticed that in one photo from Stornoway that the painters were cleaning the cooler in situ. How did they do that? Another photo from your stay at Saxon Wharf shows an extremely clean keel cooler and it would help to know how that was accomplished.
Although I was thinking of gently salt blasting the cooler, wedo have the option of taking it to Serck, which is a commercial facility in Glasgow, for chemical cleaning. Our mechanic also works at the defunct Hunterston nuclear power facility and has a lot of experience of sending larger cooler grids to Serck for cleaning
Any advice would be greatly appreciated
All the best
Stuart
Thanks kind words on Spitfire and, yes, there are days when we would love to be back boating. But, in my current work role, it’s really not efficient to be away for weeks at a time so boating doesn’t really fit very well right now. The good news is I’m having fun with work and we’re still managing to squeeze in enough travel to be enjoying ourselves. But, we fully expect to return to boating — it’s hard to match the personal freedom that comes with exploring by boat.
For keel cooler maintenance, it’s a lot of work to get the cooler down. Doing so forces you to remove the engine coolant, take off both cooler hoses (heavy difficult to remove hoses), and the remove the four fasteners holding the cooler in place. It’s fairly heavy and, each time it goes back on, care needs to be taken to avoid coolant or seawater leaks. Done properly it’s rarely a problem but we generally never drop the cooler unless it needs to be replaced or serviced.
We clean the cooler with a metal scraper followed by rotary drill powered wire brush and/or sandpaper. If you paint the cooler, cleaning it is far easier. The only downside is nearly everyone that sees it will warn you that “keel coolers should not be painted” and “paint will prevent proper cooling.” Both are technically true but the negative impact of paint isn’t huge and, at least in our limited tests, a painted cooler is more effective than an cooler covered in growth. We would do it again.
We have never sand blasted a keel cooler but abrasives are fine as long as they aren’t too aggressive.
Are you friendly with Nathan Myhrvold? I would love to be a fly on the wall if you two were having lunch.
I won’t say I know Nathan super well but I’ve been in many meetings with him and have at least one patent where he and I are co-authors. Nathan is wicked smart.
Waiting for your cold hard facts on Antarctica…. Between your cruise there and your land trip do you feel like you’ve seen all you’d like to have seen there or were there places there you’d didn’t see but would like to on a return trip.
No, we are nowhere close to “all done” with Antarctica Al. We have done two very different trips but we’ll be back at least one more time. For example, we want to do the loop from Argentina to the Falkland’s and South Georgia Islands, down to Antarctica, and then back to Argentina. The life on the Islands is incredible in all descriptions we have seen. We’re also super interested in a cruise that several operators run from Argentina, to antarctica, and then to New Zealand or Australia.
My quick summary: we love Antarctica but have lots more yet to see.
Dear sir, we learned from OCP Summit 2023 that the AWS GH200 cabinet is configured with six PSUs instead of BBUs. Is this because the power of the server is too high and the BBU is too large and cannot be installed in the cabinet? Are the ups power supply and batteries of the cabinet placed in the power distribution room? This is a change from the original lithium battery design concept in the cabinet?
If batteries are placed outside the cabinet, how to cope with the current overload fluctuation of the AI chip depends on the configuration of more PSUs?
Nope, that doesn’t sound right for a large variety of reasons. Point me to what was shown in OCP Summit 2023 and I’ll dig into the details.
Hi James, the NVL32 cabinet has three PSUs but no BBU. Why is there no BBU?
Sorry, the NVL32 cabinet has six groups of PSUs but no BBU. Why is there no BBU?
As I said before, point me to the data you are looking at and I’ll dig into it. Looking forward, please post work related questions to https://perspectives.mvdirona.com/.
Dear Jennifer and James
Buon Anno !
Happy New Year from James and Jennifer in Antarctica. New Years at the South Pole is hard to beat even if the crowds were a bit thin compared with Times Square!
haha, certainly the coolest party ever !
Hi James. I noticed it looks like you use Maretron n2kview to monitor your John Deere engine. Does that work well? Is there a different product you would recommend? Do you use it in addition to the standard John Deere gauges? Anything i should know? Im in the midst of repowering to John Deere and want to go with a glass bridge rather than the standard John Deere gauges.
We do use Maretron for everything and it is the primary display for the engines. We also have the Deere display as a backup but we never used it in over 12,000 hours relying exclusively on N2kview. The Deere is connected to NMEA2000 using the Maretron j2k100 interface. It requires no configuration or tuning and is strictly plug and play. Less than 30 min to install.
Merry Christmas James and Jennifer
Thanks and Merry Christmas to you as well.
your welcome and Thank you
Hello James,
It’s always great to message you. He’s an incredible person. In your answers you write in detail, with time and attention. I don’t even know how I would have these minutes from someone as busy as you. Thank you and congratulations.
I’m in Brazil, in São Paulo. At that moment without a boat, I sold it to buy ASIC machines, a temporary phase without a boat, waiting to start assembly from scratch. With my needs. Maybe use the Bruce Roberts TY785 project. I want to do the poles, Europe and also spend weekends nearby on islands, day use. So it needs to be a boat that does well in almost everything.
I’m very excited about the arrival of Kuiper, technology is what motivates me. I made a really big change in my life and now I’m working with cryptocurrencies mining, a data center, I believe I’ll get the time I need to travel, exploring. If you can, recommend me to Kuiper for tests in South America if needed.
Best Regards.
We too are temporarily without a boat and using that time to visit places we couldn’t get to with our boat. So far we’re enjoying it but will almost certainly return to boating.
Once you return to boating what are the top 3 places you would like to go back to and what are the top 3 places you’d like to see and explore.
Great question Al. In thinking through the top three places where we would like to return and further experience, Norway, New Zealand, and Alaska topped our list. Looking at the top three places where haven’t yet been by boat: Greenland, Patagonia, and South East Asia would be right up there.
You mention getting bug resistant clothes. How is the bug situation there on the ground?
There were bugs in the area and we do advise bug protection but, overall, it wasn’t bad. Dawn and dusk is when you’ll see the most bugs but, even during heavy times, it wasn’t bad at all. The biggest reason to protect against bugs are Mosquito born diseases like Yellow Fever. We were vaccinated but avoiding bug bites is the best protection.
We were in the Peruvian Amazon at the end of the dry season. During the wet season, the bug problem is far heavier but we would protect against it during all times of the year in the Amazon area.
Very fascinating trip !
Out of curiosity I landed on Street View in Nauta (yes, there is !) and the scenery brings to mind the landscapes of a West African country. Interestingly, your journey seems like a lighter version of the renowned Congo River expedition undertaken by Telegraph journalist Tim Butcher, as detailed in his compelling book “Blood River” (which I highly recommend to you!). I genuinely hope your adventure is smoother and more tourist-friendly.
Safe travels!
Ciao
Thanks for the “Blood River” book recommendation Raffaele. So far, our adventure has been a good one. We’ve seen freshwater Dolphins, Parakeets, an Anaconda, Sloths, Tarantula, and lots more. It’s been a fun adventure.
I’ve been working on a 52 auto pilot system with Little success. Do you think I might be able to ask you a few questions about your boat?
Happy to help if I can Ryan. You can find me at jrh@mvdirona.com.
Now I’m curious. Who/what is Willmott’s ghost.
It’s a great little downtown Seattle restaurant (https://www.google.com/maps/place//@47.6154466,-122.3421875,17z?entry=ttu) nestled inside a corner of the iconic Amazon Spheres (https://www.seattlespheres.com/). I work in the building beside the Spheres on the same block.
Was wondering who Willmott was to rate a ghost.
Ghost identity checks aren’t rigorously enforced so we can all have personal ghosts!
Hello James, how are you?
I have been following your journey for a few years, you helped me by indicating some technologies to connect my mechanical engine to NMEA2000, and you also helped me with INMARSAT plans.
I would like to know if you know how the Kuiper project is going, if it is already testing it and if in the meantime you have used Starlink, even though it is from a rival company. I installed Starlink on my trawler over a year ago and I’m using it. Before it, INMARSAT costs were surreal, I myself don’t know what will happen to these companies in the face of these new technologies.
When do you plan to go on a long trip and when will it be?
A big hug.
Hi Rinato. I too am an Starlink customer and, like you, I’ve used the previous satellite communication generations as well: KVH, Iridium, and Inmarsat. It’s wonderful how bandwidth costs have declined over the last couple generations. Starlink is remarkably affordable when compared to these previous generation services.
Last week Kuiper launched the first two satellites and they are doing well in early testing. The full constellation will be 3236 satellites and the production scale launches will begin next year in 2024 and go into customer testing once the minimum number of satellites are launched and active.
On your question on when our net “long trip” will be, we’re on a different sort of plan right now. What happening is I’m super busy at work so rather than long trips, we’re doing a couple small trips each year. As an example, we just got back from taking an ice breaker to the Geographic North Pole with stops in Svalbard, Iceland, and Greenland. It’s only 2 weeks but, even then, without Starlink, I wouldn’t have even been able to do it. The world being more economically connected is a truly wonderful thing.
We are exploring a N 55, vintage 2009 with John Deere 6081 main engine. She has nearly 7,000 hours on Hobbs meter. Broker says no maintenance records or engine log. Can an engine guy glean enough in a day to provide some reasonable assurance of condition/reliability/lifespan? Your insight would be helpful and much appreciated.
Generally, engines that have been used are better than engines that have sat for years gathering rust. Our Deere had zero parts failures at 7,000 hours, we replace the injectors at 8,000 hours, and then ran to 12,400 hours without any other parts problems. We would it with 12,400 hours and the most likely results is it’ll run for many thousand of hours yet before needing service and the mostly likely first service would be a vale job.
There are two types of engine failures: 1) wear issues, and 2) mis-use or catastrophic failures. Generally, under-stressed, well manufactured engines like John Deer’s will never wear out in common-case recreational use. Catastrophic damage does happen. Wet exhaust engines can suffer from water injection and, if it’s not correctly handled, this can lead to sever engine damage and much shortened life. There are super rare failure modes like a bottom end failure, timing gear failures, or valve failures that can destroy engines but they are so rare, they aren’t worth worrying about. Improper value adjustment could damage the valves but, again, rare. Valves are easy to adjust properly and mistakes aren’t common. A very common cause of engine faults is to over-prop a diesel. Boats get heavy over time and, if an engine can’t reach full rated RPM underway, it will be suffering from greater thermal stress. This can range from not great for an engine to destroying it. Fortunately, it’s easy to check for. It’s possible that the boat just had the prop repitched and it spent it’s life with excess pitch but the common case is, on boats that are mis-propped. Nobody every addresses it so your engine specialist will detect this quickly. If the oil hasn’t been changed for a while, a oil analysis can tell you a lot about rust in the engine or excess wear of some components. An oil analysis can lead to false alarms but if there are no service records it’s a good data point. If the oil was recently changed, you will get less data but it’s still worth sampling the oil after the sea trial to get some data.
If the boat really has no service records, it’s a very bad sign. Just about every responsible owner does keep track of maintenance and, if they don’t, a Nordhavn is a complex boat and it’s highly likely that no records implies there will have been some misses.
The short answer is your engine tech can find many failures but not all. There is some risk left over. 7,000 hours is fine and the engines can take a bunch of abuse so your risks are comparatively low if you take the precautions I outlines above. And, if you are very unlucky, an engine is a right around a $100,000 installed.
There are lots of well maintained boats out there with good maintenance records. I would favor them but I wouldn’t walk away with a boat with some warning signs but I would discount what I was willing to pay as warning signs mount and, if there are serious issues, negotiate on getting them corrected prior to you taking possessions and make sure the service company is both trustworthy and specified in the contract and the work to be done is as well.
Generally, 7,000 hours isn’t a concern, no maintenance records is a concern, and a quality engine tech can find most serious problems but 100% assurance isn’t possible.
I very much appreciate your time and advice.
Hey James, different battery question this time.
What’s your take on different size batteries in a bank? I’m considering adding 2x8D AGM batteries to my 6x4D AGM battery bank when I replace it. The Lifeline technical manual says batteries should be same age and size. Age I get but I’m curious about the implications about having 2 batteries in a bank that are the same age and chemistry, but a different size than the others.
This is pretty close to a universal rule of thumb that has been around for years: don’t mix batteries of different sizes in a bank. I suspect it’s one of those rules that is technically true but the negative impact may be slight. Battle Born Batteries say don’t do it and, as you point out, Lifeline recommends against it as well. But, there are many references to Justin Godber, General Manager at Lifeline, saying they have tested mixing sizes extensively without finding issue.
I personally would not choose to combine sizes in a series wired battery string but I would be comfortable mixing sizes across parallel wired banks. My choice has always been to have all uniform banks but, if there were space limitations making that impossible, I strongly suspect that mixed banks of uniform strings will perform quite well.
Makes sense, especially the part about making series strings homogeneous. Thanks your thoughts!
Hi James,
I recall a couple years ago you mentioned thinking that lithium batteries were quickly becoming a viable option for a cruising yacht. I’m still a few years away from replacing my batteries, but I’ve started looking into the details of looking after these batteries.
As I’ve dug into it, I’ve learned that lithium batteries can get into a state where their internal cells are imbalanced, which is exacerbated as batteries are not run through a full 2 hour absorption charge every time they’re recharged. This apparently can lead to the batteries prematurely getting to their cutoff voltage (since it only takes one cell getting to that voltage), and can also make it harder to get the batteries up to their full charge (reference is the Victron battery manual: https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Lithium_Battery_Smart/15958-Manual_Lithium_Battery_Smart-pdf-en.pdf). The manual recommends a weekly full charge allowing all cells to balance if the batteries have short charge periods or are discharged every day (which sounds very much like a cruising workload).
At a high level, this doesn’t sound too different to the sulfation behavior that lead-acid batteries experience, where they need to be fully charged regularly (as referenced in one of your quarantine anchorage posts where you didn’t fully charge for a long period of time). We were just on our boat away from the dock for 5+ weeks, and we broadly followed your protocol which kept the batteries in good shape, with a 4 hour charge every 4-ish days.
Anyway, this is a very long way to my question: Do you have any insight into how these batteries will behave during extended cruising away from shore power? My concern is how long the ‘full charge’ actually takes. I’ve heard that it can take many hours at basically no load, and if they do not fully balance, the cell imbalance can apparently continue to get worse.
All battery chemistries have pros and cons. Li-Ion in many ways are more permissive than Lead Acid to long periods of time without full charge. Li-ions cells last longest when kept below full charge whereas Lead Acid systems do better with regular full charge to avoid sulfation. The key to Li-ion is the battery management system. Cells have to be kept balanced and certain voltage and temp edge conditions have to protected against. Li-ion systems require well thought through BMS systems to be safe and long lived but, with appropriate monitoring and control systems, they are great. The three reasons we didn’t move to Li-Ion are 1) we got such excellent pricing on Lifelines that the Li-ion price/performance wasn’t a clear win, 2) different form factors and the requirement for different charge characteristics and control systems make Li-ion brownfield installs more time consumptive and costly, and 3) some insurance companies are uncomfortable with Li-ion installs if they aren’t from name brand companies and installed by qualified installers.
For a Greenfield install, we would go Li-ion and, even for brownfield, as the Li-ion pricing comes down and the BMS systems continue to improve, we would likely move to Li-ion but we would pre-qualify the system we planned to install with our insurance company. Some companies really don’t like systems they don’t perceive to be professionally engineered and installed.
I see. You raise a valid point about brownfield installation. While it’s possible, there are complexities and costs involved. Thanks for the insights.
Even with the cost and hassle of a brownfield install, if the cost spread between LFP and Lead Acid was less, we would have made the change.
The biggest motivation I have is usable energy density and geometry. I want some incremental capacity, and while I don’t mind a few hundred extra pounds of weight in a 35T boat, the issue is that I don’t have space available where the batteries are now to add more AGMs, and I’m concerned about effectively long-lining the battery bank to another spot in the boat.
Being able to easily double my usable capacity in the same area is really appealing. Decisions, decisions…
Yes, needing greater energy density is a good reason to move to LFP. Just another data point to your decision, you can have battery banks not closely connected as long as you have properly sized cables connecting them. On Dirona, the house banks is two groups roughly 6′ apart — it’s not a problem. You still might prefer to not give up the space and go LFP but you can successfully run remote battery banks.
I have a two+ year old DIY install of LFP batteries in a 7T Sailing Yacht.
Cells are still within 2mv of each other. They have never had a shore power charge bar the initial top balancing. The BMS balancer has not kicked in as the battery charge state has not got high enough to kick in. Due to a larger bank I rarely drain them to more than 45%. And that includes leaving everything on. I do not cook with induction mind or have aircon. Having bin-matched high quality cells helps.
Top balancing using a BMS with a low (eg. 200mA) balance current is going to take hours on large FLP cells as 1mV deviation could be 5Ah or so of delta to address.
I know a other cruisers who have not needed to top balance via BMS yet (ie after years). Some brought some very “average” cells quality wise.
TLDR; Cell imbalance does not appear to be a real-world issue in my experience.
Thanks for relaying your real-world experiences with LFP batteries. In my work life, I often find widely-held rules of thumb that are technically correct but of such small magnitude that other factors dominate. It’s often worth exploring the edges and learning more. Thanks for the data point.
Super helpful, thanks Greg. Will be hunting around for more datapoints as I approach EOL on my AGMs.
Hello thank you I find your blog very helpful. In your post on engine room cooling there are pictures of some round ceiling mounted circulation fans with guards on them, can you please tell me the manufacturer and part number ? I tried looking them up but was not successful. Thank you so much!
Thanks for the blog feedback. The fan we were using for engine room circulation was the Dayton 4wt44 available through Grainger. We ran them without issues for thousands of hours and found them efficient and quiet but we have also heard many good things about DeltaT fans. The downside of the DeltaT units is they are far more expensive.
Hope you both are doing well. Lynn and I had a great week with an associate of yours at AWS name Lowell with his wife in Tuscany on a bike tour. I mentioned you and our boats. He spoke highly of your work there. He said that everyone at AWS enjoys your adventures.
Small world! It sounds like you anhd Lowel had a fun bike trip in Tuscany. We have to get to Italy soon.
How are the wildfires affecting yourselves & the Seattle area in General? Stay safe. Malcolm Daley. Melbourne Australia
We have had a few days when it was a bit smokey around Seattle but, for the most part, it’s not been a problem. The good side of slightly more smoke is good sunsets. On our last hiking trip in the North Cascades, the route home was blocked by fire so that did force some changes of plans but, overall, we’ve been quite lucky. But it is sad to see so much death and destruction world-wide driven by wild fire. It’s currently worse than any time I can remember.
Wiring in wireless remote
I would like to add a wireless remote to my crane. Currently using a hard wired pendant. Would like to have both. All function solenoids are mounted in the boom. Hard wired cord from the plug goes to a terminal block. This is on one side. On the other side are the solenoids. Can I add the wires from the wireless receiver to the terminal block? If so should it be wired on the same side as the plug wires are?
Thank you
The final answer depends upon the wireless remote you choose and the crane control system but on our Steelhead SM1500 we did install the wireless system in parallel with the wire control system so that either could operate the crane. In this mode, either the wired or wireless remotes can be pressed to close a circuit that feeds current to the applicable solenoid. It makes no difference on which side of the terminal block the remote is connected (nor does the connection have to made at the terminal block). Once when we had a failed hard wired remote pendant, I controlled the crane via direct powering the appropriate solenoid at the solenoid. These circuits are fairly simple.
Thank you. I think I understand. I just replaced the pendant plug. I did have to ring out the wires to determine what function was related to each color. I am half way there.
Excellent. You are indeed near to winning on that one. Once you know where each connection is, it’s just work to get it complete.
When you wired in the wireless receiver did you make so you would unplug it to use the wired pendant? I was told if I want to keep both wired together I need to add diodes to the output side of the receiver.
I did wire it to make both the wired and wireless remotes able to operate the crane. The recommendation to use diodes comes from the potential negative impact from back feeding current into the wireless remote control box. It depends upon the circuit used but, in our combination of Steelhead and Kartech, there were no issue and we did not elect to use diodes.
Hey guys. It’s been a while, lots changed in my life but still at you know who. Going to catch up on the last few years I didn’t follow you
Hey Steve. Good hearing from you. Hope all is well on your end. I’m still at Amazon finding all sorts of interesting engineering projects to work upon.
I saw the show where you replaced the rod end on your steering and the end you got was the wrong size. Go to your internet search and look up FK Bearings, they have a catalog that you can find the rod end you need.
Yes, thanks for the tip. We did look there and FK Bearings does make some. The combination of 5/8″ threading and 3/4″ joint end is rare so there is much less selection but the parts are available from non-OEM sources. Thanks for passing that along Leon.
Hello James and Jennifer, I am a college student doing a research project on marine power management systems and load shedding devices. I have been scouring blogs and forums looking for information on this topic and came across some relevant articles on your website. Is it common to have issues with electrical system overload/tripped breakers on their boats? How does one manage power usage and prioritize electrical systems on a boat during high-demand periods? It is evident that you two are highly experienced and experts in this field, any information you can provide would be hugely helpful! Thanks!
That’s a good question. Load shedding is used in many different domains spanning the range from utility scale to semi-conductor scale. At utility scale we see applications where, in return for lower power prices, some industrial users agree to shed load when the utility is nearing their maximum generation capacity. These industrial users either switch to local generation or don’t operate during the periods where the utility hasn’t the generation capacity. I’ve been involved with examples where datacenters get off the utility and use emergency generation when the utility is short of generation capacity.
At the semiconductor end of spectrum, chips have a max power they can dissipate to avoid thermal overload. But, to get the best possible performance, the chip designer allows draws above this max for short periods of time after which they load shed by reducing operating frequency. Load shedding has also started to show up in RV applications — here’s an article on how load shedding is being used in RVs: https://familyrvingmag.com/2015/04/01/energy-management-systems/#:~:text=Once%20the%20current%20draw%20exceeds,for%20each%20particular%20coach's%20needs.
Load shedding is starting to show up in residential applications where, when a customer wants to add a electric vehicle charger, they are left with two choices: 1) upgrade the power to the entire home to deliver the new peak load (EV charging while AC running and dinner being cooked) or 2) install load sheading so the EV charger is only on when the capacity is available. Of course the latter is far cheaper. There are also companies offering smart breaker panels with load sheading. Here’s an example of one form Span.io: https://www.span.io/panel.
You asked if boats frequently don’t have access to all the power needed inside the boat. Yes, that is often the case and the most common solution is what I call “human load sheading” where, before using the hair dryer, you make sure the microwave or kettle isn’t already on. There also exist commercial solutions along the lines of the RV application I pointed to above but this is still very uncommon. What we did on our boat was implement a custom solution where there was a list of items to shed when the draw exceeded the current capacity. In our case on the 240V circuit, we shed first the water heater, then the HVAC and we had similar controls on the 120V system. In our system as load exceeded capacity we we drop the least important loads until load was back under capacity and then bring these load back online as capacity permitted. It’s a nice, all automatic solution but it’s labor intensive to install the needed switching and measurement systems.
As requested in your contact site, I am writing to you via this page. Only three more countries left for us then we will have visited every country in the world within the last 16 years of our challenge. We are now up to visiting not so well known travel destinations. We would like to visit the Kerguelen Islands. I believe we have to book from Reunion? I also believe I have to book up to three years in advance? That’s ok by us. We are two passengers. When is the next opportunity for 2025? How much is the fare for two and what dates are available?
Please contact us via below email. Rainer and Denise Kallenberger, apartment 108/501 Little Collins St. Melbourne 3000 Australia
Sorry, we aren’t involved with bookings so have no data on future booking availability.
HI,
We just watched your presentation from the Seattle Boat Show. You mentioned how important a printer is to have on your boat and I am wondering if you have any preference between black/white to color. It seems laser printers are better in terms of ink longevity/replacement. Did you find a need to print in color?
Jenna,
A black/white Brother DCPL2540DW worked well for us. We never needed to print out anything in color.
Jennifer
I really liked your post about your data displays throughout your boat. Very helpful in setting up my own N2K display.
Do you record your NEMA 2000 data? If so what is your setup and record rate?
Thank You.
Glad you found those posts helpful. We do record all NEMA2000 data and also some non-NMEA 2000 data. Our system records more than 200 data points once every 5 seconds from back in 2012. We love having the data.
I recorded it using customer software accessing the NMEA 2000 bus using CANboat (https://github.com/canboat/canboat).
On your Antarctica cruise did you encounter any pleasure boats cruising the area?
Yes, we did see one recreational boat: https://mvdirona.com/blog/content/binary/Blog_Antarctica_Wilhelm_Archipelago_IMG_4200.web.jpg. Not many recreational boaters are hardy enough to make that trip. We seriously considered it on our around-the-world cruise but, now that we have been there and seen first hand the conditions during the best part of the year, we may have been over-estimating our ability. Conditions that far south can be challenging and weather can turn rapidly. Clear anchorages can fill in with heavy ice with a wind shift. It’s absolutely navigable on a small boat but it’s much more challenging than anything we have seen.
Hi Dirona, many thanks for the beautifully curated account of your Antarctic voyage. I’m doing a very similar, longer trip that includes St.Georgia & The Falklands in January with Albatross Expeditions in a similar ship to The Endurance. You’ve already answered most of my questions, particularly about what clothing to bring. Do you have any other tips or advice on stuff to pack that would help my experience? Thank you.
You’re going to love that trip. On what to bring beyond what we have already mentioned, we would strongly recommend binoculars, a long lens camera, hand warmers (allows use of light gloves), sun glasses and sun screen, sea sickness treatment (may be available on boat), insulated rubber boots (provided on most boats), cell phone lanyard if you will be using it for pictures in the tenders), dry bag (useful in the tenders and for putting coats away when hiking on shore).
Brilliant. Much appreciated. Thank you again.
Hi James and Jennifer,
We enjoyed your Seattle boat show presentation. We have a 46’ sailboat in the Netherlands and travel with our cat as well. Right now we’re on Shaw Island for the winter but hope to live on our boat full time starting in May. This year we will be traveling on a Swedish Temporary residency, which will buy us 9 months of EU time, but not enough to live through the entire winter. How did you come to stay in Norway throughout the winter and/or extend your eu time?
Thanks any advice,
Susan & Harley
Susan & Harley,
Thank you for you feedback, we’re glad you enjoyed the presentation. That’s great you got a Swedish temporary residency–you’ll have a wonderful time exploring the Baltic and area. I am a UK citizen, so until Brexit, this gave myself and my family unlimited time in the Schengen area (subject to specific country limits typically of 90 days). The only other option I am aware of right now is a visitor’s visa for France, similar to what you are getting for Sweden, and pre-existing bilateral visa agreements with the US that were in place before Schengen.
Most bilateral visa agreements aren’t well-documented or well-known, although Denmark does publish it on their website: https://www.nyidanmark.dk/en-GB/You-want-to-apply/Short-stay-visa/Visa-free-visits
The other countries that I am aware of are Belgium, Spain, France, Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands, Portugal and Norway.
Jennifer
Hi Jennifer
Your ability to cruise Europe without having to worry about Schengen must have been fantastic and something we are hopefully looking forward to as well since Sally has applied for an Irish passport. However there is one thing that we haven’t been able to gain clarity on and that is the potential VAT liability on our Australian flagged boat if Sally was to utilize her EU passport while we cruise. While we will be careful to remain non-EU residents (but still a citizen) how did you prove “innocence” because I’ve got a feeling that a zealous customs agent might argue that it’s not his problem to prove our ‘guilt’. I’d love to hear your thoughts, Many Thanks Mark
You are very lucky to have access to an EU passport in the family. We had it through Jennifer’s UK passport but that’s no more so we’re now stuck with the 90 day of 180 restrictions. On your question of tax on the boat, there’s more good news. The boat rules are simple. If you are a EU resident or if the boat stays in the EU longer than 18 months, you need to pay but otherwise not. When taking the boat out of the EU, it only needs to be out for a day. We played it slightly more formally than needed and always made sure we had left some tracks where we left to by purchasing fuel or doing some sort of credit card transaction but this isn’t required.
If you avoid being declared a resident and don’t keep the boat in the EU for more than 18 consecutive months, you’ll have no problems.
Happy new year James and jennifer and to all readers of mv dirona blog
Thanks James and happy new year to you as well.
Merry Christmas James and Jennifer and to all readers of mv dirona blog
Thanks James and all the best to you from James and Jennifer.
thank you
James thanks so much again. You have provided so much value to our boating. I’m not that smart but I have a methodical way of figuring things out. You saved me days or weeks.
Wow ! just found your site and love it – I have a workshop At the Royal Cape Yacht club in Cape Town and recently installed a John Deer 6068TFM in a 50 ton wooden yacht ( yes its old – but very nice )
The agents, dr google etc cannot tell me the colirifier connections – so I went for the normal before and after the coolant pump – it didn’t work – bugger !
I see in one of your videos one connection (with a yellow shutoff valve ) where I also took a feed – but where is the other connection?
The boat is called The Impossible Machine and is about to do the cape to rio race – owner Ard Mathews – it’ll be on the internet if you want to take a peek
Any help would be gratefully received !
ps im also not young – 73 haha
Sounds like a fun project. On the 6068, there is a plug giving access to the coolant circuit at the back of the cylinder head on the exhaust side. This is likely a plug in your current install but you can replace it with a 90 degree fitting and a hose barb. This is the hot water source (inlet) for your hot water heater. on the other side of the engine (intake side) you’ll find a direct fitting on the water pump. Likely it too is a metal plug in your current install. That’s the outlet for your hot water heater. Good luck with your project.
Hello James and Jennifer,
I like the technical articles and videos you put out. I operate a vessel that has recently been repowered with 3 John Deere 6068’s as propulsion engines. I was wondering where you sourced the filler neck adapter and coolant expansion tank for your main engine. I have noticed that in the earlier posts with the Deere you have the factory filler neck with cap on the coolant reservoir and have since updated it to an adapter with hose running to an aluminum expansion bottle. We currently have the factory set up and the small barbed fitting that protrudes from the neck is too close to the flange to get a hose on. I have considered making an adapter but if an off the shelf component is available that would make things easier. I apologize if this is already covered in one of your posts, I browsed through and could not find it mentioned. Thank you!
Hi Dan. The reason we moved away from the standard location for the coolant reservoir cap is the water heater heat exchanger is above the filler cap in our application and you really want the cap to be the highest point in the cooling system. So I put on a small bottle above the normal cap location and installed the Deere spec cap there. The aluminum bottle is Amazon sourced: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003C0176G. On the Deere header tank I changed the filler neck adapter with a hose barb adapter using standard Deere parts. They supply the engines both ways and the parts department can get you the Deere header adapter with a thread for installation of piping or a hose barb.
I know I have asked you this before but update how’s Spitfire doing?
Thanks for asking. Spitfire is definitely showing his age being lighter than he used to be and less stable on his feet. But, generally, he’s still as much fun as ever. Still chases around the apartment and sleeps with us every night. For 19 years old, he’s still doing super well but there is no hiding from the fact that he’s getting very old for a cat.
I would have never guessed he was 19. How does he like being on the water, has he ever been seasick?
He’s behaved like a kitten his entire life. All that has changed is he spends more of his time sleeping. He rarely gets seasick but he does really slow down when it gets rough and, when he does get sick, it’s a warning to us that Jennifer will not be far behind. He’s close to as durable as we are.
Hi James and Jennifer (and Spitfire)
It is great to see that you are still cruising.
I thought of you guys today when a memory popped up on my Facebook page reminding me of the Great Storm of Richards Bay. It is difficult to believe that it was 7 years ago. I must say that we have not had anything similar before or after that in the 15 years I have lived in Richards Bay.
Richards Bay is coming up in the world since you were here last. We have been selected as a stopover for the Clipper around the World Yacht Race and Fortune Global 500 company Wilmar is building a palm oil processing facility, while a TiO2 plant is in final planning stage. We also have an investor getting enviro approvals for a 800MW floating wind farm. As you (unfortunately) found out (and I did not know), we apparently have some of the best offshore wind in the country https://www.businessinsider.co.za/sa-offshore-wind-farms-could-deliver-all-of-sas-electricity-2021-3 (to go with a fast current, that you first alerted me to).
Keep well
Hey it’s great to hear from you Keith. Congratulations on attracting more industry to Richards Bay and it’s nice to hear that the the Clipper race will be doing a stop-over in Richards Bay. We enjoyed ours. Continued success into 2023!
If it turns out to be OK, then it’s a very good design, but I think you’ve been well-proven before it comes out again, thank you.
Hello, Mr. James Hamilton.
The physical distance between AZs is described in Invent 2020 – Infrastructure Keynote with Peter DeSantis. A physical distance of many kilometers can avoid the impact of tornadoes and earthquakes. However, it is difficult to evaluate the impact of natural disasters such as earthquakes and tornadoes. The impact of earthquakes of different severities varies. Even a large earthquake affects more than 100 km. It is difficult to avoid the earthquake zone completely in some areas. To ensure that the delay meets the requirements, the distance between the two AZs cannot be too far. Therefore, the selection is contradictory. What do you think about this?
There is usually tension in engineering designs and this is no exception. The tradeoffs are as you describe and we think we have chosen design parameters that yield a very reliable experience for customers.
Well, thank you for your patience. Have a nice weekend.
Dear Mr. James Hamilton,
I have a question for you:
For data center cooling, AWS always adheres to the air cooling mode. That is, heat pipes are used to extract heat from the CPU to the data hall. Finally, the air cooling mode is adopted because it does not cost much to reconstruct data centers, or cloud services do not need to use CPUs with such high power density. However, as the CPU power increases, will the current air cooling mode or liquid cooling be used to solve the heat dissipation problem in the future? Instead of the heat pipe, the CPU heat is exported and then converted to air cooling.
If liquid cooling is used, which cooling mode will be used, such as CPU cold plate, single-phase immersion liquid cooling, and dual-phase immersion liquid cooling? What are your views on the development and evolution of these cooling modes?
We look forward to your reply. Thank you!
You are right, power density in some systems is approaching the limits of efficient air cooling systems. Today, we’re still all air cooled but we expect we’ll need liquid soon. Immersion systems make service complex so I wouldn’t go that way unless other alternatives couldn’t be made to work. The likely next direction for us will be liquid to a cold plate with either a 1 phase or 2 phase coolant with 2 phase being the most likely choice.
OK, thank you very much for your reply. In addition, is AWS making some technical reserve and research on this issue? When is it expected to apply and release some research results?
I don’t think we’ll publish the work but we often will discuss some of our approaches to infrastructure problems at Peter Desantis’ Keynote at re:Invent. No firm plans at this point.
I’m very glad to have your guidance,thank you. I read the AWS re:Invent 2020 – Infrastructure Keynote with Peter DeSantis. I’ve learned a lot. However, I’m confused. For example, I put lithium batteries into the cabinet. Although the capacity of each lithium battery is reduced to 5 kW, the damage radius is greatly reduced, but the number of lithium batteries is much larger and closer to the server. If the battery runs out of heat and causes a fire that can also destroy the server, it is ultimately chosen because the chances of running out of heat are very low? Or are there some measures to avoid it?
We believe it’s a good design and now, with several years of experience in thousands of racks, we can confirm it’s performing very well.
If it turns out to be OK, then it’s a very good design, but I think you’ve been well-proven before it comes out again, thank you.
Hello, Mr. James Hamilton:
In the recent burning accident of UPS lithium batteries and lithium cars ，the security of lithium batteries is disputed by all. How to deal with such risk when lithium batteries is used close to servers in the equipment room?
Any energy storage device by definition stores energy and, when energy is stored, there is risk of uncontrolledly energy release. This risk exists for all forms of energy storage whether fuel (e.g. gasoline), fuel cells or battery storage systems. There is nothing unique to Li-ion batteries. Well designed battery systems with redundant safety systems produce excellent long term safety results in data centers or even in mobile applications like cars where the risk profile is far higher.
thank you for your reply!
For lithium batteries used near data center servers, if effective isolation is achieved through redundant configuration and safety protection of infrastructure, even if there is 99.99% reliability, there will still be a possibility of failure according to the concept of design for failure. The upper-layer business (servers and applications) must be required to deploy multiple AZs or HA. Is there a better way to deal with it?
James, I was going to post this on nog but thought I might get a simpler answer from you. I am using your maintenance spreadsheet and I noticed you extended the recommended time and hours on the primary and secondary fuel filter. My first question is do you consider the primary being the dual racor or the primary engine mounted filter. My second question is your opinion that using the racor ahead of the engine mounted filters extends the service intervals for the engine mounted primary and secondary. And if my assumption here is correct you consider the tertiary the secondary on the engine.
I use manufactures specs for all hours except fuel and my recommendation is to use manufacturers specs for everything. On the fuel side, I run very fine 2 micron primary filters (off engine RACOR 900s) for a wide variety of reasons (https://mvdirona.com/2017/10/managing-fuel-quality/). Using small filters means they can only do 200 to 1500 hours and they most common range is 500 to 800 hours. We run more than that in a year so the longer calendar time on the fuel filter changes doesn’t really come into play. I change them more than once per year.
My recommendation is to use the manufacture specified interval and that’s what I do on oil and oil filtration but, on fuel, I just about always change on the pressure gauge indication rather than time.
Okay, great that was my original plan. Thanks for publishing the spreadsheet, we were offered the Vessel Vanguard and initially have used but I like the easier format of your spreadsheet and the fact that I don’t need to be online to use it.
Glad it’s working out for you Eric. Thanks for the feedback.
James, I heard you considered size for marina access, etc when selecting the N52. Lynn and I are currently considering moving from the N60 to the 68. Do you think that would cause significant limitations while cruising in Europe? We anchor quite a bit but slip when we need to return home.
What we have done in our two boat purchases is to buy a boat that is big enough that we really don’t expect to grow out of it over the next decade — basically it has be big enough to meet our immediate needs and we don’t want the overhead of moving up every 2 to 3 years. But, on the other hand, there are advantages to smaller boats so we aim to get the smallest boat that will meet our needs. If we were to buy a boat today we would go with an N60 or an N68 and we might lean towards the N68 even though that will restrict anchorage choice somewhat. We have had times where we could get into a marina where larger boats can’t. But the number of times we were able to get a slip with our N52 but wouldn’t have been able to do in an N68 aren’t that many and I think we would have been fine in a N68. I doubt it going bigger will limit you much. It’ll cost more to buy, more to operate, but I doubt you would find marina space limitations materially worse than our N52. We draw 6’7″ and need 29′ of air draft so not much difference there. It’s rare where you can’t find 16′ more feet.
Hello, Jennifer and James;
It looks like you’re enjoying your summer. Jen and I are getting serious on our boating goals, and are soon going to purchase a ‘mobile cottage’ in the Vancouver area to travel to, and use throughout the year. Due to our travel benefits as airline employees, this is a pretty great opportunity for us. It helps with the current itch, but also the experience required for the future live-aboard and circumnavigate goals.
Could I get your top picks for guidebooks ‘must have’s’ for the area? I started researching Waggoner, being highly regarded and you guys wrote an edition, but I’m curious from a start small on weekend trips out of the area, to quickly progress to seven to ten day adventures. We are able to leave the future boat in a location and travel back to it.
From guide, to charts, to physical maps – we’d appreciate your advise. We love all things paperless, but also LOVE a good physical map, so open to any suggestions you might have time to offer.
Chris
Chris,
Sounds like a great plan. The Waggoner guide is the one we use most heavily for cruising the PNW. It’s updated annually so is quite current and covers from South Sound to Alaska. We also quite like the Dreamspeaker series for specific areas. They will be less current, but they have put out newer editions of some guides.
Enjoy your travels!
Jennifer
Thank you! Will pick up Waggoner and have a look at Dreamspeaker.
We just booked a birthday trip for Jen and will be going to this year’s Trawlerfest. Will be neat to see Dirona.
Chris
Enjoy Trawlerfest. It’s been way too long since we have been to an event.
I have not seen any reference to ‘Spitfire’ lately. Is She/He still with you?
Enjoy your descriptions of the cats’ reactions and antics
Spitfire the mighty does indeed remain with us. He’s got 19 years behind him and requires special food and his balance isn’t what it used to be but, yeah, he continues to be playful and fun and still tucks in with us every night. We’re behind in our postings to the web site but he turned 19 this month and we’re aiming for making 20! Thanks for asking.
Thank you. Good to know.
Cheers, James. I’ll be updating it with the actual transcripts thru March. Hope you can tune in.
Phil
Hi James
Ran into a colleague of yours (Jorke Odolphi) at an Amazon Function in Queenstown tonight and he mentioned your site. I’m working on something similar. If you get a chance, check out my site about a bike/thumb/sail adventure from 1976/1977. I’d be keen to get your feedback. By the way, loved your photo w/ Jennifer. Cool.
Nice work on the web and it sounds like your 1970s Caribbean adventure was a good one.
I’m new to your posts, and found it quite informative! True appreciate you posting and also providing the xlsx template to build my own Ships Log. Just bought a GB 32 and the record keeping /log books were not provided. Starting from scratch. And 1st power boat. Yes, rookie captain. So, much appreciated! All the best to you, Captain of the Jag-Shark! Channel Island Harbor, Calif. (PS, also had a diesel pusher, Class A based from Portland OR. A 34′ Safari. Used during covid/plandemic to stay effective. Good times.
Thanks for the feedback on the blog and good luck with your Grand Banks in the Channel Island area. If you get a chance to take your boat further north, you’ll love Pacific North West boating. You could explore for a decade and never go to the same anchorage twice.
Nice views from the campsites
Your so right. We’ve boated in the Pacific North West for a couple of decades and the boating is truly world class. What we didn’t know is the mountains inland were equally impressive. We’re getting a completely different perspective of the same region and really enjoying it.
I recall a comment you made about air circulation in your aft lazarette, and I’m curious: Did you actually setup air intakes/exhaust from the lazarette, or did you just circulate air within the compartment? Asking because your engine room air intake/exhaust setup has so much care given to water intrusion, and I’m curious if you or Nordhavn did something similar for that space.
Hey Alec. Yes, the Laz does have external air provisions with forced air. Their is a pickup at about 4′ above the cockpit floor and the exhuast is out the same vents used by the engine room. The laz cooling system isn’t super well engineered and doesn’t flow much air. But the air volume is large and the heat load is only moderate so the system was sufficiently effective to keep the electrical equipment well within their continuous operating range with the exception of the 120V inverter. I found it was derating way below it’s spec due to localized heating. This is mostly a Mastervolt cooling problem rather than a Nordhavn Laz cooling deficiency. More detail here: https://mvdirona.com/2016/02/hot-rodding-the-mastervolt-inverter/.
Got it. We’re currently experiencing the warmest weather yet on our boat in Desolation Sound, and certainly putting the electrical system through its paces. Nothing is shutting down due to heat yet (as you said the Victron inverters are tanks and we haven’t had any issues yet) but just thinking ahead. My laz doesn’t have any circulation and no air intakes that I can find, so pondering what work I might want to do there…
Hi, James and Jennifer
I hope you are enjoying the summer.
Embarrassingly, I have just discovered the ‘Egret’ blog and their epic voyages. Coming across, and thoroughly enjoying the post below, have you considered cruising to Brazil in the future and destinations such as Parque
Nacional Marinho dos Abrolhos?
I ask this question selfishly as we will thoroughly take advantage of your blog guiding the way across the world.
All the best,
Chris
https://archive.nordhavn.com/egret/captains_log_nov.php
November 4, 2006
The past 24 hours had a few treats and a weather surprise. After the boys did their research they found enough space in the freezer for one more fish. Out went the baits then yes, ho hum, another 20lb dolphin…again! The boys had to stop fishing…again. The Egret crew had fresh dolphin for dinner…again. Tough duty folks. Later in the afternoon we saw a whale leap out of the water five times, tail and all. BIG splash. That is big stuff for the Florida and Colorado folks. While we are talking about swimming critters, we are approaching one of the best fishing areas in the world. The area is the Vitoria – Trindade Seamount Chain. We will do a separate short story on this area.
Egret also hit another milestone with 4600 trouble free engine hours 2 hours before the anchorage. Egret’s little Lugger has never missed a beat, EVER. She has the original injectors with all running exhaust manifold temps within a few degrees of each other. Perfect!!!! (a cold or cooler cylinder means an improper spray pattern = less combustion = time to change the injector.)
We didn’t mention previously that after putting a rebuild kit into the watermaker high pressure pump and upgrading the hose that blew once again we can make water at will. From a 500 lb. burst pressure hose we have upgraded to an 8000 lb. burst pressure hose (now standard from Matrix). All is well again with that issue.
With the relatively short 600nm or so jaunt to Rio (600nm trek seems like child’s play these days after the twenty day crossing) we left in good weather and a surmised promise of trade wind seas. We copy OMNI Bob, Egret’s weather router, on our Voyage of Egret writings. Bob taught us another lesson. What we thought and reality are sometimes different. Egret was sailing into a nasty low coming of the coast further south. Bob took the imitative and sent the weather forecast copied below. With this sage advise Egret is taking the smart approach and will hide out in Mary’s choice of the Arquipelago Dos Abrolhos. This is a national park and a large diving location off the coast of Brazil surrounded by reefs. No matter where the wind shifts there is an excellent anchorage. As the low moves off the coast we will again head south. Our next planned stop is the island group ninety or so miles south of Rio.
In six to eight weeks the weather and seas associated with this low may be acceptable but as of now we have the time to relax and enjoy the park what every contributor to the cruising guide gave 5 stars. We will delay this Voyage of Egret to give you the exact lat-lon location of the anchorage so you may zoom down and see the anchorage and surrounding small islands/reefs on the Google Earth feature displayed on this website.
Scott and Mary are epic cruisers and even better photographers. Their time in South America did sound great and we do hope to get there ourselves.
Shields Date Garden In 1951 he opened the Romance Theater and titled this presentation, “The Romance and Sex Life of the Date”
80225 US Hwy 111
Indio, CA 92201
longest running romance/ sex movie
That looks like a fun visit. Thanks for the pointer Don.
Hi J & J. Greetings again from the UK. Interesting little article on a boat that’s recently arrived on your shores and built by your friends at Metal Shark. Hope it’s of interest. https://www.bairdmaritime.com/work-boat-world/small-craft-world/search-and-rescue/vessel-review-zenith-response-craft-for-washington-state-fire-and-rescue-unit/
Metal Shark packed an impressive load of equipment on that very capable boat. I love the aggressive, prismatic lines of the newer Metal Shark boats. They look aggressive, tough, and modern. The styling is particularly well suited to military and law enforcement but it works well in other applications as well. Thanks for passing on that article Doug.
Dear James, I’m researching programs for systems monitoring, and the one you had on Dirona, was so impressive. As I recall, you designed it, correct? Is there anything out on the market that even comes close? Thank you!
That’s correct what we did was a purpose built solution based upon mostly Maretron (https://maretron.com/) sensors and N2kview (https://www.maretron.com/products/N2KView.php) at the core. Maretron produces commercial equipment that can economically produce systems similar to what we built. There are now other entrants in this market like Yacht Devices (https://www.yachtd.com/) that we have heard are quite good but most of our experience is with Maretron. There are also a large number of quite expensive solutions aimed at the commercial shipping and super yacht markets but Maretron and related producers like Yacht Devices produce a far more affordable solution.
Thank you very much!
Hi James and Jennifer,
Thanks so much for all you guys have shared, especially about Maretron. I keep going back to your posts again and again. I’m working at getting everything working on our network on Mobius. I have a couple of questions concerning licensing N2K View and networking, as well as power management with all the computers and displays.
We have a fly bridge, so 2 helms and 2 computers. With both on the same network, I can get each one to recognize our one N2K license key in the IPG-100 located at the lower helm, but only one computer can use the license at one time. We generally only use one helm so I thought this would work, but I’m having lots of difficulty switching and getting things to come online properly after a shutdown. There have been times when neither computer can find any gateway, even to open N2K Analyzer. I also have a USB-100 at the upper helm, and I am considering whether I should buy another license for that helm or buy a DSM display for the engine room, or both. I don’t think the license extends to those DSM displays, so each one would require a separate license if I understand that correctly.
In addition, Wayne prefers to shut down all the computers when we are docked or at anchor, for power management and saving the life of the devices. At the moment, we don’t have everything working, so there’s not as much monitoring going on as there will be once I sort out several issues. I’ve not been successful at bringing our Victron info into N2K – we have too many devices, and it introduced an instancing nightmare, so we are still using the Victron interface for all things in that dept. And tanks and bilge pumps both have ongoing issues. I’m still experimenting with the order in which to turn on everything, including radar and the engine (the Actisense EMU-1 that brings the Gardner engine data onto N2K is supposed to get its power from the engine ignition) so that the network runs properly.
I know you had multiple Maretron displays, including some of the DSM series around Dirona showing your Maretron data. Did you need to have separate N2K View licenses for each one? Did you keep all computers on all the time, or did you designate a DSM or one computer to remain running the N2K View software?
I would appreciate any insight you can offer on the licensing situation and how you dealt with the difference in network management in the different states of anchored/docked and underway. Thanks.
DSMs don’t require a license so you can add them at will and have as many as you want. We run one version of N2kview on the nav computer and since we want to always have monitoring on, we never shut the nav computer off. When we first installed our system we used a USB100 on the nav computer since the IPG100 hadn’t been released yet. It worked fine and, when the IPG100 was released, we moved to using it. Again no problem. When the nav computer boots up, it finds the IPG100 and the installed license without problem. In our configuration we had only 1 N2kview license but we had the Maretron data always displayed in the Salon, PH, and MSR. The way we did this is we repeated the nav computer screen in the MSR and Salon so we only actually had one version of N2kview running but, I’m sure it would work fine to have more than one as you do but only if you have sufficient licenses to support them all.
We prefer to have monitoring on all the time so most devices and sensors are always on but the main engine would, of course, join and exit the network as it started and stopped. That also works fine but you need to make sure that you have no instancing conflicts. I recommend starting all devices and then bringing up N2kanalyzer and ask it to look for instance conflicts. Keep changing device configuration until all instances are unique and N2kanalyzer reports no errors. Then scan through each device to ensure that the data displayed is correct. Once you have done that, the system should work well.
I also recommend that you get an N2kmeter and ensure the network has zero errors per second and stays at 0 errors for at least 10 min. If you see any issues, chase them. If you get the physical network rock solid and without errors with N2kmeter and the logical network rock solid and without errors using N2kanalyzer, you’ll get good results.
In your current configuration with more copies of N2kview than you have licenses, it will not work. If you ensure that only one version is running at a time, it should would but this isn’t a configuration that we have run and my preference would be to have licenses for however many copies of N2kview you run so the license isn’t being moved around mostly because license checking seems a bit fragile. We would see our only copy of N2kview fail a license check roughly once in every 20 to 30 reboots. Restarting n2kview corrected this but it did rarely happen.
DSMs require no license — you only need a license copy for each n2kview running on a PC.
Good luck with your N2kview system. If you get the physical network to zero errors using N2kmeter and the logical network to zero errors with N2kanalyzer, your system will be stable and won’t require attention.
Hi James and Jennifer
We have a N63. Our house batteries are 8D and are 7+ years old and near end of life. We had to replace our genset start battery 1 month ago. We have considered going with lithium and had ocean planet energy design a system. The other option is to replace what we have. We would like to add a 240 V 60hz inverter like you did so we can run AC off house batteries. What are your thoughts on these options?
The decision between Li-ion and AGM is getting more complex. If we were doing a new build, we would probably go with Li-ion. They last longer, require less space, and can be charged/discharged at high rates. On retrofit, most we talk to have elected to move to Li-ion but each time we looked at a battery bank replacement, we ended up concluding that AGM was an easier and more cost effective solution. The three main factors keeping us on AGM where:
1) Inertia. The most cost effective solutions aren’t available in an 8D form factor and needing to change the battery hold down and containment system is friction and needing to change the battery management systems to manage Li-ion chemistry needs adds a bit more.
2) Cost. We get great pricing on AGM. So, good it’s hard to cost effectively use anything else.
3) Safety. Almost a non-issue. AGM isn’t much different from LFP in safety but we view AGM failure modes and potential outcomes as just a bit better than LFP. With enough care on application design, the two chemistries can be made very similar in safety but the system needs to be well designed in the case of LFP whereas an AGM system is less demanding.
For us, it mostly boiled down to cost and ease of change. We could get AGM really inexpensively and just needed to pay two people for a portion of a day to change them. AGM was just easier and cheaper so we stuck with it but, on a new build, we would go LFP.
On the inverter, good decision. We really liked being able to run the entire boat on inverters. In South Africa and Sweden we found dock voltages down in the 195V range and having the boat running on nice, stable 240V while the chargers managed the poor quality power worked out really well. It’s great to be able to run all electrical equipment on the boat while underway without starting the generator — it’ll all run fine powered by the 9kw of alternators on the main engine. And, for short draws, just running off the batteries works fine. We view inverters behind all equipment as a great design rule and wouldn’t repeat the design if we were to do it again.
Hello Jennifer and James,
We hope that you are both well and enjoying you time ashore.
We are finally going to be flying over to the UK in early July to begin life on our N60.
I wonder if we could ask a couple of questions regarding shipment of our personal items to the UK as cargo and the import taxes involved?
I am sorry that I am not very knowledgeable about the details regarding these shipments but this is our very first experience.
Flying from Toronto, taking a lot of luggage gets expensive quickly. For example, an extra 30 kg bag costs $425 if it goes with us a checked baggage. Multiple bags/boxes sent on the same flight as cargo qualify a 100 kg limit for the same cost!! However, the cargo has to be processed by a broker and does not have any personal exemption allowance like baggage does.
I have read some information on your site that is very helpful. For example, the wait for the parts that you had shipped to Stornoway while the duties and taxes were being paid.
Do you have any guidance on declaring a “value for customs purchases only” on our used clothing and minor electrical items like our toaster, blender etc?
We are moving our well used sailing jackets, floating safety suits,boots etc.
The electrical items are used for the most part and are single items rather than a shipment of multiple similar items. Ie one toaster, one blender, etc. We need to bring them over as the boat has a North American electrical system. As you are well aware, these cannot be purchased in the UK and have no resale value there or value of any sort to anyone in the UK.
I believe that we are going to have to simply pay 20% VAT plus duty on the purchase cost of these items, despite almost all of them being well used already, but any advice that you can offer based on your experience would be greatly appreciated.
BTW – Our two Golden Retrievers are also coming with us but we have that complex process worked out already !!
Thank you very much for your assistance
All the best
Stuart and Liz
N60 MV Bluenose
Stuart & Liz,
Congratulations on the big move. The N60 is a fantastic boat.
The options available will depend upon how long the goods will be in the UK. It may also make a difference if you will become a UK resident and where the boat is registered. If you are moving to the UK, most counties usually let you bring in personal items w/o duty, so you might investigate that.
We’ve use two different import processes: Transit accompanying document (TAD) and Temporary Import (TI).
TAD is a for parts that are “in transit” and just moving through the UK on their way somewhere else and Temporary Admission is a more general process for goods that will be temporarily imported for a period of time ranging from 6-24 months. We used TAD for our generator parts and Temporary Admission for other goods.
In anything but bringing stuff through as checked bags, you are going to need the help of a broker to use these procedures. This will typically cost around GBP 400 pounds for import/export. You can temporarily import goods through the airport as checked bags with a value of up to around GBP 10,000 (I believe) implicitly by using “Declaration by Conduct” and this won’t require a broker to export.
If you don’t want to get a broker involved, you might bring any high-value items in your checked luggage and use Declaration by Conduct. Then bring the rest in as cargo and pay the duty etc.
If you have a lot of high-value items and you have the time, you could consider sea freight, but that would take several weeks to get the shipment. You’d probably end up spending around $1,200-$1,500 USD for the shipment including brokerage fees. You might also look into air freight with someone like UPS. They do have customs people that can handle the import side of things for a moderate fee, but you’d need still need a broker for the export. That would probably be around GBP 250 for just the export.
And if you don’t have one, recommend getting a ship’s stamp when handling this sort of process. It makes things look more official. We just had a stamp made with the boat’s name, our web site and email address.
Some more information on temporary import is at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/pay-less-or-no-duty-on-goods-you-store-repair-process-or-temporarily-use
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-you-can-get-import-duty-relief-on-goods-using-temporary-admission#by-conduct
You might also try calling UK customs hotline for guidance–they might have some other ideas/suggestions. We did that in first trying to understand the TI process and they were quite helpful.
Happy to help with more info if you need it. Good luck!
Jennifer
Hello Jennifer
Thank you so much for taking the time to provide so much incredibly useful detail !!!
I am sorry to have taken so long to reply and thank you but thought that initially checking with the National Temporary Admission Service at HMRC to ask them about the current process of Temporary Admission/Import for personal goods might help me to select any further questions before bothering you. The NTAS folks were very helpful in extending the TA of our boat that became necessary due to Covid, but they do take some time to respond. I’ve had no response to date.
We are going to be maintaining our Canadian residency for the upcoming years, so the TOR process is unavailable to us.
I did contact the HMRC UK Customs helpline, who felt that the situation was unique enough that we should contact NTAS
Thank you so much once again. All the best
Stuart and Liz
Good luck with it all–exciting times for you both!
It sounds like TA might be the right approach and perhaps you could leave for Ireland and come back if you wanted to stay longer in the UK? The dogs can move easily between the two countries with proper documentation (but only from Ireland into the UK on board a private boat).
And again, happy to help if you have any more questions.
Jennifer
Hi Stuart
Are you sure UK devices will not work on board? Might be worth checking, as it could be cheaper to simply buy new in the UK, at least for some items. Hard to believe a toaster is very fussy. We live in the UK and have never had an issue taking small electrical devices abroad, though have never taken a blender!
Good luck.
You’re right, a simple toaster will run fine on 50hz or 60hz but commercial appliances increasingly aren’t just simple heating elements but include displays and local compute. The biggest problem is that the UK equipment is nominal 230 volts whereas a North American boat is wired for 120V. Your simple toaster will work but it won’t be very hot at 1/2 voltage. Some people choose to wire the boat for both 230V and 120V but we prefer the simplicity of just choosing one power distribution system and purchasing matching appliances. Arguably if we had chosen 230V/50hz it would match a greater part of the world but, in the end, it doesn’t really make much difference — either could have worked fine. We don’t find it much of a hassle to buy the appliances in North America since we have to go back several times per year for work.
Miss your high seas stories but enjoy your landlubber adventures just the same…
As the NHL season comes to a close I know from your many photos that the Kraken are gaining favor as your “home” team. I hope you enjoyed the energizer bunny from Tampa Bay Yanni Gourd. HE is just a joy to watch and was such a big piece of two Stanley Cup Championships. Hard to see him go in the expansion draft but a great piece for the Kracken to build around going forward. If you haven’t done so, take a look at his background. Came out of nowhere to earn a spot and then excel for the Lightning.
GO BOLTS until the Sabres make the playoffs again!
Watching him now, it’s seems impossible that he would go undrafted. He’s a joy to watch. I wonder what made the difference for Yanni. Was it better couching, better players to learn from, or were there other factors that lead to him refining his game later than most.
Darn good questions and the only one I can answer is the Lightning Organization knows how to develop talent and someone saw this little water bug flying all over the ice and said “we can craft him into a champion”.
TC
I love this and other examples of undrafted players rising to the top of the game. This phenomena is highly visible in sports but I suspect it happens in all human endeavors. It’s a great life lesson that many of us can achieve far more than we do if we keep digging and working to be better and it also shows that being in the right environment with good training and other great practitioners can make a massive difference.
10-4 on that good buddy!
The shipwreck shown beached in Jersey Harbour, Fortune Bay, Newfoundland, from your Newfoundlan 2016 trip is not the SS “Home” but a fishing trawler the “Rupert Brand II”. It was beached and abandoned there back in the 60’s. The SS “Home” wreck is in the same area and is laying on it’s side. Here’s two pics of the SS Home taken in the 80’s:
https://mha.mun.ca/mha/pviewphoto/Record_ID/5242
https://mha.mun.ca/mha/pviewphoto.php?Record_ID=5157&pagev=1
Thanks for the correction and the additional detail Michael.
Fleming is known for continuous production improvements. Did/does Nordhavn read yours-and others blogs with the changes/updates/improvements that you all make in your travels? Would think there are lots of updates that would benefit follow on buyers. Do the electronics and equipment manufacturers do the same? Your travels in all sea and climate conditions make for a lot of real world experience.
Norhavn’s definitely evolve as the design moves forward. If you take an early member of a boat line and compare to the same model boat 10 years later, these two boats will differ greatly. I’m not sure Nordhavn actually read blogs to get ideas but future owners do and it’s the requests of future owners that help evolve the fleet going forward combined with things Nordhavn learns and changes independently.
Thanks for they reply. It’s customer service 101 to listen and learn from your customers. Will ask you though of all the updates you made what % were applicable the the “general boater” and what % were made for you and Jennifer and Dirona to enhance your particular needs and cruising style.
I agree with you that successful companies listen to their customers and are constantly evolving their products. On you’re question of which of our changes were fairly unique to us and which were applicable in general, it’s a hard question to answer. Boaters have such a diverse set of interests it’s hard to refer to them as a single group. The power system in Dirona is of pretty general utility. It’s able to run all equipment on inverters, can plug into any frequency, 120V or 240V, and any amperage from 50 down to 2x 8A circuits. Nordhavn now offers a very similar system. Other choices like fuel bladders tend to be useful only to those crossing oceans and, even then, only if you need to or want to cross a segment more than 2,500 nautical miles. For sure, this is a minority use case and, in larger Nordhavn’s they have even more range so the bladders really only have value to small boat owners who cross unusually large segments. Generator autostart is remarkably useful and is becoming an increasingly common option. I think the forward spotlight and the massive side flood lights are super useful when near land in non-developed areas where there shore has no light. It seems like a generally useful choice but it’s not that common at this point. The large 4-screen glass cockpit in Dirona was quite unusual back in 2010 when it was installed but it’s become pretty much normal these days. We really like having both a 32 kt high speed tender for long trips and a small easy to carry power tender with a 2.3hp for shore landings. Larger boats have always done this and it’s getting to be a more common choice on smaller boats. We loved having a SCUBA compressor on board and that a pretty common choice as well.
The best way to figure out what options that will add value for you is to look at what others are deploying on similar boats, learn why they did it, and then you can figure out if it’s worth it for your planned usage. Our strategy was to try to get everything right but not to afraid of changing something if we were happy with the design or wanted to make improvements.
Do you and Jennifer plan on attending the Nordhavn owners rendezvous this year? Seems like you’re both enjoying your land life. Lynn and I are enjoying the boat so much, coming up on 1 year and it still seems like we’re still working on getting the boat commissioned. It is a never-ending project for sure. Mexico has been incredible, and we are headed north to the sea of Cortez for the summer before heading through the canal to the Caribbean and east coast and Europe. We have your travels to give us so many ideas for Europe. Cheers
It would be fun to attend the Nordhavn Owners Rendezvous. We always missed this event because we were out adventuring and not in the North America area but, now that we have time to attend, we no longer own a Nordhavn so can’t be there.
Glad you had another great trip to the Olympic Peninsula. And happy you had an opportunity to stop at Barhop. Great shots up at Hurricane Ridge. Add a drive up to Deer Park in the summer and maybe a drive or hike up Mt. Walker near Quilcene.
Barhop was fun — we had a great window seat.
Thanks for the summer destinations recommendations John. As Arnold says, we’ll be back!
“overreaching government restrictions”
A bit disappointed…
Nice sunset on the 2/13/22 thank you for sharing
Thanks for the feedback James. In this case a foggy early part of the day left just enough moisture in the air to make for a wonderful sunset.
Want to buy a Nordhavn and any thoughts on new or used? I’m considering a 47, 475, 52.
I am in touch with Dana Point and see the various brokers on youtube.
Nordhavns are strong boats built with good components so they last well. Our boat was used heavily and in 12 years had 12,600 main engine hours but, even a well used boat like Dirona, isn’t close to end of life. We purchased our last two boats new but used boats are a great option.
You may be interested in the hybrid diesel engine which will be installed in an over 100 year old boat being rebuilt at Port Townsend. The boat is called Tally Ho! and the history of its rebuild can be found on the Sampson Boat Co YouTube channel. This link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4UMMQFgmVI
shows the unboxing and description of the engine from about 14 minutes into the video. I have found the whole series a fascinating and revealing description of how traditional wooden sailing boats are built. This rebuild has only been possible because of the enthusiasm and skills of Leo, the boat builder with the help of some very skilled shipwrights, volunteers and financial supporters.
Thanks for passing along that interesting project.
Read about recent delivery of new Nordhavn N68 “Tanglewood” in the Yacht Forums web site that sounded like it was designed and built for you. It was second Nordhavn of the owner, who was said to be “well known” in the Nordhavn community and “extremely knowledgeable about engineering and electrical systems.” That sounds suspiciously like James and Jennifer Hamilton!
If it was not built for you, you might be able to inspect it — from the photos it looks like it is in Seattle or somewhere Pacific Northwest.
We know the owners of Tanglewood well and they are both serious boaters that make very thoughtful decisions. We would love to have any boat they have configured.
We visited Tanglewood last summer and it’s everything you’ve read about. It’s really a well thought through, well equipped boat, and it looks the part. It’s a wonderful boat and it’ll influence the Nordhavn 68s that follow.
Welcome to our part of the world! Lucy & i retired to Sequim and just love the North Olympic Peninsula. If/when you come back through stop at the Peninsula Taproom for a good pint. Also Barhop Brewing in P.A. pizza is great.
John
Congratulations on retiring to Sequim — it’s a beautiful area — and thanks for the recommendations.
Hello James,
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Mystic, I suppose the last time was sometime in 1979. It’s an interesting concept and I suppose well worth the attempt.
Unfortunately, the envelope is rather small when a successful crew rescue from a sunken submarine is possible. The Mcann diving bells which the ship I was on was equipped with were rated down to 950′ which since they were developed well before WW2 was well below the survival depth of that era of submarine.
I suppose in an actual rescue if the divers going with it were willing, we’d have more than likely pushed that to 1100 feet if the submarine had enough downhaul cable to release with the buoy. I never knew how much cable they had and, it was relatively a moot point anyway since during the cold war the last thing they wanted was for a buoy to come loose on accident and mark their position. I observed two cases on 688 submarines where a metal strap had been welded over the buoy preventing it’s release. No buoy, no possible rescue other than lifting the entire submarine.
Mystic didn’t increase depth significantly while creating an entirely different set of conditions where mating with a downed submarine was even more difficult.
The simple fact is the 688’s were built with HY80 good for about 1282 feet if nothing else other than the hull failed. The SeaWolf class used HY100 taking them to about 1602. I don’t know what the Virgina Class is built using.
On submarines the escape hatch is known as the “Mom’s hatch” in reference to Mom thinking her child had a way out. Being on a Submarine Rescue/Salvage ship, we always considered “Submarine Rescue” an Oxymoron.
Not that we wouldn’t have done everything we could, even if it meant putting sat. divers down to cut a buoy lose. It’s just that the difficulties necessary to overcome working even an intact wreck at depth are vast.
A lot of technology came out of the DSRV project but I suspect it’s greater contribution was as a source of money for other projects that were classified above top secret.
I’ve been 600′ below the surface on the USS California but haven’t yet had the pleasure of getting aboard a 688. I would love to see one of the boomers up close. While Jennifer and I were looking at the Mystic we were talking about the challenge of finding a submarine, transporting the Mystic, lowering it to the sub and successfully docking, and then recovering the crew. It seems like a near impossible task but it’s still a credit to the Navy that they did what they could to be fully prepared. What’s even more impressive is the Navy did the one thing that really does work, they haven’t needed to rescue a submarine crew since the early 60s. It’s an impressive record.
Thanks for the additional data points Steve.
Training is extensive for submariners, and you won’t last long if your performance or attitude is bad that’s for sure. There are so many things that are possible to happen to a submarine they train until reaction is instinctive. The simple fact of moving through the water has dangers if something happens to the hydraulics and the planes lock in a dive position.
Having said that, nuclear submarines in the U.S. Navy have a very good safety record when they aren’t running into seamounts or crashing into Soviet Submarines or surfacing under cruise boats. I believe the last successful rescue of a downed submarine was in 1939. The U.S. did lose a diesel electric after WW2 due to battery issues, but they were on the surface and pulled off by another submarine before it sank.
Most escapes from sunken submarines have been “free assents” from the submarine through the escape or as I mentioned above “Mom’s Hatch”. If I remember correctly one of those was from the U.S.S. Tang after she was sunk by one of her own torpedoes in 180′ of water using Momsen Lungs. And while I am sure there would have been other possibilities for rescue during WW2, we still don’t know even today where all of those are. And while it would have been possible to rescue the rest of the crew on the Tang, they were in the yellow sea and war operations would have prevented positioning of equipment.
The two nuclear submarine we lost during the cold war (Thresher & Scorpion), sank in water deep enough there was nothing to rescue long before they hit bottom.
Admiral Rickover controlled nuclear power in the U.S. Navy at the time. If you wanted a reactor for a vessel either surface or sub-surface, you had to go to him. What he gave you determined how the ship was designed and in the case of U.S. submarines had a negative impact in some areas. One of those areas was not safety, he was a fanatic about that.
Thanks for the additional details Steve.
Did you install soft starts on your reverse cycle heat/ac units? I’ve been able to get all of my 240v appliances working on my Victron 5KW Inverter (which is supposedly rated to intermittently go to 10KW). But the reverse cycle compressor overloads it every time when it tries to start up. I’m curious if you had to do anything special to yours to get them working on the inverter.
Hey Alec. We were perfectly willing to install soft starts but didn’t need to. For 240V loads, we had two Victron Phoenix 3000 120V inverters running coupled into a split phase configuration delivering 6kW at 240V. These Victrons are absolute tanks and had no trouble starting even the 16,000 BTU Dometic in the pilot house. In fact, it could even start and run the Bauer Junior SCUBA compressor which has in rush currents up over 9kW for very short periods.
Interesting; for a few reasons I went with the combo Victron inverter/charger, which it seems isn’t as beefy as the single purpose units you installed. I already installed a soft start on our water maker which is working great. Off to research the Dometic soft starts, thanks for the info!
Certainly soft starts are easier on the inverters so probably not a bad choice to install anyway. Another thing to keep in mind is the limiting factor on most inverters is usually thermal. Some have “safety” circuitry that shut them down early but thermal overload is the usual limiter and it can happen super fast. Our Mastervolt 4kW 120V inverter should be able to deliver 33A but, on hot days, it was shutting down at 26A and it never could reliably deliver more than 29A.
The Mastervolt cooling design is a poor one mostly focused on not allowing water to enter the system. I re-engineered the cooling system to convection cool up from the bottom and straight out the top and put high volume muffin fans on the top. I added a circuit to turn the muffin fans at 15A or above and the system could then deliver 33A all day long and go burst above that for short periods. The system was completely different with the cooling design change. More detail: https://mvdirona.com/2016/02/hot-rodding-the-mastervolt-inverter/.
You might take a look at the cooling in the area of the inverter. An easy test it so put a temporary high volume fan cooling the case and see if that improves the in rush current it can deliver.
Yeah I’ll give that a try. These units have ‘overload’ and ‘overheat’ indicators; the failure mode for these has been ‘overload’. As you say it’s easy to test though, I’ll give it a shot.
Hi guys
we take delivery of the first N51 in Istanbul later this year and given the time of year are interested in travelling up the Danube and Rhine to Amsterdam. James Leishman suggested contacting you to see if you can point us in the right direction to assert ain if this is possible in a boat the size of the N51.
looking forward to hearing back from you.
cheers
Mark and Fiona
Congratulations and, wow, that sounds like an amazing trip. We loved the European river and canal trips we have done but Dirona’s water draft at 6′ 7″ isn’t a good match for many of the possible trips and the air draft of 30′ further closes off many of these trips. Dirona is a wonderful, go anywhere in the world boat, but it’s big for many of the rivers and canals.
The 51 draft of just under 5′ will open more opportunities for exploration. The air draft isn’t published on the Nordhavn site but I’m guessing around 22′ feet from the pictures. This would be on the high side but you might be able to ask the yard to design radar arch power down facility and get down into the 18′ to 19′ range. That could make a big difference. Many of the commercial river boats go so far as to have hydraulic bridges where the entire bridge can be retracted down to clear low bridges and they raised back up to the normal height to offer good visibility.
We researched the trip you were describing and a few that were similar but the air draft disqualified us from many before the research got into the details. Here’s some reports on the Rhine and Danube: https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f121/bridge-learance-on-rhine-main-and-danube-rivers-196399.html.
We found the Dutch Barge Association (https://barges.org/) and the British Cruising Association (https://www.theca.org.uk/) to be excellent resources with lots of experience on European waterways.
We’ve been giving some thought to returning to Europe and taking a 41 or a 51 on some of the same trips you plan. It sounds like a lot of fun.
Gidday Mark, US-based, recently retired-ish Kiwi boater. You’re a hard bloke to email, drop me a line?
I’m not especially hard to find: jrh@mvdirona.com.
I was changing the oil cooler zinc and the gearbox oil on our ZF transmission this weekend, and it got me wondering: With a dry exhaust engine how did you cool the oil in your transmission?
Good question. There are different approaches to this but a common one and what was done on Dirona was to use the engine coolant. This has the upside of actually heating the transmission oil when it’s cold and helps it get up to 180F to 200F fairly quickly. Then it holds the trans temp down near 200F when under load. Our transmission is wildly over-speced for the torque of our engine — it’s a ZF 305-2 being driven by only 266 HP — so it never gets over the engine temperature.
Makes sense; figured it either had to be that or a separate keel cooler. The separate keel cooler seemed unlikely since it would be more complex and then require another pump and coolant reservoir. Thanks!
I wish you all the best and want to thank you for sharing your experiences with me. It’s been very interesting, I’ve learned a lot both technical and social of beeing on the water and I understand the magnitude of sharing your experience. Personally I’m planning to head out on blue water in a couple of years. I look forward for you continued posts.
I wish you both all the best and James good luck with the job
Greetings and a happy new year from Stavanger Norway.
Sig
Thanks Sig and best of luck on your cruising plans. You’ll be starting from one of the premier cruising areas in the world.
Happy new year James and Jennifer
Thanks and happy new year to you as well.
Out of curiosity; how often did you change the oil in your main engine transmission? I’ve heard a bunch of different perspectives and am curious about yours.
On most intervals throughout the boat, I just use the manufacturers recommendations and we change our ZF 305-2 Transmission oil and filter every 2 years or 2,500 hours. Many I know choose to only change the filter every second time since a healthy transmission will have near perfect oil on every change.
merry christmas James and Jennifer
Thanks and merry Christmas to you as well.
James and Jennifer;
It is a hard habit to break after ten years, What habit you ask? Logging on every day to check your progress and adventures! Thank you for the very informative blog – I am still amazed at your discipline to maintain such a detailed blog plus hundreds of annotated photos. Thank you!!
May you have a great holiday in your new home and enjoy a different pace of life.
All the best for the New Year!
Rod Sumner
PS I am continuing to enjoy your land based posts!
Your right about the different pace of life. We loved the 11 years on the boat and the 9 years cruising the world but it was always busy. As much as we enjoyed it, slowing down a bit has also been nice. We’ll return to adventuring but, as you guessed, we’re enjoying the current lifestyle and pace.
Thinking about the blue hull for Ship Faced, it seems that yellow and other colors is common in Australia quite often. I’ve always been concerned about more than a light tint on a haul considering bleaching and harder to repair the gel coat. There is a new 68 being commissioned in Dana Point with what I would call a gun metal grey hull, a beautiful boat inside and out, I think the name is “Dragon”. The 68 is a really appealing boat, I suppose it is still a reasonable couple boat but right on the edge.
We agree the 68 is an incredible boat and we would love one. It’s more space than we expect to need but it’s a boat we would really enjoy. For us a 60 or a 625 (if we could get in a twin engine configuration) look like strong options for us.
In thinking through what a couple can handle, our thinking is that our 52 was pretty easy to handle and I was able to single hand it in a pinch. With two people on board where one is on a wing station or a remote control and the other is at the other end of the boat, we think we could handle Nordhavn’s up into and perhaps beyond the 80′ range without help.
Hi James, loved following your adventures. Was wondering why after all your success with a single main and wing configuration would you opt for twins in a 60 or 625. Regarding the 68 would your preference be a forward or aft pilothouse version, just curious as we go back and forth.
You’re right Eric, our single main and wing configuration worked super well through 12,600 hours of operation on Dirona. Our 40hp wing was slightly undersized for the boat and we would have preferred 50 to 60 HP but the larger boats have nicely sized wing engine making that a non-issue in the common case. If a great used boat came on market and it was single-engine, we wouldn’t hesitate to go that way.
Our preference for twin engines in the larger boats is liking the backup engine being highly capable of moving the boat. With 150+ hp rather than 40 to 70 HPs, near full cruise speed is possible by just pushing the operating member of a twin engine configuration harder. With twin engines, both engines are constantly being tested but they share a single fuel source which is a disadvantage over the Nordhavn wing design with it’s own fuel tank (fuel problems are amongst the most common marine diesel issues). With identical twin engines you can switch parts between them and have a single spares pool for each. However, in Dirona our Wing and Gen were in a single spares pool so perhaps that isn’t a big difference by that measure. Generally, the wing engines are light weight, parent bore diesels built to a somewhat lower standard than the sleeved main engines used on Nordhanvn’s from suppliers like John Deere, Lugger, Scania, etc.). Because wing engines are smaller and often need to meet less strict emission regulations they can be mechanically injected engines and many prefer the simplicity of these engines as the final defense against failure. For example, a mechanically injected wing engine is highly likely to still run after a lightening strike.
The factors go back and forth for a long time and, in many ways it’s a personal choice and, although we do prefer twins, it’s not that strong a preference and wouldn’t prevent us from accepting a well equipped N60 or N68 with a single engine.
You were asking about what boats we would be interested in the 60′ range. We’ve been on N60s and N68s and really like both. The N68 is a lot more boat than we need but it’s hard to argue that “need” is what is driving boat purchases — we would love to have either. We’ve not been on the 63 or the 625 so don’t have a strong view there but have read the specs carefully on the N625 and think it looks very good even though it’s a single main design (so far).
In many ways
Thanks for the response. When I first started deep diving into Nordhavn wasn’t completely sold on single and wing concept but over time came to appreciate the design more so was a little surprised to see you mention twins. Earlier in my career was an executive with the largest turbocharger manufacturer globally, had responsibility for majority of turbos used by Cat, Deere, Detroit/MTU and also their marine charge air coolers so have lots of prior real world experience particularly with the high hp seawater cooled units, have seen plenty of failed units which makes one appreciate more how Nordhavn designs for reliability and true long range cruising.
In a few years we’ll be in the market for a new 60/625 or used 68, love the 68,probably don’t need that much boat but every 60 we have been on over the years just haven’t found a stateroom layout that we love, family size dictates 3 true double staterooms and some overflow.
Eric said: “Earlier in my career was an executive with the largest turbocharger manufacturer globally, had responsibility for majority of turbos used by Cat, Deere, Detroit/MTU and also their marine charge air coolers so have lots of prior real world experience particularly with the high hp seawater cooled units, have seen plenty of failed units.” Interesting background and one where you will spend most of your time on the failure cases rather than the 1,000s that don’t fail. I worked for 6+ years as an aeromechanic where I too focused on the failure cases. Even in my current role, my focus is on fault modes and eliminating them.
All those years of focusing on faults modes and how to mitigate them cause me to like twin engine configurations but there is no question in my mind that the wing engine is a very nicely engineered solution and it does meet the safety standards of Jennifer and I.
Did you ever figure out why your pet cruise ship has been doing laps from San Francisco to Seattle for the past 2 months.
Hey Alec. The Ovation of the Seas normally cruises the Seattle to Alaska run during the summer and does Australia during the Northern Hemisphere winter. Australia isn’t allowing cruise ship entry so it’s winter season was canceled.
It appears they are planning to kill time here in the Seattle area until the Alaska cruise ship season re-opens. They come to Seattle’s Pier 66 every 2 to 4 weeks to provision, spend most of their time outside of the Puget Sound Pilot Zone sailing between Port Angeles and offshore. They once left the area and went south to San Francisco, where they looped for a few days before returning to the Puget Sound area.
It seems impossible to me that there is no way to monetize the nearly $1B vessel during this long waiting period. I think the challenge they face is, as a Bahamian flagged vessel, the Jones act prevents them from doing short cruises to US destinations and Canada won’t allow them to enter. It’s a challenging problem but, if I worked at Royal Caribbean, I would be working hard to find some way of monetizing that ship for the 6 months period. $1B is a vast amount of non-performing capital and it also continues to need crew, service, and fuel during the period.
Oh right, forgot about the implications of the Jones Act here but that makes perfect sense. Agree with your hypothesis.
They continue cruise the area and are currently at the Oregon/California border heading south but I’ll bet they return to Seattle in a couple of weeks.
Not clear WHY Dirona’s unloaded there.
???
You may not believe it but Dirona is for sale. We made our usual summer trip to Seattle where I spend a month in person each year in July. On the way across the country, we decided we would like to get an apartment and have a home base in Seattle. We figured we would head out to the east coast every couple of months to use the boat. We did the trip once and it just didn’t seem to fit. I’m pretty busy at work and found the trip out to the east coast as just more work rather than a fun trip so we decided to the sell the boat. Just leaving it to go down hill and not be used didn’t seem like a good option to us.
The plan is to do at least 12 to 24 months in Seattle and then get out and then start the next adventure. Perhaps a new boat or some other mode of travel but, for the short term, we’ll be doing an “urban adventure” in Seattle.
Strange time… just saw on motorboat&yachting that Piers du Pré from Guernsey just sold his fleming 55 after 18 years…. he’s lost…. his fleming was sold in one week…
My father is 77 and starts to think of selling and now you!
Not the same reasons but it must be a strange feeling not having a boat waiting for you somewhere…
Good luck for your next step..
Right now boats are selling quickly so that may be the push to make more people consider selling at similar times. For us, the decision was driven but wanting to spend the next couple of years mostly in Seattle. So far we’re enjoying the lifestyle downtown but there is no question that we’ll eventually want to return to travelling and boat traveling continues to have a real appeal for us.
I will be curious how much you will sell dirona to know if a nordhavn full options and updates but with 25000h keep the market price compared with a more classic one with 5000h.do you think its a main consideration for a future buyer ? Good day, here its 8pm..
Yes, decade old Nordhavn’s often sell at very similar to initial purchase prices. In fact, I’ve spoken to N46 owners where even 20 years later, the boats still sell for much the same price. Higher hours deffinitely play a part with some buyers but many Nordhavn purchasers know the boats well and really understand mechanical equipment expectations. For those that know, 5,000 hours vs 12,500 hours where we end up being viewed is not that different. They know that the engines statistically run to double those hours without issue and it’s a rare boat indeed that can wind up those hours. But, for some buyers, 12,500 hours raises some additional questions.
My summary is high hours will reducing the interested buyer list somewhat but, for experienced Nordhavn buyers it’s not a huge factor especially if the boat is well maintained and in good condition.
Happy thanksgiving James and Jennifer
Thanks and all the best to you as well James.
your most welcome and thank you
Kind of made me laugh on the garbage disposal. Without a doubt you are a very intelligent person. On the disposal I thought isn’t that something every person has experienced? You added humanity to yourself. Glad you are having so much enjoyment in your return to land based living. btw, I shared the exercise with Lynn as she is an exercise nut and she really appreciated your post.
I guess I’m proof that not everyone has encountered a garbage disposal jamming and knows they can free it up with an Allen key wrench :-). Somehow we’ve managed to have a disposal for 11 years and never needed to rotate the drive motor to free it up. There is no question that it was quick and effective.
Hello M/V Dirona crew. Thought you might be interested that we met a few new Nordhavn owners at the Ft. Lauderdale International Boat show. One couple just recently received theirs and we met another that placed an order at the show. We also met four future Maritimo owners all specing their new boats with our new line of Scania US EPA Tier 3 Recreational engines. I believe three owners will be getting the M55 with twin 900hp DI13 and one will be the M64 with twin 1,150 hp DI16. All destined for the USA for the first time. Also, I am leaving the marine engine market to lead our industrial engine efforts in North America. My successor is Dave Hughes at dave.hughes@scania.com should you have any questions for us. I have enjoyed following your blog through the years and wish we could have caught up when you were in San Antonio. I know Dave is scheduled to attend the Pacifica Marine Expo in Seattle Nov 18- 20 if you have some interest in the workboat show. Booth 1431 at Lumen Field Event Center. All the best!, Al
Good hearing from you Alberto and all the best in your new industrial engines role at Scania. We probably will drop by Pacific Marine Expo and, if we do, we will drop by and say hi to Dave Hughes.
James and Jennifer, I have a deep respect for all you have done on the boat and maintaining a blog while doing so. It just feels like task after task getting the boat ready and at night reading operational manuals, building logs and departure checklists, safety, maintenance, etc. I will say it brings purpose to life for sure. After having overnight guests on the boat recently that in itself brings a complete set of additional circumstances as everyone is eager to help often creating havoc while docking, etc. Lynn and I have a routine just the two of us that works well and add in additional persons can easily break your routine, lol. So many lessons learned. We’ve decided to not be overly gracious with invitations, especially while sailing.
I know what you mean about it often being easier to land the boat without “help” than with it. We try to go nice and slow and not appear to be in a rush or in need of help. For the most part people are happy to offer but mostly seem fine with us just saying “we’ll be fine.”
All the best in your adventures on your new boat. You’ll soon be past the steep part of the learning curve.
Roasting pan comment made me think about the boat. You are right, a new kitchen is a daunting task as is the whole boat. The first 3 days or so I was completely overwhelmed. Now that we are close it’s fun now. btw, picked up the non contact voltage tester and the rangefinder, both seemed like good ideas. Gonna try heat shrink for the circuit breakers.
Having the breakers marked makes the system WAY easier to manage and it’s super easy to always have everything in the proper setting for all boat operating modes. As you know, we often get up early and are underway before 5am. We aim to be underway in 10 to 12 min from waking up and, to do that without mistake, the boat has to be super simple to operate.
Some years ago you provided me the a copy of the best boat maintenance spreadsheet which I have used on my boat since. I have recently downsized from a cat to a smaller monohull and reset the spreadsheet. Unfortunately the colour rendition has disappeared. Would you mind if I sent you the spreadsheet so you can check the formula for me.
Cheers Greg.
The easiest solution is to download a fresh copy of the spreadsheet and make 1 change at a time ensuring everything keeps working as you customize it for your new boat.
The spreadsheet can be found at https://mvdirona.com/2018/11/updating-the-maintenance-log/
James, I think I remember a post where you had employed colored markers on the circuit breakers (on the circuit panel) on Dirona. If so where did you source those? By the way, took delivery on Lyra. Great first trip, so happy. Trip was perfect in that at about 3am off watch the stabilizers failed and awoke to crashing sounds with everything moving around in cabinets, etc. and alarms from the helm. As Nordhavn was with us at the helm with Lynn I quickly got up and spent the next 3 hours diagnosing the entire hydraulic system. Determined the LP side solenoid was not opening and after swapping the working HP side, restored the stabilizers. It eventually failed also. Well turned out someone at ABT had shipped the unit to the factory with 12VDC solenoids so they were overheating after about 10 hrs of time. ABT shipped a pair to Ensenada and it was a 5 minute fix! Anyway, so glad it happened, allowed me to really dive into the hydraulic system, granted at 3am with 5-7′ seas off the beam wasn’t ideal.
Those insidious problems (12v part used in a 12v application) can be hard to track down. Good job in finding it. Just the normal teething pains of a new boat and they all be behind you soon.
Sorry to not see this question earlier Eric. We just use small cable ties of different colors.
Thanks for bring us along on your adventures! When your adventures continue will you look at Nordhavn again or go with another builder?
We remain pretty big Nordhavn fans and it’s absolutely amazing the amount of adventure and fun per dollar that boat has delivered so we’ll definitely be highly predisposed to another Nordhavn. We knew the original owners of N60 Jupiter and really liked the choices they made. We have several friends with N68s and they are simply incredible boats. We also have a friend building the first N71 and that project is looking very interesting as well. It’s super hard to predict where we will end up 12 to 24 months out.
I think if you want a new 60 – 70 foot Nordhavn in 12 to 24 months, you may have to place an order tomorrow, if not yesterday … :-)
Yes, you are right. Nordhavn sales are on fire right now. They have a good product at a time when people are really valuing freedom and flexibility. It’s a good time to be in the RV or boat business and the good players are really doing well.
I‘ve worked in the leisure marine business for nearly 40 years, with my own companies. Being 68 now, I have sold my companies, nothing left, and I am happy I did this at the (for me) right time. However, people actively working in this field today, have a good business development potential, better than what I had. But that‘s fine. All the best, Christian
I’m far from an expert on the leisure marine industry but it looks challenging. It seems like a cyclical industry and one where it’s easy to get over-extended and not be able to ride through a few years of less vigorous sales. Some operators have the discipline to operate successfully for many years but it seems like there are always a large number of new businesses arriving and others failing out.
Yes, correct. My way to handle this was, after 20 years of having been a company owner in the leisure marine business, to start a new activity – with a line of my own brand, super yacht sun awning products. Super yacht in this case meaning 200 feet plus boats. Textile awnings, up to (my largest) 440 square metres of area, on deck 7 of a 154m boat, approved to be used in 120 knots of apparent wind. In other words: hurricane proof. Including a supporting structure of 220 mm diameter high gloss mirror polished stainless steal tubes, more than 100m running length of tube, for this single project. Good business. Very demanding, but successful. I sold it when I turned 62. Plenty of time now for my – different world – 47 foot LOA personal boat … :-)
I’m now the same age you were when you retired. I’m still enjoying work but I’ll eventually join you in retirement.
Your project on a 154M boat sounds like a big one. But, I guess, pretty much anything you do at that scale is going to be big and challenging. That’s a pretty massive boat.
The interesting thing with that job was that the awning was kind of dome shaped, with the centre about 750mm higher than the outer shape. That made it behave like an aeroplane wing. If exposed to 120 knots of wind, it would create a lift force of about 40 metric tons, I don’t remember the exact figures. Anyway, it was a real challenge to design an awning structure, but also to get the ship structure, to accept this kind of lifting force. Nice job. I loved this business. One out of about 20 in the past years. But being retired now is also a good development …
… one of about 20 JOBS in the past years ,,,
That does sound like both an unusual project and an engineering challenge. A structure that large will produce a vast amount of lift in even light winds so I don’t doubt that making it able to operate without damage through a hurricane was an interesting engineering project.
Christian, try 36 months+ btw there is a really well thought out interior new 68′ here now. Makes you think… But, larger than the N60 things get much more tricky for marinas, etc. We just built a N60 and at least with my wife and I it is the perfect boat all around. A boat is a work in progress always, and you always see things you would do different. We took a simple approach inside with just a few changes and I spent most of my time carefully considering mechanical side. Right now I am in the trying to break in systems with varied loads, etc and hopefully exposing issues before we do our first passage.
Fun times Eric. Your N60 sounds very close to fully ready for unrestricted cruising. Congratulations.
James and Jenn:
We were tied up along side you In Seattle on our navy blue Tartan 3400 sailboat when you departed Seattle and had an interesting chat about your upcoming “trip.”.What a trip and what tremendous blog you provided. Even though we are sailors we have followed it for all these years. Well done and all the best in your future endeavors!
It was a bigger trip than we could have possibly expected and it’s fun to get your note from someone like yourselves who essentially saw both ends of trip and saw the blog along the way. Thanks for virtually joining us on this adventure and thanks for the feedback on the blog.
Welcome back to Seattle and congratulations on your new role. I’ve been enjoying your posts for many years. It is inspiring. The PNW has amazing culture even if it has just started to open up again. Hope to see you out and about exploring. Cheers!
It’s great hearing from you Edmund. It’s been a long time. Thanks for the welcome back to Seattle. Jen and I are both really enjoying being back.
Just noticed you are selling Dirona. Good luck with your future endeavors. Lynn and I are aboard N6081 Lyra as I write. Getting a boat ready is not to be underestimated. Wow! I am a little overwhelmed!
Great news that your N60 is getting close to cruise ready. It was 12 years ago that Dirona was at that point and we remember it well. It feels a bit daunting but the best cure for that is to get out and use it. You’ll both find and fix the remaining rough edges and gain confidence with the boat.
Our plan is to spend a couple of years in Seattle on our urban adventure before heading out to do more world travelling. All the best on your adventures with Lyra.
Beautiful sunset over bainbridge island
Thanks James. The weather in Seattle has been really good over the last couple of months. It’s been great.
Thanks for many years of the best boating blog on Youtube. I will miss Dirona.
Best wishes on your new job.
Thanks for your kind words. We’ll miss Dirona as well but, so far, we’re enjoying our urban adventure in downtown Seattle.
To us followers, this clearly is the “worst day” of the Dirona log, the day of the sale for most of us! But, we all understand and have enjoyed the escape and collaboration with you all and each other on this trip who this the journey of a lifetime is just that, the journey.
To most of us, learning how to get fuel, air or “life” filters delivered to anyplace, anytime is one thing BUT lifting the engine head of the spare generator is completely beyond my intellectual tool kit in terms of patience and fortitude….I tip my hat to all of readers, contributors and you both for relentless positivity. Jeff Bezos or any of us could do no better, than having you both along for any epic journey!
Hi Gary. You have been following the blog for quite a while. Thanks for coming along with us and thanks for the comment. It was an amazing adventure but, you are right, there was also a gentle sprinkling of challenges along the way. On the more difficult challenges we worked together and found, if we worked together, approached the problem systematically, and had patience, they are all solvable. Even the generator engine overhaul, which felt big at the time, was really only $2000 in parts and a day of work for Jennifer and I. A tiny price to pay for 11 years of amazing experiences. We feel super lucky.
I receive your email update every week and always envy your life style. Today, having received your latest email I am in a slight state of shock, and actually feel quite disappointed that you have decided to sell MV Dirona. Completely non of my business, but strangely I feel quite sad!!
Best wishes in the future. Dave
We are excited about starting the next adventure but we we’ll also really miss Dirona as well. What a lifestyle and what an adventure it has been. However, we fully expect that we’ll be back boating after a couple of years on our Seattle Urban Adventure.
I feel like a toast to Dirona and the end of your adventures in her, and to all your future adventures are in order. You two have been exemplary teachers in different ways in that I have appreciated being a student to learn what I could along the way. Cheers!!!
well said james alexander the mechanical videos by James Hamilton are better then the mechanical course’s I took in collage/university
Thanks for the feedback on the mechanical videos. Much appreciated.
Thanks for the kind feedback. A big part of the trip has been passing along some of the adventure and what we have learned. We both appreciate your comments.
I knew it! The new job comes with golden handcuffs. Ah, well I really enjoyed following your adventures on Dirona. I saw her at the dock in Charleston and then she was gone. Now I know why. Best of luck to you both.
Nah, no gold and no cuffs on this decision. Just a super interesting set of things to work on. From our perspective, our next couple of years in Seattle is just all part of the adventure. We’re looking forward to it and to whatever we decide to follow it with.
Thanks for the feedback on the blog Bruce.
HI James, with regards to our earlier discussions. I‘d like to give a final comment about my alternator / regulator upgrades for my Sabre 42 Hardtop Express, and its twin Yanmar engines (2x 12V/235A Electromaax alternators, 2x J10 serpentine belts, and 2x Balmar MC614 regulators, plus Balmar Centerfielder II). I am absolutely happy and very impressed with the result. On the anchor for 24 hrs, if I then start the engines, 75 minutes of running the engines at 1400 rpm brings my batteries from 55% back to 100% charge level. Amazing. Running the engines at about 1400 – 1500 rpm gives me near 300A positive charging current. That is at Balmars lowest possible „belt load manager“ level – I could probably increase this by more than 50%, if I set the Balmar regulators to a higher level – but I don‘t need to do that. No temperature problems at all – neither with the batteries, nor with the alternators. Absolutely a game changer. I hardly need to run my 11kW generator anymore, I now just start it for cooking and oven usage – or in case I rest at anchor for multiple days without starting the engines.
The only challenge I had was to align the belts properly, so they don‘t show fluttering / vibration problems. Although I requested manufacturer support, I received zero help from Electromaax. That actually gave me severe problems, but I could sort them out myself. The way out was to design and install additional belt pulleys, so the belt span distances were reduced.
Not sure whether this still is of interest after your 180 degree life change within a few days, but I thought I‘d post this, others may be interested. Anyway, good luck and success for your „new life“ without boats – Best Regards, Christian
Nice work on a big project. It sounds like your results have been excellent. You now have a “spare” 5.5kW generator always available whenever you are underway. It’s a great configuration and the very similar configuration we run has worked very well for the last 8 or 9 years. Thanks for the follow-up posting.
Welcome to our backyard. We’re on the inland side of Peanut Island when you came through the inlet.
Going to be here for a while? Couldn’t quite tell. Is Dirona here or are you visiting on another yacht?
regards
bill and ellen domb
M/Y Activated Eau
Peanut islands looks like a wonderful spot. We have boated past your home but we weren’t on Dirona on this trip past. That was Jay Flaherty and Crew of Yacht Tech bringing Dirona to their offices in Florida. We’re out in Seattle right now.
Jennifer and James: Have been putting of this post for a while:
1. Congratulations on your new position. It looks very challenging so you should thrive
2. I have always been impressed with your posting of photos, along with detailed notes. Your discipline to do this is remarkable!
3. The latest photo at Sam’s Tavern shows a wistful looking Jennifer – is she missing Dirona? :)
Needless to say I have enjoyed your blog for many years. Hopefully it will continue in some form.
Best wishes and many thanks
Rod Sumner
PS What do I replace my morning Dirona ‘fix’ with?
Thanks Rodney from both Jennifer and I. You have been a long term partner on our around-the-world cruise and it’s always good to hear from you. We expect we’ll continue to blog but the adventure will be a smaller one for the next year or so.
We just passed you, near Hilton Head, on our way up to Charleston.
#MYLiberty (Beneteau Antares 13.8)
Safe travels!
Cool. It was indeed Dirona but it was the Yacht Tech team rather than us at the helm. They are bringing Dirona down to Florida. Thanks for saying hi!
Hello James,
Using towels as padding to sleep on reminds me of my younger days. All I used for a motorcycle road trip was a sleeping bag and a canvas (then later plastic) tarp.
Fast forward 40 years and It seems the drought conditions throughout most of the country has made the ground simply to hard for my tastes these days :)
Yeah, us too Steve. Now having tried it both ways, Jen and I are pretty much aligned in thinking that having a bed is a worth while investment :-).
Hello Jennifer and James.
Congratulation on James’ new job, and thank you for sharing your fantastic journey. I know everything has an end, but I will miss your weekly post from Dirona very much.
A little teaser: Dirona has not been around the World. You miss to bring her back to San Fransisco, to complete the circumnavigation. I would love, if you completed your job :). Thank you anyway for all you have given.
Greetings from Denmark
Carsten
It’s been a great trip. Thanks for coming along with us.
Congratulations on your new job James thank you for sharing your adventures with us
Congratulations on your new job! Thank you for sharing your adventures with us. I’m sad about the boat, but I am happy for you both. I wish you the best in this new part of your life. Who knows, maybe your next adventure will be exploring space? Do you know anyone who may have a rocker ship? 😂 JK I wish you both all the best!!!
We’ve enjoyed our adventure so far and are looking forward to this next chapter. Not knowing what is next is actually kind of fun.
Thanks for a wonderful journey. Congratulations on your promotion though the boat is sad news for us. I hope you got Spitfire’s approval.
Best wishes for the future and I hope you keep posting.
It’s been a great trip but it’s fun to be back in Seattle. Spitfire is loving the new apartment– More room to tear around — so not a problem there.
Congrats on the promotion! I hope you can still find time to cruise…maybe even back to the West Coast? Hope you three are doing well.
Thanks Timothy.
On the boat, we’re wrestling around with what to do with it. I’m pretty busy at work and we don’t think we’ll have a chance to use the boat much for the next year or two. Selling it might be the right answer.
It has been an amazing adventure and I appreciate you letting me follow you and interact along the way. What happens with Dirona is meant to be and life will find a way. Maybe trade her in for a new 41 and stay within site of land like the rest of us :-)
We do like the N41. It looks like an excellent canal and inland boat but still with off shore capabilities when needed.
Congratulations on the new job! We passed through Charleston northbound (homeport Norfolk, VA) a week before you got there. Sorry to have missed you as we have been following you since New Zealand. You have truly been an inspiration. I am sure you have considered shipping your boat to Vancouver, BC. Thanks for sharing your adventures.
I love your DironaMaintenanceSchedule.xlsx – it serves to alert you based upon hours or months that an item is due for service. But as you state on your blog, once you DO the service you record the service information elsewhere. Do you have an example of the excel spreadsheet you use for recording the actual work.\ I am think it would include: service date, location, what was done, maybe a link to the receipt. i would love to have something that I would be able to give to the new owners when I sell my boat down the road someday.
Thank you–we’re glad it’s working for you. On our previous boat, we tracked and recorded maintenance items in the ship’s log. The current boat has many more systems with varying service intervals, so we created the spreadsheet to automate notification of service work needed, but still recorded the actual work done in the ship’s log. We had considered updating the spreadsheet to track historical work done, but in the end decided to move to a database model that provides both notifications and a record of the work items done.
Jennifer
Hello James,
It looks like a fun trip but I think you may be getting tired or forgot where you’ve been.
1. California
2. South Carolina
3. Georgia
4. Florida
5. Alabama
6. Mississippi
7. Louisiana
8, Texas
9. New Mexico
10. Arizona
11.Nevada
Without going back through your posts, didn’t you hit Utah (12?) At any rate only two more to go :)
Yes–we did miss Utah on that list. Thanks for catching that Steven.
Jennifer
Hello James, my name is Stephen York from Massachusetts. I just watched (for the second time) your video on checking the accessories pullies on the main engine. One thing you did not mention was a small alternator for charging the starting batteries for the main engine. Is there actually one on the engine, or does the starter use the house batteries for starting? I also like the duel 4.5Kw alternators for running everything while underway.
The way it is set up is one alternator charges the start batteries and one charges the house bank. When underway, the normal operation is to connect the house and start charging circuits and run as one large charging circuit but they will fail to individual systems. That allows us to use two alternators to drive the house but also allows the system to fail to two independent alternators or for the operator to switch to that mode of operation.
Thank you James the explanation. It sounds like a great system.
I hope you are enjoying Reno! Thank you for posting about the travel router! I had never thought of that solution. When I am at my home marina I have Wi-Fi (SSID Sweet Freedom) and my five on-board Echos and sub connect to the network to play sound throughout the boat. While over at Catalina our club has Wi-Fi but I did not want to reconnect all of my Echo devices to a different network. An iPhone is easy to change but all of the Echos would be a pain. With this router it seems that if I connect to our club Wi-Fi and then rename the router SSID “Sweet Freedom” my devices can connect without changing their configuration. I ordered it last night so I should be blasting Pat Metheny at the island in a few weeks!
That’s exactly our use case. It’s a hassle to connect the FireTV and all other devices to a new hot spot each time we go anywhere so we leave them always hooked up to the router and just hook it up to whatever internet source we want to use. You’ll love it.
Hi Jennifer, James and Spitfire,
Sorry it has been so long between messages. I’m just catching up on your epic road trip. What an amazing route. It’s looks like my friend Spitfire is having a very nice time! I see the the Australians can be relied upon to keep liquor stocked in Cedar City, Utah :-). Kate
Spitfire enjoyed the trip and did very well during his month on the road. We’re now enjoying hanging out in downtown Seattle. Let us know if you fly through Seattle. It would be great to catch up with you.
Just browsing the waterfront of Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Google today and noticed a familiar image on a street view from September of 2016. https://goo.gl/maps/UgZd1rdbYxMovZY58. You are probably already aware of this, but just in case.
Thanks for pointing it out Andrew–we weren’t aware of it. That brings back great memories of our time in Halifax.
Jennifer
Glad that you enjoyed your time here. The door is always open…..
Hi James,
Really admire the blog and YouTube videos you’ve been aggregating here over the years. Apologize if this is obvious and has been covered (couldn’t easily find the info through search), but wondering what technology you’re using to accomplish the GPS logging / data overlay on maps? I’m looking to accomplish similar and seeking a system which will complete the task automatically without me having to think about it.
All the best,
-ryan
Thanks for the feedback on the blog.
Dirona tracks are produced by custom software that is primarily used for other purposes — the tracks produced are just a side effect of a broader system. This software takes all data off boat-wide NMEA2000 data communications bus and stores it in a database every 5 seconds. This data includes all data from all the main engine, wing engine, generator, all electrical systems, all navigation systems, the electrical systems, and many other discrete devices in the boat. The data in the database data is used by other custom software systems to track historical changes, alert on problems, set indicator lights, send warning email, auto-start the generator when the battery discharge, shed power load when starting to reach the limits of the current boat power source, etc. A tiny part of this data is auto-uploaded to the web site to show the track on the map at http://mvdirona.com/maps using a combination of google maps and custom code shown inside WordPress (the blog software).
I’ve heard that Garmin Inreach is a very good solution that is pretty easy to use.
Thanks for the quick and detailed reply. This gives me a few angles to run with. With as long as you’ve been at this, sending all of that data every 5 seconds must have accumulated quite a mass of information!
Yes, ever 5 seconds going back for some data points to 2012 and most for at least 6 years is pretty big but not as big as I would guess. Many of the data points are just 0 or 1 binary data points so the full thing is only 10s of gigabytes. Big but not as big I would have predicted.
Hello J and J,
Curious how you accurately mark your anchor location while setting an anchor watch alarm. I keep meaning to set the alarm with an iPhone app, while on the foredeck as the anchor drops, but get busy and of course remember when the anchor is 100 or more feet away. Just did it in Blind Bay…
We set an anchor watch religiously for 8 years but we never had any detectable anchor movement so, over the last 12 or 13 years, we haven’t been setting it. But, we do like to know exactly where the anchor is since knowing that makes it much easier to raise anchor without excessively loading the windlass. It’s especially nice to know exactly where the anchor is when lifting anchor in the dark or heavy winds. So we always set anchor position and they way we do it is is figure out where we want the anchor to be set before arriving in the anchorage and instead of putting the mark where we drop the anchor, we drop the anchor where the mark is. On this model, we never forget and always have the correct mark. If the anchorage is busy and we need to shift the mark, we do that and then drop on the mark.
Using the model above, we always know where the anchor is and could easily set an anchor alarm. But we find that in order to give enough movement to allow for periodic GPS error and avoid false alarms, we end up with land frequently being inside the alarm radius, which makes the alarm less useful. And we want to be able to anchor and leave the boat without worry so we set anchor carefully and use a lot of rode. That way we can set and forget and don’t have to be on the boat to respond to anchor drag alarms and don’t have to worry about false alarms.
It’s always possible that we’ll experience an drag situation where an alarm could have saved us but it hasn’t happened in nearly 25 years. Because we don’t set an anchor alarm, we don’t get false alarms. And, we never dragged and, even though we have seen winds as high 70 kts at anchor, we’ve never had to get up and stand watch. Having a large anchor, very well set, with abundant rode is our approach and, so far, it’s done well in what I would guess to be 1,000s of uses.
James & Jennifer,
Leaving Cape Town, South Africa, which route did you take back to the US? Did South America factor into the route at all? If so, where did you stop, and what was the service and harbor/marina approach and entry communication like? Did you make use of St. Helena on the way over to either South America or the Caribbean, and what was your experience there in terms of service and communication?
We went from Cape Town to Saint Helena and then to Barbados with no stops in between. We don’t yet have expereince boating in South America. No issues with communications anywhere in South Africa, Barbados, or St. Helena.
Hi James,
You’re running your Maretron system on their integrated screen/processor/N2KView product, right? I’m running mine on Windows and my event counters and runtime counters reset to zero when I restart N2KView. I cannot believe this is by-design behavior. Yours don’t do this, do they?
Thanks
Chris
We run N2kView on our Windows navigation computer. We do use min and max readings (and they do reset on restart) but we don’t use event counters. I suspect they do reset as well. We do have event counters for things like bilge pump cycles but implemented them before Maretron did in N2kView we handle them in custom code.
I wish I had known you were in San Antonio. Scania USA is based in San Antonio. I would have enjoyed inviting y’all out for dinner at one of our favorite spots in exchange for some of your stories. Safe traveling.
That would have been great! We’ll check in to see if you are available on our next pass through.
Hello James,
I am a big fan of your page for a long time. I am an experienced sailor and I decided that it’s time to buy a Nordhavn trawler and cruise full time with my wife, two children and some guests occasionally.
Based on your huge experience, could I have your opinion on what would be a better purchase?
1) https://www.yachtworld.co.uk/boats/2010/nordhavn-64-3831740/
2) https://www.yachtworld.co.uk/boats/2016/nordhavn-63-3681895/
Both are in the same price tag and I like both layouts. I am not sure which one has the most comfortable ride on rough seas. I don’t know if Detroit Series 60 is comparable with the John Deere, also if it is an issue or not, that the first has 7.000 Hours.
Will Stabilizers perform better in an N63 due to smaller beams and weight?
Br,
Chris
The 64 is bigger boat and they sold more 64s so there is a bigger market for the 64/68 series but they both are nice boats, from the same design team with the same design intent. I personally slightly prefer Deere to the Series 60 but the 60 was very broadly used in over-the-highway applications and is a fine engine. 7k hours won’t be an issue. The boats are more similar than they are different. Both, like all boats and even new boats, will require some work once you get them. It’s invariably the case that you’ll want to change somethings and will find some issues after purchase. But they are both solid boats and our expereince with Nordhavn’s is they are remarkably cost effective even when using them heavily. They are both reliable boats. I would visit both and make the decision on the basis of which you end up liking best and which seems to offer the best value.
Hi Chris
You may have already seen these but in case you haven’t, the Yacht Tech Inc YouTube channel has in-depth reviews of both the 63 and 64. Both videos are upwards of an hour long and are extremely interesting.
Tim
Hello James,
I had to laugh at your picture of a toilet sign. Some things really do need to be said even though almost everyone with average intelligence would think someone is being funny.
The sad part is, after decades of working on public buildings the simple fact is the people those signs are made for, aren’t going to heed them anyway.
We have to admit we have been in some public washrooms where more instructions appear to have been needed :-).
Are you stuck in Reno, in a casino, playing keno?
Anything would be possible with us but, no, we’re now out enjoying Fort Bragg California. We’re heading north to Crescent City later today.
James Tropical storm Danny coming ashore tonight in South Carolina. Do you have someone to check lines and bumpers on Dirona ?
No, we don’t have anyone checking in on Dirona but all instrumentation shows good and the video shows all is still were it should be. Thanks for letting us know.
That “bomber” picture certainly looks like a C-130 ; and welcome back to Washington.
Thanks John. We’re currently in Reno Nevada but will be back in Washington in another week. Looking forward to it.
I’ve been following your travels for years. Thank you so much for sharing it with all of us. I do have one question though: 80 MPH in Texas? Was that with or against the current?
Well, now that you mention it, with the current we might have been pushing 85 MPH :-).
Dear James,
in early spring we had a discussion about alternator and serpentine belt drive upgrade. As said at that time, I installed 2x Electromaax 12V / 235A alternators and 2 sets of serpentine belt drives, in combination with external Balmar MC-614 regulators and a Centerfielder II. The systems work great. Very happy I did this, although it was a lot of work. I saw that you have a Dayco spring loaded tensioner in your accessories belt system. I would like to install two of these, too. I have J10 belts, that stands for 10 PJ type ribs, 23.4mm wide. I am struggling a bit which tensioner model to choose. Do you happen to know the product reference of your Dayco tensioner? I expect your belt to be very similar to mine, so knowing what tensioner you used might help me. Many thanks! And have a good drive to Seattle, that’s a long trip, really!
Best regards, Christian
Good to hear it’s all running well. The tensioner is a Deere part and it’s been running since new. Dayco might be able to tell you which part number they sell to Deere.
Thanks for the info, James. I had thought this was a custom made system. It is a bit difficult to decide on what to do, as 1) none of the manufacturers publish load values for their spring tensioners, 2) the belt pre-tension instructions which Balmar, the belt manufacturer, and Electromaax give, differ by factor 5, and, 3) I have some belt fluttering above 1700/2000 engine rpm. Maybe I continue with fixed idler pulleys to begin with – until I know what the final belt pre-tension is going to be. The manual BBU Balmar tensioners I have in the system now work perfectly all right. Spring loaded tensioners do not really make sense if the belt tension might turn out as 20% of what was said, or, the other way, as 5 times what was said. I found out that your Deere engine has a 8 rib PK type belt, whereas I now have 10 rib PJ ones, so I cannot compare that 1:1 anyway. Thanks for your help, and have a good land trip!
Edit: just looked at the figures again, recmmendations vary by factor 4. Not much a difference though, if you want to base a decision about what to do on this …
I’m using the same tensioner that Deere delivered in their 6068AFM75 single alternator engine. The engine was modified prior to delivery Cascade Engine Center to have two alternators both of which are 190A@24V. I believe the belt size and tensioner were not modified when adding the second alternator.
Our engine does show a fair degree of bounce in the tensioner during normal operation. I didn’t look at it closely when new so don’t know if it’s gotten worse or if this is as delivered. It’s possible it’s the same, it’s possible that the spring tension has faded over the last 12 years, and it’s possible that it should have a bit more tension on this application. Typical belt life is 5,000 to 6,000 hours so the system seems to be working fairly well but I would prefer not to see as much bounce or flutter on the tensioner.
Don’t know what the experts experience is there, but I read comments that suggested to replace the tensioner together with the belt. That may be a good idea or not, can’t say … – the comments came from the agricultural world.
I’ve been thinking about doing that since the tensioner bounce appears bigger than I remember. Thanks for passing on that recommendation.
Didn’t you report recently that your new belt failed after a relatively short time? Maybe the tensioner is a more likely reason for that than the time gone by since you bought the belt? Just a thought …
It’s possible the tensioner has gotten worse and is the issue and with 11,000 it would probably be a good decision to just change it. The history here is I got 3 belts including the one on the engine when the engine was delivered. They are all the same brand, size, and construction. They are all the same age but I replaced the first two after 5k to 6k hours and the third was destroyed in 100s of hours. I put a used belt back on with something like 6k hours on it. It’s run another 100 hours since then without showing any material wear.
Indications are that the failure was a manufacturing belt with the belt. The longer the used belt lasts on there, the more convinced I am that it was a belt issue but I’ll not want to run this experiment to full term since a belt failure can lead to fairly substantial problems. I’ll change the belt soon and probably will change the tensioner as a precaution.
Agreed. Good analysis.
My feeling is that 5000 to 6000 hours is fairly good. If a car belt requires replacement at say 150 thousand km, at the speed that my car reports as average speed, that would equal about 2500 hours.
While you’re gone do you have anyone physically checking your boat or are you relying on your monitoring system?.
Mostly just the monitoring systems and lots of video cameras. We’ll post an update to the web site to show some of the data we use. And, if an issue comes up like a shore power failure, we’ll get email (and the gen will start if the batteries get down to 55%).
James and Jennifer:
A very belated welcome back ‘home’ after a great Atlantic Crossing. Congratulations!
Now the guessing game can begin as to your ‘course’ to Seattle, West to LA and then to Seattle? Enjoy the ‘calm seas’!
We just arrived into San Antonio Tx and we’re staying at a hotel on the Riverwalk. Should be fun and we expect to stay an extra day. Yesterday we enjoyed a long day in New Orleans. Hot but as much fun as usual.
So far our “anchor” has been holding well each evening and we haven’t had much swell :-).
Road trip for another 3,000 mile “crossing”? Are you going 24/7 like on the latest trip or are you going to take in the sights? Do you ever do anything small? :-)
We’ll take the long way on this “crossing” so it’ll be a lot longer than 3,000 miles and we will also be taking the relaxing route and stopping every night :-). We’re currently in New Orleans.
Hello, and glad you guys are safe and enjoying the States.
As we are looking for a boat ourselves, we have found it particularly difficult to even get a quote for insurance for the boat we are interested in.
Even if we supply the particulars of the boat; the seamanship/boat handling courses; and the intent of acquiring a Yaghtmasters certification, we do not get a response or any folowup regarding the cost.
Without trying to be intrusive and off-color with the understanding you do sail a boat that, is globally sailing would you care to share your boat insurance provider?
We would appreciate any contacts that you may provide us with, as we have no response from agents, or most do not insure boats with a length larger than 20 FT.
Your input, contacts, and direction would be greatly appreciated and be kept confidential.
Regards,
Ioannis
Sure, we’re happy to help. We use and remain happy with the Jackline Policy from the Gowrie Group: https://www.gowrie.com/Marine-Insurance/JacklineProgram.aspx.
Contact information for Jackline:
*phone: 410.364.7710
*Online Quote Request: Use code = Jackline
*Download and complete PDF Form: Submit completed forms to jackline@gowrie.com or 410.827.3758 (fax)
Hello James,
It looks like you’re happy to be back in the “Land of quick Amazon deliveries”. I hope everyone is doing well especially Spitfire. As the owner of two sixteen-year-old cats and one fourteen-year-old which are more like family than pets, it’s concerning when they start showing their age.
Looking at your exhaust leak and assuming the bolts were torqued properly at the start, I would suspect it was “gasket creep” causing the bolts to loosen. That will happen at some point no matter what you do however, the initial assembly along with materials used, can make the difference in years if not decades.
The start of this article explains it better than I can: https://www.complianceonline.com/images/supportpages/500648/sample_ProcessUtilitiesPlant.pdf
When I assemble a steam flange, I use an anti-seize compound such as “copper coat” on the threads more, for the people that have to service it at some point (could be me) than anything. It is at that point considered a lubricated thread which requires a different torque spec. for the desired pre-load.
I suspect that it’s gasket creep as you said. In this case, we have a steel weldment connected to thin stainless steel flex joint. The rates of expansion and contraction between those two is going to be fairly great. The gasket will wear and, eventually, the joint will open up. The gaskets I put in there are top quality, rated at over 1100F (engine runs 780F at full rated output), with a steel inset. They look good to me and should be good for another 5 to 10 years and perhaps more. Since the gasket quality looks pretty good, we’ll get a read on my install quality :-).
Welcome back James and Jennifer. Michelle and I are about to move aboard a boat on the east coast, VA. We look forward to catching up again in the near future to chat about your adventures.
Wow, that’s great to hear. What boat did you guys buy?
James, it is a 1998 Defever 44 OC setup for the Great American Loop. Doing sea trial and survey in 10 days, so I will be on the east coast shortly for this, then the move mid July. Will catch up soon.
That’s fantastic. Congratulations to you both on nearly closing on a loop-capable boat. There’s a lot of territory you’ll be able to cover with that boat.
Welcome home. Thank you for sharing so much in you interesting, educational and all around enjoyable videos.
Thanks very much for the feedback on the blog and the YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/mvdirona).
Now that you have had some time to settle in and restock, have you been able to find time to track down the source of the exhaust leak and the belt issue?
Yes, the exhaust leak is actually from two connections that have opened up over the years with the bolts apparently just backing off and the gaskets failing as a consequence.
We took off all the insulating cladding a few days back and found the lower flange of the wrinkle belly (flex coupling) is leaking and the next flange below that one is also very loose and leaking even more. In both cases the nuts and bolts below the exhaust cladding appear to have backed off and those two flanges have started to leak. I’ve got some gaskets on order and they should be there today. I’ll re-install the exhaust parts and properly torque them.
The exhaust cladding is getting a bit tired from years of use so we may drop off the two warn pieces to see if we can get new ones made at Ballard Insulation since they did the original parts. The hard part of this job is cleaning up the light coating of soot all over all the engines and flat surfaces in the engine room. It’s a bit of a mess and some of it has been ground into the floor of the Engine Room so it’ll take some work to get everything clean again but it’s all solvable without much complexity. Just some work.
It sounds like a three beer job and $500 worth of cladding. The belt was just storage degradation?
I suspect the cladding budget might be a bit more but we’ll know when we get to Seattle. For sure, you are in the right ball park. Steven Coleman below diagnosed the exhaust problem as likely gasket creep and, given how long it lasted and the failure mode, I think that explanation makes a lot of sense.
On the failed belt, age is the likely answer since they are 12 years old but I suspect it’s a manufacturing problem rather than materials age. Here’s the argument: When the engine was supplied it came with the installed belt and 2 more so we have 3 belts all of the same age and manufacture. The first two belts lasted for 5,000 to 6,000 hours each and still were serviceable when replaced. The third belt failed in under 500 hours and, on it’s failure, I went back to one of the 5,000+ hour belts. The re-installed high hour belt is showing no signs of wear and continues to do fine in the just under 100 hours it has done. Given that belts are all the same age, I suspect the failed belt was a manufacture problem but I’ll keep a close eye on it for the next hundred hours or so.
I apologize if this has been covered before, but do you have a GitHub (or similar) for the code you written over time? We recently purchased a 57 and would love to get the nmea data flowing in to a database. I thought before I reinvent the wheel I would see if you are sharing your code anywhere.
Thank you
Great project. It’s super useful to have access to historical data when investigating problems and the database makes it easy to write reporting and alerting functions as well. Our system has evolved over the years and is specific to this boat electrical and electronics architectures but the good news is Kees Verruijt has written a wonderful interface to the NMEA2000 systems called CANboat. It is on Github (https://github.com/canboat/canboat) and that is what we are using. Kees has written a nice clean system that is very reliable.
4 years ago strapped to a dialysis chair I found your site and followed your progress around northern europe. Your adventures relieved the tedium of dialysis every second day and made the whole ordeal a bit more pleasant. At 60 plus years I don’t even like boats anymore but in my minds eye I calculated your fuel consumption, followed your repairs, searched the shortest routes, and planned in my head all aspects of a circumnavigation, so thank you, your trip kept me a little sane. I got my transplant 3 years ago in august. All is well
What a wonderful note to send our way. Thanks for taking the time and congratulations to you to have the kidney transplant successfully behind you.
I am grateful, thank you for sharing
Thanks for the feedback Gregg.
Welcome Home.
Thanks very much. It’s great to be back. Amazon is now delivering to us by the truck load! It’s been way too long without Amazon Prime access :-).
Welcome Back!!! What are your cruising plans for this summer? I have really enjoyed following your adventures. Looking forward to the next chapter.
The first jobs for yesterday were getting vaccination, getting Spitfire to the Vet, and taking the largest Amazon delivery every. Today I’ll investigate an exhaust leak that has sooted our down engine room and see what will be required to correct that issue. And we may go out and get cell phone SIMs as well. I’ve not been physically at work for 18 months so need to spend some serious Seattle time. Aside from that, the adventure should continue to the North. We’re thinking about possibly visiting Greenland next summer and we want to visit the Great Lakes so there should be lots to do.
What an incredible accomplishment with this most recent Atlantic crossing. Do you take a break from boating for dry land or continue on the adventure?
I’ve not physically been back at work in Seattle for 18 months so will be spending lots time there the remainder of this year. Aside from that, the adventure will continue northward.
Welcome home well done! Make sure to load up on Vitamin D3 before your second jab. Get some rest
We were somewhat more tired than usual last evening probably as a consequence of the shot and my arm feels a bit sore this morning but, otherwise, no noticeable impact. Thanks for the vitamin recommendation prior to the second shot.
Welcome home Dirona, another Atlantic crossing scratched off the list :)
Thanks Steve! It’s great to be back. We arrived at 11 and were vaccinated 2 hours later.
Welcome home..followed you across the Atlantic . ..followed you al l over the place..?
Well done!. Third Atlantic crossing. Marvellous.
Thanks you both and especially thank you for the welcome to Europe you gave us when we arrived, Reeds was great and it was thoughtful to give it to us. It was also fun catching up with you while we were in London.
Thanks! It’s great to be back.
Hello James
is the way the belt failed normal hows the jounery going
No, that belt doesn’t even have a 1,000 hours on it and they normally last several thousand. It was in unusually poor shape. I think it might be a manufacturing defect given that the belt that is on there is now is the same manufacturer purchased at the same time and it has thousands of hours on it. I’ll check the mechanical again very carefully but my current theory is it was a defective belt.
Overall, the trip was great. We got in this morning at 11am and have already got vaccinations.
thank you for the information the belt looked like it was on the edge of a pulley in the it could be a manufacturing defect and thats good to hear you’ve arrived at charleston and had your vaccinations
sorry typing error thank you for the information. the belt looked like it’s been on the edge of a pulley looking at the way it’s damaged or it could be a manufacturing defect and as fellow boat owner its good to hear you’ve arrived at charleston and had your vaccinations
Thanks for the comment. Yes, the belt does look like it wasn’t running in the correct path but it was aligned and central in all pulles.
Glad to see you made it safely. 25′ waves at a 7 second period makes for an uncomfortable ride and some occasional ‘sugar scooping’ of water over the anchor roller?
with regard to your belt issues. The IMO (International Maritime Organisation) mandates the change out off all rubber goods in lifeboats every 5 years. that includes all engine hoses, belts, hydrostatic release diaphragms and i’m constantly changing the ‘O’ rings in the breathing air system regulators. you can imagine that being in what is effectively a ‘sealed container’ in all sorts of weather conditions takes its toll on ‘perishable’ goods.
we actually store rubber goods in an air conditioned space. (not on our N57, but my other job)
Big waves on short frequency are never great and this was rough. Fortunately, we diverted far enough south to avoid the larger ways more central to the weather system so we were able to avoid seeing anything as big as 25′. But, it was far from smooth.
There is no question that rubber breaks down with age. But, it seems like there is something more going on in this case. When we purchased the boat, we got 2 spare drive belts at the same time so we had three all the same age including the 1 on the engine. The first two went more than 5,000 hours each and they were both replaced looking great with little wear. The third one was ribboned in less than 500 hours and I put one of the used belts (purchased at the same time) back on. The high hour belt that is back on the boat is looking good. There is no question that rubber does age over time and 12 years is excessive but, the failed belt appears that it might have something wrong with it.
Hello James,
I had to read your belt posts twice, I guess I was speed reading the first go and got to the end and thought “WTF no spare belt?” (I should know better)
Anyway 12 years in storage is a rather long time. This hasn’t changed much over the years as you can tell from the pictures, but it has been updated.
https://safety.gates.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Gates-Corporation-Preventive-Maintenance-Safety-for-Belt-Drives-Guide.pdf
Browning has one two but I couldn’t find an easy link and didn’t want to read their entire website.
I agree with you but the two used belts and the one that just failed are all the same age and the used ones have done nearly 6,000 hours each and yet this one didn’t make it 1,000. I suspect it’s a manufacturing defect or there is some issue with an idler or tensioner that I haven’t yet found.
Possibly but, (granted a photo isn’t the best thing to troubleshoot from), since it didn’t “walk”, split in a linear fashion, and I can see no scuffing on the backside, I would suspect material failure caused by age, temperature or any number of things storage related.
Due to the linear failure/ cut (?) I suppose it’s possible a pulley/sheave (not sure what you’d call it on an engine drive) has worn enough to allow the belt to ride deep enough to cut it.
You’ve seen enough belts I’m sure you’ll figure it out but the major of the reason I sent that link is if for some reason you are stumped (I’ve been there once or twice over the years) , if you go through the report at the end of the article, It will tell you.
Wonderful detail. Thanks for sending it. From the article, the two most probable explanations are 1) belt age, and 2) backside idler problem.
James: If my memory serves me correctly there was a discussion to utilize a mechanic’s stethoscope to check (listen) to all of the pulley bearings, etc. on this critical belt system. Would this procedure help in this case?
95 miles to go and I see you are slowing for your 8 am arrival time. It looks like a balmy night with a gentle swell to push you along. Jennifer should see the glow of the lights of the city just after midnight. Is the old belt holding up or showing signs of the same wear? Shelf life exceeded of the “new” belt?
You are moving really fast now! Trying to hit 9 knots :-) Welcome back to the US!
We were basically pushing it at full output. We were slowed a bit by the gulf stream with 20 kts of wind so were pushing to catch up since we have vaccination appointments today.
It should have been really nice but the combination of 20 kts of wind and the gulf stream did kick things up quite a bit and we running very slowly crabbing across the gulf stream so ended up delayed by a couple of hours. It’s great to be back.
The old belt is looking great so I suspect we either have a manufacturing defect or excess age. Given that all the belt that is on there now is the same age and it’s done several thousand hours, I suspect we had a manufacturing defect. However, I’ll check all the mechanical systems very carefully to ensure there isn’t some other problem shortening the belt life. I’m pretty sure it’s all fine.
James and Jennifer: With the constant head wind can you actually smell land, not just figuratively? :) :)
It is starting to feel close. We’re hard at work yesterday and today making appointments, ordering things we need since we haven’t been in the US for 18 months, and planning the next month. It is starting to feel like land is near. Only 292 miles to go!
James: Did all of the steps taken to prevent water entering the bilge through the shore power cable system work as planned? I think this was your worst weather since your crossing to Ireland
Good point Rod. This has been the most weather we’ve seen for a while. The boats been nice and dry and has more or less just shrugged off the weather without issue. The bilge is bone dry just the way we like it.
It’s amazing how little stress the weather brings when all systems are running as designed and there is nothing to worry about. It’s all much easier!
James and Jennifer: Great to see the sea state is more settled! With the very understandable laser focus on fuel economy, fuel reserves, etc. how are the engine rpm’s adjusted when, for example, “driving to the lights”? Given Dirona’s very high degree of automation/monitoring is it safe to assume that engine speed is adjusted automatically? If so how often do you ‘intervene’ manually. As you know I have been following your blog for years and I cannot recall this topic ever being covered. Safe sailing to SC!
I agree. It’s great to have more settled weather! The drive-to-the-lights system shows green in the -5% to +5% range around the currently computed required fuel economy. Providing a range means that the engine RPM seldom needs to be adjusted. And, since the range is fairly narrow, it’s still quite accurate. Rod, you’ll be disappointed to learn that the connection between the drive-to-the-lights system and the main engine is only via a human :-).
You seem to have synthesized a number of metrics on your N2K bus (such as max pitch/roll over a time period, total of all of your fuel tanks, etc).
This behavior sounds functionally like “N2K Metric Math”. Did you have to assemble all of this software yourself, gluing together things like CANBoat with Python or something simlar? Or is there a package that streamlines the ability to compose a new N2K metric out of a few other parts? If not, feels like it might be an interesting summer open source project to take on…
Mostly, these NMEA2000 values are hand crafted. Overtime Maretron adds more of the common ones. For example, I think they do have total fuel but for many of them, they are synthesized. My take is that, for all but the important ones, it’s more work than is really justified to produce these synthesized PGNs. However, even though I claim it’s not worth the hassle, something like a 1/4 of the display in Dirona is synthesized data :-).
I do use CANboat on Dirona and it’s wonderful. Super well written. The CANboat author, Kees Verruijt, now recommends SignalK and I believe that’s mostly what Keese is currently using on his boat.
You both now have extensive experience in passage making as a couple, can you outline your current approach to watch keeping, thanks Peter
Our approach to 24×7 operation with a crew of 2 has evolved into an unusual approach but where it started was pretty conventional: 4 hours on, 4 hours off. We ran on that model for 2 years and it worked fine. But there were downsides. The biggest downside is we never saw each other. When you are running 4 hours on 4 hours off with a two person crew, your tired and there really isn’t time to talk so it feel sort of like you are alone on the boat. We really didn’t like that. A closely related problem is we’re always tired. Never dangerously so but just always quite tired. This isn’t ideal under any conditions but, in the few times we have run into mechanical problems, being tired removes some safety margin while you work issues. Overall, 4 on 4 off is conventional, functional, but neither enjoyable nor likely the safest solution for a 2 person crew.
Where we ended up is weird but it solved just about every problem we had with the previous shift schedule. Jennifer takes the helm from 10pm and runs all the way through to 5am. I take the helm from 5am all the way through to 10pm. Jennifer has by far the most difficult shift but it gets me 7 hours of sleep in a single session and I find that I’m just feel the same as a normal working day. If the boat needs some work, I’m always fresh and I can do it. For example, when underway in the South Atlantic on route to Barbados I changed the Stabilizer hydraulic actuator. It wasn’t a problem but it would have been challenging if operating 4 on, 4 off. This shift structure forces Jennifer to sleep in two shifts rather than 1 which would be far better. But, she can sleep as much as she wants on either side. She usually sleeps 6pm to 10pm and 5am until she wakes up. If she’s tired earlier she can start the first sleep cycle an hour or two earlier or extend the second sleep cycle longer. This is a hard shift for Jennifer as standing watch at night is far harder than during the day but she finds she isn’t tired on this schedule. For example, after 28 days at sea traveling 3,650 nautical miles from St. Helena to Barbados, we arrived in at 7am, tied off the boat and spent the day exploring. On this sleep schedule, we’re never running behind with sleep debt and the travel becomes more enjoyable rather than feeling like work. We get lunch and dinner together and spend afternoons together.
We love it but it’s unconventional and clearly not a shift cycle for everyone.
Have you considered installing check valves in your wing and generator wet exhaust to help reduce the risk of water being pushed back into the engines?
Hey Alex. Good suggestion. Yes, we flooded the wing engine in the Gulf of Alaska. We knew it when it happened so it was easy to clear it and change the oil a couple of times but that experience did convince us to install a check valve and it’s been remarkably effective even in quite difficult weather: https://mvdirona.com/2011/10/cruising-prince-william-sound/. I strongly recommend them for all wet exhaust boats.
Have you put one on your generator too? I recall you had theorized that the gas/water separator was enough but you figured that may have caused the valve deterioration that led to the head replacement you had to do last year.
I think it’s a better choice to put a check valve on the generator rather than a GenSep but, with the GenSep installed, there isn’t clearance on our boat for the check valve as well. The most secure solution would be to remove the GenSep and install a check valve but the GenSep really isn’t a bad choice. On our boat, it’s way up at the top of the salon settee seat back many feet above the water line. I think it would be truly challenging to drive water through that path back into the generator so I don’t worry about it much but, I agree, the check valve is the better solution.
In your ocean crossing(s) have you had any (close) encounters with drift that you had to jog around? Have you had any encounters with containers that have been lost from ships?
The world-wide annual lost container count is sharply higher this year but, no, we’ve never seen a floating containers. In our Pacific, Indian, and 3 Atlantic crossings we really haven’t seem much junk at all. We once saw a large floating dock segment that probably have done boat damage if we had hit it. We occasionally see floating plastic debris and frequently see fishing buoys. Neither is much risk to the boat but we give buoys a wide berth just in case there is rope still attached.
A container could sink the boat so that danger is real but, fortunately, they aren’t common. Floating nets and related debris from fishing operation are much lower risk but still can easily disable a boat by wrapping the props. We have had trouble with floating fishing debris a couple of times now one of which required a lengthy diving operation to clear the tangle from the machinery but these were both coastal occurrences — we haven’t yet had any problems in open ocean.
We once had a near miss with a Whale operating off shore of Alaska heading towards Sitka where a large Humpback breached only 30′ in front the boat while we were underway at 7 kts. We went to full astern were convinced that we had to had hit it given how close our bow got but we felt nothing. We think we got the speed off quickly enough and it’s fortunate in that the collision could easily have done both the boat and the whale damage.
Hi James and Jennifer,
When you have head seas do you sometimes fall off port or starboard for a better ride? If so, have you seen an increased VMG (velocity made good) or at the very least no lower VMG with a better ride by using this tactic?
In the past, we haven’t done big course changes to avoid weather so we haven’t bothered to track VMG. But, on this crossing our planned route took us directly in the first named storm of the year, Ana. We were mostly successful avoiding it by diverting 100s of miles to the south. But, the weather was rough during some of those periods and our boat speed was negatively impacted more than we have seen in the past.
We don’t currently display VMG but the combination of the experience above and having the America’s Cup Sail races this year, we think we should. The Furuno NN3DBB VMG doesn’t look right (reads 0.5 to 1.0 kts low to speed over ground when running directly at destination) and Maretron has Velocity to Waypoint but not direct. We agree with your suggestion to display VMG is a good one. Thanks Van.
Hi James, Jennifer,
Always follow your travels with interest. As y’all approach Charleston, I keep looking at fuel levels and distance remaining. If I use 1.2 NM/Gallon … I keep getting fuel reserve under 200 gallons on arrival. Am I screwing up this calculation? Any concerns given all the ‘dodges’ y’all have made to avoid weather on this trip with fuel remaining / fuel reserve?
There was a period of about a day where the conditions where particularly poor where we chose to consume fuel at a rate that would not allow us to make Charleston even with no fuel reserve. We have never done that before but the conditions were amazingly negative from a current, wind, and waves perspective that we elected to run harder then and run some fuel “debt” and then “pay back the debt” by running slower later. So, yes, during that period there were times when we technically wouldn’t have made it to the eastern seaboard.
The way we normally run is we take total fuel on board subtract out the fuel reserve and divide by distance remaining. So for example, we currently have 810 miles left and there is 922 gallons of fuel on board. Talking 810/(922-200) yields a nautical mile per gallon goals of 1.12. If we consume exactly 1.12 nautical miles per gallon, we’ll arrive at Charleston with 200 gallons on board.
We modify that slightly since we don’t like change speeds very frequently we aim for anywhere between 1.08 and 1.19 MPG and it all averages out over time and still will yield 200 gallons reserve on arrival. Since the above calculations are boring, the computation is done automatically and updated every few seconds by automation and we just don’t think about it. There are two lights on the right hand of the display we sometimes post that show +++faster+++ and —slower– and, unsurprisingly, if less than desired mileage it shows the slower light in orange and if we are achieving greater than needed MPG, the faster light is illuminated in orange. Right now we’re getting 1.13 MPG so both lights are green.
If the winds came up strongly on the bow or if we started seeing a heavy swell or negative currents, the fuel mileage we are getting at this RPM would decrease and, if we didn’t do anything, we again wouldn’t make Charleston. But, what would happen in this situation is the system would signal —slower— and we would slow down to the needed mileage. As a final example, if were routing to avoid weather and the weather prediction changed sufficiently to allow a more direct path, that would decrease the mileage we need to achieve so the +++faster+++ light would go orange.
As a final check, each morning the systems emails us a fuel economy report that we can check by hand and compare against the fuel level sight gauges in the engine room to ensure that a bad sensor or some other software fault can’t lead to us failing to reach land.
James, are you guys filtering all the fuel that goes into the supply/day tank? I seem to remember that was your practice?
Hey Van, good to hear from you. Yes, we have a large RACOR FBO-10 that any fuel transferred between any tanks on the boat has to pass through. We put a bulkhead fitting that is plumbed into this transfer circuit so transfering fuel from the bladders only requires opening a couple of valves and running the transfer pump. There is no need to be outside, there is no way for water to get into the fuel, and as you astutely pointed out, all fuel passes through a filter before moving from the bladders to the main tanks.
Fuel on the way to our engines will see many filtration passes. For example, the fuel in the bladders will pass through a 25 micron filter to get to the side tanks, then back through the 25 micron filter a second time to get to the supply tank, through a 2 micron primary, a 10 micron secondary, and a 2 micron final before getting to the main engine.
Hello James,
I’m glad to see Dirona is just chugging along and I would bet you’re about ready to make land and have a break. Since you’ve never mentioned it or, I missed it if you did, I assume you intend to bypass Bermuda?
Your PH unit photo reminded me of information I intended to offer some time ago and never got around to it.
I’ve never been a fan of washable RP filters used by themselves. Not only are there heath benefits to increased dust and pollen entrapment, the equipment benefits from it also.
When you can’t get away from those styles there is a filter coating product I can recommend and have used for decades.
https://shop.aprilaire.com/products/aprilaire-super-filter-coat-adhesive
If used you’ll notice a significant decrease in the cleaning frequency required but it does clean up with warm soapy water, Dawn dishwashing detergent works extremely well for that.
I meant to say “significant increase”
Here is more information on it. https://filterproducts.com/wp-content/uploads/research-products-super-filter-coat-adhesive-spec-sheet.pdf
Thanks for the suggestion Steven. We probably should do something since the stock filters are such junk and leak all over. One option is to go with an aftermarket design like this one if I can find one that fits:
https://www.westmarine.com/buy/dometic–breathe-easy-air-filters–P012_361_001_517
Well, I’m not sure what a electostatic charged fiber is but, I suppose if you move dry enough air over any synthetic fiber you’ll get static electricity.
Other than that, the package does say custom sizes are available if you contact the dealer. If you can get one that fills the entire filter rack, the only real leak point would be the top where it slides in. A magnetic strip or tape would deal with that issue.
If custom filters are to expensive, you could possibly find and cut your own from a window unit filter. They usually have plastic ribs that if they are located right would keep the filter from being sucked in.
You could also simply get 1/4, 3/16 or 1/2 foam filter media and cut that to size but you’d have to make a wire support to prevent it from being sucked in. That generally comes in large enough rolls you could simply cut new rather than wash them. You could probably find something in a hardware store once you got back to the States as a back support.
The problem with that is foam isn’t a good filter either and you’d be back to needing some type of filter coating.
I just thought I’d mention it but it seems you are already considering the issue :)
I’ve had good results with a washable corrugated poly product from Permaton which fits nicely in the slot of the Dometic unit. Coincidently we’ll be at a Charleston City Marina same time as you, I’ll cut you a sample to try.
Wow, what are the odds that you would be in the same marina. It’s super nice of you to offer to let us try some of your filter material. Yes please and we’re looking forward to meeting you.
Good morning and I hope the three of you were able to get a little sleep over night. Are you out of the weather yet? It looks as if you still have 6-7 foot swells on your stern quarter and that you have really slowed down to deal with the movement. Hopefully the autopilot on Dirona is working well and that you did not take on too much water. At least the sun will be out today and you will get continually better weather as you pass to the South of Bermuda at noon on Friday. While passing Bermuda will you stop or push through? My thoughts are with you three as you do the amazing things we all wish we could experience.
Yes, yesterday was surprisingly rough but we still slept well. We just needed to be careful when moving around in the boat. We continue to have a fairly large swell rolling through today but it’s much more relaxing than yesterday and we expect it to keep going down and generally getting more comfortable. The slower pace is mostly due to the large swell really slowing the boat. We can easily go faster but we’ll end up becomming fuel limited if we push hard through the big swell so we’re running in the 5.0 to 6.5 knot range. Our speed should pickup again nicely as the swell diminishes.
The boat is running super well with two minor faults: The FLIR camera way up the stack appears to have taken a few hard waves and it’s shorted out inside and the breaker has released. I think it’ll likely need replacement. The second issues is we have a small exhaust leak in the ER that is dropping soot below the exhaust cladding and lifting the ER temp by 3 to 4 degrees. Neither is problem that will slow us down in anyway. Just the normal wear and tear.
Thanks for checking in with us.
It looks like you woke up to some light rain and still have that lumpy swell behind you. It seems to be giving you a little push. You mentioned the camera taking a wave? Did you have a wave break over the stack? Thank you again for letting us follow your crossing adventure!
Yes, conditions are now very nice. The swell is actually medium sized or bigger but it’s such a long duration that we hardly notice the boat going up and down. In the roughest conditions we saw a few days back we were taking a lot of water onto the decks. Are exhaust pipe nearly 30′ in the air is completely salt encrusted our canvas fly-bridge instrument cover was so salt encrusted and rigid that it was almost rigid.
All I know for sure is the FLIR Infrared camera has a direct short that immediately causes the breaker to release. It’s possible that the problem is wiring damage on the way up to the camera but my best guess is the camera is full of salt water and will remain inoperative.
Our most recent course had us passing 200 miles south of Barbados but, as the system north of Bermuda worsens, we’ll need to give it a wider berth. We’ll head south another hundred miles and pass Bermuda 300 nautical miles to the south. This puts us a long way out of intended path but it should give us less sever weather.
I assume you meant Bermuda and not Barbados :-) The ECM and NOAA forecasts show your plan of heading another 100 miles South would keep you on the edge of the low. It looks as though it could develop into a subtropical cyclone over Bermuda on Friday as you are passing to the South. Hopefully you will be clear of it and it will move North and not push you any further South. I am sure this is a great time to have internet access as you can blend your models and sources in real-time.
Woops, thanks. I corrected my last note to say Bermuda. It is good to have access to all the weather models and we occasionally get tips from readers giving us routing suggestions or a summary of what to look out for or try to avoid. The combinations is wonderful. We still can’t avoid everything but having more data does make the trip safer.
It looks as though you will cross paths with a tanker and be passed by a cargo ship around daybreak. Have you seen any smaller craft over the last few days?
Glad to see you dropped South enough to clear the weather. Unlimited visibility and a 4-5 swell? You should have a cargo ship a few miles off your Port this afternoon to keep you company. Maybe 50 gallons lost due to the slow down? The NOAA says that low will swing North and should leave you alone the rest of the trip. Hope all is well with the three of you!
Exactly. It’s wonderful clear weather with a light to medium swell rolling through on fairly long duration with winds around 10 kts. The additional mileage spent routing around weather translates to slower running since we constantly adjust speed to achieve the needed fuel economy. On this trip we’re aiming to arrive with 200 gallons of reserve fuel.
It is great to see you only 570 miles from SC! 7 knots of speed a light wind and gentle swell? It looks as if you had a cargo ship in front of you an hour ago. I guess it will only get busier as you get close to the mainland. Excited to see you arrive safely on Thursday at noon with 200 gallons of fuel.
Good morning Timothy. We’ve since slowed to 6.4 kts and have only 498 miles to go. Weather continues to be excellent with a light swell and 5 to 10 kts of wind. The storm we worked so hard to avoid is now a named system. Tropical Storm Ana. For some reason, giving it a name makes the 500 nautical miles extra distance that we were forced to cover feel totally worth it rather than an annoyance.
I’m not sure what time we’ll arrive in on Thursday but you guess is a good one. If I had to call over/under, I would say perhaps a bit earlier but conditions change frequently so it’s hard to call with precision. And, yes, as you say, we’ll be arriving in with 200 gallons of fuel in reserve. Thanks for riding along with us on this trip.
Sorry to see you getting caught in the storm right now, looks sort of nasty. Hopefully it will pass before too long and you can get on track. The next week looks pretty good after this one moves on. Thanking or you both. ??
Meant to say “thinking of you both” ?
You are right. Conditions are poor. It’s not the roughest conditions we’ve seen but it’s up there. Probably in the top 5. We’re in 12′ to 14′ seas and some as high as 20′ on a ridiculously short 7 seconds winds in the 30 to 35 kt range with gusts to 43. Just moving around in the boat takes care and planning. Some waves tower above the pilot house.
Looks like things will start to taper off this evening and be reasonable again by tomorrow morning. Thanks for the note.
Wow, didn’t expect a reply to this, certainly not this soon. Sounds like a rough ride you’re having, hope it settles down soon. Take care. ??
Yes, it is unusually rough out here today. It’s expected to start tapering off in a couple of hours and to settle greatly overnight. We kinda looking forward to it :-).
Looking at your latest Conditions dashboard; is the engine room temp really 110F with the outdoor temp in the 60s?
It’s hard to read the screen at the resolution we post it at but the outdoor temp is 74.5F and has been running in the low 70s for the past few days. But, I still agree with your assessment that the ER temp seems higher than normal. Not much high but it’s currently at 108 that’s a 33F deltaT when I would normally expect 28 to perhaps 30 or 31 as an outlier. When I noticed it a couple of days ago, I checked all the engine room fans and they are spinning at full speed in the right direction. There is an interesting failure mode on these AC fans where, if the capacity fails, they can spin the wrong direction.
Yesterday I noticed some soot on the floor of the engine room and appear to have a minor exhaust failure. It’s not bad but there is a small amount of soot being forced into the ER past the exhaust cladding at the flexible wrinkle belly segment area. I suspect the gaskets on either side of the wrinkle belly are leaking or perhaps the wrinkle belly cracked. It’s making a minor mess on the floor but it’s not a problem for now. Unless it gets worse, I’ll just service it on arrival. It’s possible this exhaust leak is lifting the temperature a degree or two. I also checked the calibration on the ER temp probe and it’s reading 3F high.
It might just be the temp sensor is just slightly biased but the rails around the engine are much hotter than usual and I suspect that is the exhaust leak. One final factor that will raise the ER temperature a bit higher than we have seen for years is we are running the most of the house air conditioners right now and the two alternators are putting out fairly high power levels with one running a case temp of 202F and the other at 184F. They will contribute a enough heat to raise the temps by 3 or 4F as well.
Good eye to see that the ER temps are a bit high. Your right.
Ah I must have misread the dashboard, sorry about that. The paper cuts can certainly add up; that failure mode for the AC fans is particularly interesting!
The reverse flow fan problem isn’t a big deal but it, in cases where there are two fans beside each other, it’s easy to not noticed that one is going forward and one is going backward so the pair are just a tight loop without any real flow. The capacitors seem to last around 8 years so it’s not a frequent problem.
One issue that is a big problem is Nordhavn’s cool the dry exhaust stack by using a double walled exhaust pipe where the exhaust flows in the central pipe and cooling air is pumped up the between the inner and outer pipes. It’s a super effective means of cooling but we once had the stack cooling fan run the other way. Abstractly this doesn’t sound like a problem in that, either flowing up or down, it’ll still cool the exhaust equally well. What’s dangerous is the air coming down is so hot it melts the ductwork at the fan. It’s a bit of a nasty failure mode so put a temp sensor and alarm on it.
Sorry to hear about your Canon camera. Suggestion: Remove the lens. Open up everything you can and let it sit for a few days. If you have to replace it consider the Sony DSC RX100. It is a pocket rocket! Marvelous little camera with moderate wide-angle and telephoto capability. It is ideal for someone as active as you two. It does have a steep learning curve to use all the features. But you can select the ones you want to use. I love mine.
The Canon lives! A day and a half in the fairly hot and dry engine room underway and it came back to life. Thanks for the pointer to the Sony DSC RX100. Really impressive specs across the board and a very nice package. I might prefer a longer lens but it’s hard to that without getting larger or giving up lens quality.
Sahara dust/sand off Africa which is below you limits chance of tropical low forming from Africa. You face low coming off east coast this coming week. Jet stream keeps cold fronts rolling east into the Atlantic.
https://www.accuweather.com/en/hurricane/saharan-dust-pours-off-africa-coast-stretching-across-atlantic-ocean/946177
Hope the low coming moves north for you. You and Jenifer get as much sleep as you can before the weather hits.
Thanks for the advice Andrew. We’ve had a wonderful run so far riding in the middle of the Azores/Bermuda high but, as you said, it looks like we see the south side of the next low pressure area coming across. We’ll pump the last of the above deck fuel into the main tanks tomorrow and be ready for a couple of days of rougher conditions.
Is your landfall at Charleston in deference to the upcoming hurricane season and needing to stay north?
No, our insurance allows us in the Hurricane zone until July 1st so that didn’t influence our crossing choices. For this crossing we planned to go south from Dublin to the Azores/Bermuda high and then west to landfall. We did want to land north of the hurricane insurance line so that we wouldn’t have to move the boat immediately. Within those constraints, Charleston seemed like a good choice. We’re it not for hurricane issues, we might have chosen to land in Florida.
HI Jennifer and James: Great to see that your passage has been smooth (relatively) smooth sailing so far.
Just wondering how does your system generate the course updates? Not the details themselves but the frequency they are posted to the site? There is no apparent pattern for these updates
Happy travels
Good morning Rod. Some updates are manual and some are automatic. Weather is automatic every 6 hours, route and position data is automatic and every 15 min. The fuel economy updates and pictures and trip notes are, of course, manual. In thinking this through, perhaps we should update the weather data more frequently. We’ll look at doing that.
I see that your speed has picked back up. You must have transitioned into calmer waters at are at the edge of those two weather fronts. It looks like you might get a push of 1/2 knot today. Excited to see you crossing again.
Yes, conditions are quite positive right now and we’re currently enjoying 7.8 kts. Conditions are wonderful with a very light swell and less than 5 kts of wind. Our plan is to continue to skirt the edge of the systems around and it looks like we are going to be successful at that for at least the next 4 or 5 days.
There is a low pressure system that the models show forming in the Bermuda/Florida area that may give us trouble but the weather models prediction qualities get pretty thin when looking that far ahead.
It looks like your turn to starboard put you into a 12-14 knot headwind and slowed your speed. The models show a decent swell of 4-5 feet now. I hope it all smooths out for you by the morning. At least the temps are in the high 60s!
Yes, the air temperature is already 70F and it’s only 9am. The water temperature is also much higher than we have seen for years at 74F. Conditions remain calm. It’s looking like about 5 days out until we reach the US, we’re going to have to work through some low pressure systems. Nothing big predicted but looks like we’ll be seeing some weather.
It looks like you have a gentle breeze and high cloud cover and pleasant day ahead. Five days out of the US? I was thinking twice that time so am I missing something? I calculate that you will arrive in the US with about 220 gallons of fuel remaining.
Sorry Timothy, I wasn’t sufficiently clear. What I meant is we have 5+ days of good weather but out beyound that there are big systems predicted that we’ll have to work around or might have to put up with. Your predictions on fuel look about right. We’ll be in the 250 to 350 gallon range unless we have reason to spend some of our planned reserve.
Hi to you both, I seem to recall the last oil change during passage was on the north Atlantic to Kinsale, from Dublin to the US should require 2, I’m interested to know how you plan to do this.
You are right, on one trip we did decide to shut down the main engine during a crossing because it was a nearly 600 hour crossing from St. Helena to Barbados (roughly 3,650 nautical miles).
On the current trip we went Dublin to the Azores and then changed the oil in Horta, Azores. We’re now 3 days out of Horta on route to Charlestown. We’re taking a longer path than strictly necessary working our way around weather systems but, even doing that, we’ll not need another oil change prior to arriving on the US East Coast.
You must have great conditions tonight. It looks like a clear night with Dirona dead center in the low. I see that you are running over 8 knots and at close to 1.5 mpg! As a note, I am sure you hear this all the time but, I appreciate the communication and responses while you are underway. The satellite comms and tech to keep us informed and following is amazing and always appreciated.
You are so right. Conditions are amazing. We still have to manage a system out there in our path nearly a week out but it’s looking like conditions are going to stay quite good for a while yet. This really nice.
We have now consumed 530 gallons so I plan to pump the forward fuel bladder below decks today. Thanks for the feedback on the blog. We appreciate it.
I hope the day was smooth and clear as you still look centered between the fronts. It almost looks dead calm on the model. You mentioned draining the forward bladder but I thought you had already used that fuel. The cockpit bladders at 532 gallons are next?
We did empty the forward bladder on our way south from Dublin to the Azores but we refilled our tanks and that bladder in Horta Azores. When ew left Horta we were carrying our full fuel load below decks and above. The aft two bladders will be transferred below as soon as we sufficient empty below deck tankage for them to fit with a 50 to 100 gallon safety margin. We expect we will be ready to transfer the aft tanks below Saturday or Sunday
Hi James and jennifer how’s the crossing going would you have seen the falcon 9 this morning thank you safe passage to charleston
No booster rockets seen in our area which is generally the way we like it. Conditions here are excellent with a light swell and 5 to 10 kts of wind.
thank you for the information
Hi James and Jennifer, your latest crossing has been great to follow. Spitfire looks great! Your experience with PredictWind has motivated me to use it again. Tracy and I left Palm Beach a couple weeks ago and are slowly making our way North. Unfortunately we’ll be past SC by the time you arrive but hopefully our paths will cross again later this season. Our current plans have us in Maine for the month of August. Have a continued good voyage.
Good to hear that you, Tracy, and your new boat are all heading North. We’ll hope to catch up with you both on your return trip.
Nicely done Jennifer and James
Still enjoying your international crusing, engineering, exploring, drinking and eating. We miss it.
Phil and Gerri Bradshaw – ex N52 “Mermaid Explorer” and now with many grandchildren- we love them all dearly, but it did curtail our cruising life! :)
We’re missing the restaurants and pubs part of our normal routine and we miss them as well. Hopefully, we’ll get vaccinated when we arrive into the US and can get back closer to our normal travel rhythm. Our current plan is to get back underway once this weather systems passes through and, in the interim, we’ll have some time to enjoy the Azores. Thanks for the post-crossing greeting and all the best from Dirona.
Hi James and Jennifer seems like you’ve had a pretty good run from Dublin, I’ve been following along the way, wish you a safe journey across the Atlantic for the remaining part of your return to the USA??
Thanks for the best wishes on our latest cross Atlantic run. This morning we arrived into Horta. Most of the trip south from Dublin was excellent. The weather was just kicking up a bit in the last 24 hours as a low pressure system comes through. We’ll stop here in Horta, get fueled up for the next leg of nearly 3,000 nautical miles to South Carolina, and enjoy the Azores a bit while waiting for the weather to improve again before getting back underway.
?? I was keeping an eye on your trip from Dublin, checked in a couple of times a day, also followed the “PredictWind App” looked like it was going to be a lot rougher near the end but seems like it cleared fairly well. It got sort nasty behind you hitting the south coast of Ireland. I’ll watch for you leaving Horta and hopefully you’ll have a great journey across the Atlantic. Maybe you’ll even make it to Georgian Bay and the North Channel but you’ll be hard to please with nice scenery after the last few years in Finland and Norway etc. Anyway safe travels and enjoy Horta.
Thanks for following along. You’re right that Norway was amazing but we lived in Toronto for 10 years so we know the Georgian Bay area is beautiful and we do intend to visit the great lakes sometime over the next couple of years.
It is so great to see you heading back and that the waves have settled down. Safe travels to the three of you!
Thanks Timothy. Conditions are better than we deserve right now but we’ll take every good day we can get.
We’re both looking forward to the next chapter in the adventure where we spend the next couple of years in North America.
It looks as if you will arrive about an hour after sunrise. Hopefully you will check in easily, pass the test and get some well deserved rest. I am excited to hear more about the plan for the trip home!
Yes, you nailed it. We arrived in just after 8am and are tied off on the commercial dock. We’ll get picked up for the COVID test this afternoon and plan to fuel tomorrow morning.
Does Spitfire have any say when it comes to MAYDAY? lol I love the ditch bag for Spitfire!
All three of us are pretty much in alignment that avoiding leaving the boat at sea is a primary goal so we’ll work pretty hard to keep things operating correctly and to avoid conditions the boat can’t handle.
It’s great out here Today. We’re 172 nautical miles north of Horta Azores and there is a light swell and 10 kts of wind on a clear day. Just the way we like it. We should arrive into Horta tomorrow morning just after 8am local time.
Hi James, Taking a look at the latest fuel status report, you appear to have used 2,896 ltrs and still have 7,351 ltrs available. Are you using fuel bladders for this trip?
Yes, we’re carrying our full fuel capacity even though we don’t even need all the fuel we can carry below deck for this short 1300 nautical mile trip. However, we’ll need the full fuel load for the second leg of the trip from the Azores to the US but since fuel is just about exactly 2x more expensive in the Azores than the excellent price we were able to get in Dublin, we’re “tankering” the entire load south with us. We’ll save enough on the fuel required for the second leg to pay for more than 1/2 of the first leg.
Having the capacity to move a lot of fuel definitely has up sides. Another advantage of ample fuel is we’re currently running at higher power levels than our normal ocean crossing pace and, as a consequence, only getting 1.1 nautical miles per gallon.
Ahhh, reading further I see you have already mentioned you are using the bladders!!
Yes, this is the 7th time we’ve used the bladders over the last 12 years. We continue to like the additional flexibility they offer us.
Hello James and Jennifer and Happy Walpurgis Night !
Throwback to 2019 when you where here in Aland visiting us.
We are spending the weekend in Kokar with our RV, trying out a new two floor sauna they built there. Are you going back to the west coast or staying on the east side? Safe travels to you! Best Regards Sam
Hi Sam. It’s great to hear from you and, as we recall, every Walpurgis Night is a Happy Walpurgis Night!
We really had a great time visiting you, the Aland Maritime Safety Center, and Aland in general. We’re currently heading back to the North American East Coast via the Azores. Our plan is to spend a year or two on the East Coast before returning to Europe via the Northern Route through Greenland and Iceland.
Please wish everyone back at the Safety Center the best and we hope you have a great time in Kokar at the 2 floor Sauna.
I may have missed the mention but is seems you are on your way home! Safe journey.
Hey Etienne. Yeah, we are heading back to North America. There is lots of exploring we been wanting to do on the east coast and crossing European borders by boat is very high friction right now, so we decided to get under way. Thanks for the well wishes. Conditions are wonderful right now.
Hi Jennifer and James
there’s a view from a webcam in dun laoghaire with mv dirona
link https://slipcam.dmyc.ie/
thank you for an excelleny blog about your travels safe passage back to the US
Cool. Nice perspective over the Dun Laoghaire harbour. Thanks for pointing it out to us.
your welcome James hamilton
forgot to say mv dirona is hard to see she’s above the stern of the yacht pandora behind a wall best view is at high tide
thank you
When you have an archelogical find you often use dendrochronology to locate and date a find.
Such has been the case of a viking ship found in Roskilde Fjord.close to Copenhagen Denmark. It was long a big question where ship had been build. But through dendrochronology it was found that the ship was build in Ireland – at Glendalough in the year 1042.
https://www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/en/professions/the-boat-collection/sea-stallion-from-glendalough
https://www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/en/professions/viking-ships-on-voyages/bigger-voyages/the-voyage-2008/armchair-comments/show/the-sea-stallion-s-voyage-to-ireland-an-adventure-only
Roskilde, and the Viking Museum there, were on our list of places to visit when we were in Denmark, but we didn’t quite fit it in. And now we’re moored not far from where one of those ships was built. Thanks for the information.
Jennifer
Hi…..I have been following your journey for a few years now.
I first seen you guys from Boston to Newfoundland.
We passed each other off Saint Pierre
I was on bridge watch for ferry NS to NL
Take Care
Regards
Leo MacLean
That does go back a while but we do remember that trip well. We had a great time in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. So much so that we’re heading back to North America this year and will cross the Atlantic back to the US east coast this summer. Hopefully Canada will open up for cruising next year and, if so, our boats may pass yet again.
Thanks for the greeting on the blog and it’s great you are still following the blog.
Hi James and Jennifer
We hope that you guys are well.
Our N6052 has been stored on land, fortunately just outside the Nordhavn Europe office, for over a year now due to the pandemic travel restrictions. We were here in Canada last March and our own reluctance to fly prior to vaccination, combined with the current travel restrictions have kept us away from the UK. The third wave here is now quite severe and I have been called back from retirement to work as a vaccinator as they were very short of GPs and nurses in the clinics.
We are now starting to plan our move to the boat and wanted to ask your advice on shipping a pallet of supplies from Toronto to Southampton. Is there a company or network of companies that you have found to be particularly good to deal with over the years? Do you have any advice on the packing of the pallet or should we just leave that to the shipper/broker/freight forwarder?
Thank you very much
Stuart and Liz
MV Bluenose N6052
Sorry you can’t get to your boat for so long, but at least it somewhere safe where it can be looked after.
For shipping a pallet, we’ve found better results by working from the destination side, so that we are contracting with the locals, rather than working from the source side. Since we often have to either store the pallet or have it redirected locally, being the customer of the local company works well. The local shipping company has partners in the US that will handle the pickup on that side. For our past few shipments into NL and Norway, we have found a customs broker at the destination and then asked them for a recommendation on a shipper.
To find a broker, we typically just do a web search, contact a bunch and ask for prices. Most countries have some form of temporary import process for visiting yachts where you can bring the goods in duty/tax free. Sometimes you need to pay a deposit. So we ask cost for import/export with a rough list of the items and ask for an overview of the process. We pick one based mostly on responsiveness, cost and “interest” in the job. For some companies single pallet shipments are on the small side for them. The cost is usually less than $500 and can depend a little on how much you are bringing in and whether you will provide the Harmonized Tariff Codes for the items. If the brokers do it, they might charge a little more depending on the number of items.
We’ve shipped twice to the UK, but both times were parts shipped directly from the supplier and we didn’t arrange the shipping ourselves, and we handled the customs side only on one as the other was shipped through UPS and they handled it. The first time we did it using the EU temporary import process, where the goods are effectively imported with a deposit and we had to explicitly export them from UK/EU to get the deposit back. This was a bit of a pain as we exited the EU at NL and had to find an NL customs officer to enter the export into the system, but with UK outside EU will be simpler. We used Charlie Milligan at SeaAvia (Charlie@seaavia.co.uk) for a customs broker. For the second shipment the parts came in as TAD (Transit Accompanying Document) which basically says the goods are being transported through the country, but will not be imported. This process required no deposit and felt simpler, but broker could advise.
It’s important that the pallet be packed securely and you can do this yourself and many offer it as a service. Because it’s important the packing be done well, we usually ask for pictures. Then our local shipper at the destination arranged with their partner in the US to pick up the pallet and deliver it to the destination. We usually find the whole process takes 6-8 weeks from ordering what we want to actually receiving it, although the last one was a little longer due to pandemic delays.
Jennifer
Thank you very much Jennifer. We have already had advice from Charlie Milligan regarding the Brexit implications on our Temporary Import/Admission status of the boat. I had not realized that Charlie was a freight forwarder/broker as I had a different email address for him than the SeaAvia address that you mentioned. We will gladly rely on Charlie to organize our shipment. Thank you kindly once again for all of your advice. All the best, Stuart
There are two breakers on the junction box. One is a push button breaker that is labeled fuse and other is a two pole breaker. The former is prone to nuisance releases when they get old and especially if the generator enclosure temperatures have been high. The other one, the two poll breaker protects the field circuit. Which one is causing you problems.
On most of this issue, you need more data. You’ll need a good quality multi-meter and you’ll need a clamp on ammeter. The symptoms you are describing could all be closely related and all part of the same problem or they could just be independent issues. The noise at the raw water booster pump might be new or it may be that it’s always been that way and you are only noticing it now because you are investigating this problem and observing these systems much more closely. My normal approach to chasing down these problems is to 1) fix every problem that I know about that is even only possibly related on the belief that the more faults that you have out there, the more confusing it can be to find the problem you are after (fix everything), and 2) when everything is operating on spec and what is left is a difficult to isolate problem or, especially difficult, an intermittent problem like you have. At that point, I come up with hypothesis or possible faults that could cause these symptoms and then think through, if that was a problem, how could I detect it?
For example, if your theory is the raw water pump is drawing too much current and releasing the breaker, then you should put an ammeter on the raw water pump feed wire and watch it on start up where the draw is usually highest. If that doesn’t show anything, I leave it there and watch it when the pump starts making noise. In this case, the breakers you are seeing releasing don’t feed the raw water booster pump, so we know for sure these are not related by it’s an example of how I might chase down the issues.
In your case, I’m assuming it’s the double pole breaker that is releasing. This is caused by generator field winding excess draw. But we also know the inverter is cutting out. This could be many different things and you need to do more sleuthing. However, I have seen these two faulting together so this is one possible answer: The generator Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR) does have a failure mode where voltage starts to vary greatly and sometimes go quite high. The Inverter will reject poor quality power so, if the AVR does allow the voltage to swing, you will see the inverter cut out rarely. And, if the generator voltage is unstable, in rare cases it can cause the double pole field breaker to release. This did happen on Dirona, I replaced the AVR and it’s been fine since so this is certainly a candidate problem that would yield those symptoms. The bad news is an AVR is $500. In my opinion, AVRs fail often enough that it’s worth having a spare and, if you do have a spare, you can try it since it’s only a 10 min job to change it.
Intermittent problems are the very hardest to chase down but the best approach is to get more detailed and quantitative data and develop theories on what the problem might be and then use multi-meter tests or other data to confirm or reject your hypothesis. Sometimes when I have a spare, I might even try changing a part if that looks easier than chasing the issue through detailed measurement. Good luck!
You should check out this documentary. Really insightful
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14152756/
We’ll check it out. Thanks!
Welcome in Dun Laoghaire :) There are a couple of nice places within a couple of kilometers like Dalkey and Killiney Strand (6 km). Perfect for a stroll on a beautiful day like today. Enjoy your stay!!
Thanks for the welcome and we always appreciate recommendations. Much appreciated.
Hi James. I hope you all are enjoying Dublin. My sister and family live in Drogheda, which is about 35 mins north of Dublin. My nephew works for our friends at Intel :) Let me know if you need some pointers for Dublin and the surrounding area and I’ll put you in touch with my nephew. I am sure you all can figure things out with COVID and the associated restrictions.
If you have a chance, I would visit Monasterboice, which is close enough to Dublin. My sister took me there a few years ago. It has the world’s oldest Celtic crosses there, which are fascinating.
Tahir
Things are still fairly locked down in much of Europe including Ireland but thanks for the recommendation. And, since we are unlikely to get vaccinated between here and our return to the US this summer, we’re being a bit cautious ourselves.
Okay, safe travels back to the US. Are you headed back to Seattle?
Our plan is to get back to the east coast of the US before June, get vaccinated, and then fly back to Seattle for 3+ weeks in town.
My wife and I met you on your return to the US mainland in West Palm Beach a few years ago, been following you and your tremendous adventures! I see that you’re back in Northern Ireland, that’s our native country. There’s a great local farm market “Farm Gate Fruit And Veg” they’ve got fresh fish too, it’s at 26 Inishargy Rd. Kircubbin not far from where you’re anchored. Just thought I’d suggest it as I see lots of great feedback about them.
Enjoy your voyage back across the Atlantic and wish you a safe voyage! Take care.
Things are pretty locked down at this point so the market isn’t really an option at this point. Perhaps on our next trip once the Pandemic is behind us all. Thanks very much for the local knowledge — we appreciate the advice and many of the best parts of our trip around the world came from recommendations like yours.
Thank you for the consistent update on your adventures. Recently retired I’ve been reviewing Yachts You’ve convinced me on the Ship to invest in. I really enjoy following your story.
Thanks for the feedback on the blog Mark. This trip has been an amazing decade for us. We feel super lucky.
Hello James,
It’s probably not worth the effort but you could always try to buy additional time on your lights finding used or open carton stuff to salvage what you need.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/143742585780?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-213727-13078-0&mkcid=2&itemid=143742585780&targetid=4580909047880289&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=&poi=&campaignid=410490132&mkgroupid=1236950807734171&rlsatarget=pla-4580909047880289&abcId=9300490&merchantid=51291&msclkid=2fe227df29801f5081a447b0a791645c
I doubt it would be worth the effort trying to extend something you know is out of production and ending it’s lifespan to me but it’s an option.
I had found some Ventura in stock at companies that specializing in buying old stock and marking it up. It just seems crazy to pay more for than list for an out of use part. The price you found is around 60% of list and far more reasonable. Thanks for opening up another option that we hadn’t seen.
Hello James,
While I actually agree 100%, I’ve been known throughout the years to benefit from that form of marketing. Generally, it’s a highly specialized market, to a highly selective type of client, and not something I would consider lighting fixtures to be a part of. If you really need to see that bad you can use a flashlight.
Over the decades I’ve been in this business I’ve always salvaged or retained key control components left over from an installation or retrofit. Most of the time it’s simply something that I either end up scrapping or my kids will one day however, there can be a market for it.
A well-known equipment and engine manufacturer has a plant I do work at which, produces various components for some of its products.
Their risk assessment in the event production was lost for as little as 4 weeks at that plant, was recently calculated at as much as one billion dollars world-wide.
Several years back a control board which had been out of production for decades, fried on their process chiller. A new process chiller was over 12 weeks out and only by paying to have a factory stop current production and retool for that product (not cheap believe me).
I sold them a sealed OEM control board that had been laying around my shop for decades. Both of us were extremely happy with the immediate outcome. I was also able to sell them a replacement and redundant chiller a couple of months later.
Yes, good example Steve. We often do something similar where, if we have an expensive part that is mission critical, like our Furuno Black box navigation equipment, we buy a cheap used unit to back it up. We operated it for the first 4 years from new, knowing we could buy a new one if it failed. Then when new non-compatible gear arrived, we purchased a used piece of equipment from someone switching everything out for the new version so we now have an entire backup unit that is less expensive than even a trivial component of that unit like the graphics processing card.
Hi James- Tim on Piredmus N63-06 cruising the BC coast. We have a Maretron system run by an MBB200. It is getting slow and thinking about upgrading. Would you recommend the MBB300 or a computer. If the computer, what specs would you recommend and are you using aboard Dirona.
Thanks.
Tim
Hey Tim. Good hearing from you. Our approach has been to use small PCs. There is nothing wrong with using the MBB200/MBB300 series but I’ve had several people report they were having flickering screens and slow updates on N2kview using these offerings. I’ve never tried one so can’t say with certainty but it sounds like they might be a bit light on CPU resources. On Dirona we use the Lenovo ThinkStation P320 Tiny (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1350651-REG/lenovo_30c20016us_p320_tiny_i7_6700t.html). It’s no longer available but this upgraded option looks like a good choice: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/think-workstations/thinkstation-p-series-tiny-/ThinkStation-P340-Tiny/p/33TS3TP340T. Another option is the Intel NUC series (https://www.amazon.com/Intel-NUC10I5FNK-Business-i5-10210U-Bluetooth/dp/B088MM5H99).
James….does your Maretron computer have to be rebooted every so often because it locks up and won’t process data to the screen or send out notification emails? My MBB200 seams to do this regularly at about 4-6 weeks without fail and i have heard this with other MBB200 & MBB300 systems. It is annoying. And I don’t know when it will occur which is silly as when you need an alert sent, it won’t work.
Thanks.
No, we run N2kview on a Lenovo Thinkstation P320 Tiny (current model: https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-30D1000SUS-P330-W10P-512GB/dp/B07VYTDKFQ). This solution will run for months at a time without issue. I’ve never seen N2kview go down. Unfortunately, the embedded computers used by Maretron are light on resources and frequently lock up. I would recommend replacing the MBB200/MBB300 with the combination of a N2kview and Thinkstation Tiny or Intel NUC.
Search for MBB200 on this page and you’ll see some additional feedback: https://mvdirona.com/general-comments/.
Yes, I think I will replace the MBB200 with a PC. One other question on Maretron….I notice on your screen, a number of the digital components for temperature & electrical readings etc have a “MIN” & “MAX” number on the lower part of the readout. Is this a Maretron feature in one of the latest updates to the software or is this something that you have programmed into the system? I searched the Maretron site for latest changes to the software and did not see that feature, which is a good thing to have. Thanks.
Good plan. N2kview on a reasonably powered and well serviced PC is very stable. Good eye on the min/max displays. They are WONDERFUL and probably the best part of the next release which is very good across the board. We’ve been running a beta copy of 6.0.15 for many months now and it’s never glitched or shown the slightest problem so it’s definitely ready for production use. If it’s not already out there on their download site, I’m sure it will be soon. When 6.0.15 is available, you be able to get access to this feature. And, I suspect if you said you saw it on Dirona, you might be able to convince the support team to get you early access.
Hi Tim
I love the Maretron gear overall but I’m not a big fan of the MBB. I bought a new MBB 3 years ago. It was basically DOA. It would run for a few days then lock up. It took weeks of pushing on their support to take it back on RMA. When they finally did, the diagnosis was: Oops we put the wrong firmware in it. They reflashed it and sent it back. That was 4 weeks of downtime. Three years later the MBB is dead again, like really lights-out dead. Back again on RMA. This time: sorry, it’s unrepairable, but we’ll be happy to sell you a new one.
I think they have a serious QC problem; bottom line is that 30 months of useful life on a $1,300 product is so far beyond unacceptable that there isn’t even a word for it.
In the end I convinced them to comp me a new license of N2Kview so I could run the s/w on my pc. Normally the last thing I want to depend on is a PC but in this case it appears to be a much more economical and reliable choice.
Buy the software and an inexpensive pc if you don’t already have one.
-cb
Dear James,
I am sorry to hear your european adventures have been cut short by frustrations.
I am curious to whether you considered a Northern route home via Iceland and Greenland?
I am imaging this route could be opened up for smaller motor boats with improvements in weather monitoring and prediction. The main objection seemed to be the uncomfortable northery swell, not ice as i had suspected.
Us returning to the US is driven by a number of factors including it challenging to move between countries and even entering a marina in Scotland and Ireland is fairly challenging to arrange with most being closed. We’re also interested in cruising into the great lakes, spending more time in Newfoundland and visiting Greenland. And I need to spend 3 weeks in Seattle in July and won’t fly until vaccinated and vaccination in Europe is lagging badly. If we can get back to the US in late May or early June I expect vaccination will be easy to arrange at that time which we view as a prerequisite to flying back to Seattle for some work I need to do in July. All these factors make returning to the US for a while seem like a good solution.
We have always intended to return to the US from Europe via the Iceland and Greenland route you mentioned. However, the timing doesn’t work for that routing on this trip. The Newfoundland current brings down Ice well into July so that route isn’t a good one in early summer (Canada ice report: https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/ice-forecasts-observations/latest-conditions.html).
Wanting to return in late Spring rather than late summer prevents using that routing on this trip but we still intend to go to Greenland and there is a very good chance we’ll go back to Europe via that route. At right time of the year, ice isn’t a problem on that routing and distances are short enough that the weather reports can be fairly good so it’s actually quite a safe route.
Welcome back to Ireland! I see above you mention visiting Kinsale again this trip. If it works for your itinerary I would highly recommend visiting Dingle. Being very familiar with both towns and having visited both when restrictions eased here last September I feel Dingle had the edge for takeaway food options and isolated walks on the Slea Head. While both are destination towns, Kinsale was busier with day trippers from Cork city. The marina in Dingle is also generally less busy vs. Kinsale if you’re hoping to minimise contacts.
Dingle sounds good and we’ve not been there before so we’ll investigate that option. Thanks for your suggestion.
Welcome to S’ford Lough – shame about restrictions but hope you have a pleasant stay. The Cuan Bar in S’ford Town does carry out meals by a very good chef.
Thanks for the welcoming note. We’re really enjoying being in the area. Lots to see and enjoy. Our only regret is we can’t stop in at the local pub but, other than that, we’re loving our time here.
I saw you are using Sena Expand headsets. May I ask why you chose the Expand rather than the SPH10?
We bought a pair of the Sena SPH10 headsets exactly 5 years ago. They started failing last year and are now totally useless so we have to choose what to replace them with.
Hi Michal. We’re far from experts in experts in communications head sets having relied on voice up until now but we really like them. We chose the Expand due to them being very inobtrusive. The mic is closer to the ear and less obvious, and we like the styling and pricing slightly more. So far, we’re really impressed with them. We never really missed not having remote communications but, now that we do have it, it’s clearly better. We end up communicating more and it’s nice to be able to say more and not have to project our voice through the doorway.
We also find them useful when working in the engine room or laz on jobs that needs to have someone else at the helm or helping in a different room. So far, they are a real win.
Hi James, Thanks for this update. Wet Wombat (N5279) has just arrived in Melbourne and been released from quarantine and we are now working on the commissioning and initial setup. Jenny just asked me today on our return from the boat to get on with the job of sourcing headsets!
Congratulations on the arrival of your boat in Melbourne.
I think you’ll like the headsets. The 52 is small enough you can operate without them and we have for a decade but having them is much better.
Hello James,
Reading through your Snow, Ice and heat post got me wondering. How much trouble do you have with damage shipping items halfway across the globe?
Do you have much trouble solving the issue if there is?
It’s amazing at times the amount of damage we see on equipment being moved across a couple of States.
Hey Steve. We have had amazingly good luck over the years. We have had some delays but very close to no damage probably due to them being packed well at the sending side. A couple of times the pallet base has been broken up but it’s still been serviceable by a forklift. The only package where we have taken some damage is the cylinder head. The package was a masterpiece of strength but there was a delicate rear main seal crankshaft collar worth about $85 that was dented and probably can no longer be used. Included with that part was a PTO clutch and a cylinder head both of which are quite heavy and we suspect one of those might have shifted slightly damaging the seal part. So far, we’ve not needed the seal part (I have an ongoing experiment on crankcase pressure that continues to be successful).
Other than the slight damage above, we have done 9 international shipments some as large as 2 cubic meters without damage. We have had some delays where a longshoreman’s strike in LA delayed a shipment to Australia for 6 weeks and that last shipment was delayed 2 months. Preparing these packages for shipment is a bit laborious in looking up all the required Harmonized Tarif Codes and even more complex if dangerous goods are being shipped. And, on clearing in, the complexity ranges from nearly none to requiring enough paper work to require a professional.
Overall, we feel like we have been pretty lucky but we’re still looking forward to arriving back in North America where most things we need are available via Amazon Prime.
Hi,
Just to remind you that you are in Downpatrick, Ireland you have left GB behind you,
Yours,
Thomas
Yes, understood. We haven’t actually been to the island of Great Britain this year. We are currently sailing south from Scotland on route to the United States passing through Northern Ireland. I presume you might be referring to us currently flying a UK courtesy flag. We fly courtesy flags out of respect for the places we visit and certainly don’t intend to insult anyone. We’ll take it down.
Very confusing so you are forgiven! I think you will find that in Stornoway you were in GB? This will help; facts from the cartographers at the Ordnance Survey.
https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/newsroom/blog/whats-the-difference-between-uk-britain-and-british-isles
Oh, the Red Ensign is the correct courtesy flag for Northern Ireland.
Yes, thanks. We do have a do have UK courtesy flag for when sailing in the UK and an Irish courtesy flag for when sailing in Ireland.
So why did you take down your UK courtesy flag?
We fly courtesy flags as a courtesy to the country we are visiting. In Northern Ireland, not everyone appreciates us flying that flag, so we don’t.
James and Jennifer,
With your return to North America Tracy and I are looking forward to getting together again soon somewhere along the Eastern seaboard. We’re planning to leave Palm Beach in about 3 weeks and make our way North, eventually to Maine on our new 68, Sunday Morning. Many of your ideas and suggestions on charging systems and flexibility were incorporated into our new build. Thank you again.
It’s great to hear your Nordhavn 68 has arrived. We’re really looking forward to seeing it and catching up with you and Tracy. Jen and I hope to see you on the East Coast later this year.
Hi James, I am linking our virtual showroom in this comment for your thoughts on our hybrid Emachine. I am curious on your thoughts about it’s applicability in recreational marine. We created a virtual showroom since we have been unable to travel for expositions. I know you will probably understand our electrified power system better than 99% of the folks visiting the site so your input would be appreciated. https://www.scania.com/group/en/home/products-and-services/features/marine-power-solution-showroom.html
The approach of putting the electric motor between the internal combustion engine and the transmission is a nice approach in that it makes it easy to sell configurations with and without the eMachine and makes application design easier. Being able to instantly deliver 1500 Nm (1475 ft lbs) and 280kw (375 hp) is impressive.
In marine applications, I could see it used when entering and exiting the marina, when trolling or operating at low speeds, and right sizing engines. By right sizing the engine, I mean sizing the engine for typical load rather than rarely used peak load. To get peak load, you would run both the eMachine and the diesel. In low speed operations in marina, only run the eMachine. And when cruising long distance at constant speeds where range and efficiency is most important, just run the internal combustion engine.
For over the road trucking the gains are even more exciting. When operating in heavily mountainous terrain, instead of configuring 700 hp a fleet owner can go with 400 hp but drivers would still have 775 hp available when needed on tough hills. The fuel efficiency of a small diesel with the peak power of the biggest. The internal combustion engine doesn’t even have to run at lights, in stop and go traffic, on when maneuvering at low speeds.
I didn’t find a lot of detail on the 32 kWhr battery pack but it’s a good sized unit. I need one for the house battery system but I’ll need 24V to 650V step up/step down to do that :-). Overall, a nice addition to the Scania line up. I’m looking forward to seeing the first greater 1000hp than Scania over-the-road tractor using this hybrid power equipment.
You face a formidable voyage to the US. Wait for the Azores high to be north and head for the Horta. Then with the high over the Azores find the south side of the high and head west (wind and waves astern). Find the south side of the Bermuda high and keep heading west. The high will keep lows coming off Africa heading west instead of curling north and keep lows coming off the east coast curl northeast.
I know we don’t live in a perfect world. Weather forecasts are more flawed the further out the prediction. 10 days or longer have a 50% chance of accuracy. here is local weather service prediction for hurricane season:https://www.accuweather.com/en/hurricane/accuweathers-2021-atlantic-hurricane-season-forecast/924431
We really appreciate the guidance on our Atlantic crossing Andrew. Thanks for taking the time of passing along your experience.
Hi!
After all this years of following your blog I finally had to respond.
Light Years Ahead was a fantastic recommendation.
Thank you very much.
PS love all the Spitfire reports.
That video gem was from fellow blog reader Stacy Kenworthy. Thanks for the feedback on the blog (and Spitfire is rolled into a tight little donut sleeping beside me as I type this).
Any plan’s past Florida? Have you given any thought to crossing back over to do the Med? I’m crossing my fingers that Canada will be open for this summer but the unfortunate reality is that it looks like we’ll have to wait for 2022 to have things “normal” Safe travels
We’re not yet sure but We’re thinking of the US east coast this year and then Canada and Greenland next year.
Ugh. We have a WSO 110 just passing 3 years. Still working, but wishing now I had bought a spare. Maybe Airmar.
We have best results when nobody is up there. If someone holds onto the instrument when waxing the boat or doing other service, it’ll flex the seal and leaks seem to come quickly after that. In this case, nobody other than me has been up there for years so we got pretty good life. My plan right now is to run without a backup until latter this year and I’m hopefully that Maretron will have one available. If not, I’ll find an appropriate Airmar.
Hopefully yours keeps going strong.
One of my favorite podcasts is Space Rocket History. This fellow from NC has spent over 300 episodes of his time detailing US and Russian space history with a through perspective teaming narration with historic narration and in person audio. It is pretty amazing to think this is over 50 years ago and what these Americans and Russians achieved. btw N6081 is in the water and awaiting shipping so fingers crossed will see it in Ensenada around May 30! You may have covered this but when are you crossing over to N America?
Congratulations on N6081 being ready to ship to the US. Very exciting.
We plan head south to Kinsale Ireland and to wait there for favorable weather. We’re interested in crossing the Atlantic when weather allows it. I suspect we’ll be arriving in Florida around June 1st but it’s hard to predict with any certainty.
Hi James,
How do you get high bilge water signals into your NMEA2000 system? I assume you are using the SIM100 to detect a sensor signal for the actual NMEA2000 integration, but I’m curious if you have dedicated sensors for the task, or if you put the SIM100 in parallel with other sensors (such as the Ultra Switch that I think you said you use)?
Hi Alex. We use three diverse detection systems since water intrusion is a leading way to lose a boat. The first is a Maretron BHW100 (https://navstore.com/maretron-nmea-2000-bilge-high-water-detector-sim100-accessory-bhw100.html) feeding a SIM100. The second is an Ultra Jr float switch (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VZ49N4E) read by a digital input on a raspberry pi. The final is a bilge cycle detector that detects bilge pump on and alarms if it cycles more than 3 times in an hour or cycles for more than 1 min. This is also a Raspberry Pi based detection circuit. This will also alarm of the bilge pump looses power for any reason (e.g. breaker release since bilge pumps still need circuit protection).
The primary protection is the first but we want more than 1 detection system and we would like to still detect if we have a CANbus failure (rare but has happened once). We also like the ability to detect loss of power at the bilge pump and to warn via dash indicator and email on frequent cycling.
Did you have any admin problems getting back into Scotland with Spitfire post Brexit?
So long as we keep Spitfire confined to the boat, we can bring him in without formality. That is the same as pre-Brexit. If we wanted to bring him ashore, that’s more involved and as far as we know can only be done through commercial transport (that was true pre-Brexit as well), except if coming from Ireland.
Jennifer
Makes sense. Thanks.
Good afternoon. I passed you yesterday morning in the white catamaran .
Have been reading all your interesting advice on your pages .
And noticed on your data display the water temp was 48.2 farenheight which I think is a bit high I have 5.8 ° c .
Maybe I’m reading your data wrong ?
Have loved reading all about your adventures . Kenny .
I spoke with you off the rear deck off Lifeboat the other day .
We’re reading the water temperature 4′ (1.2M) down. It might be slightly warmer down there or we might be reading a bit high. We have two transducers at roughly the same depth and when I crossed checked them 6 months back, they looked to match pretty carefully but we’ve not rechecked them for a while. Thanks for letting us know that it may be reading a couple of degrees high.
Thanks for the feedback on the blog.
Your N2KView ‘digital color’ widgets in your dashboards seem to have min/max values that I don’t seem to have available. Is this a custom mod you made?
Hi Alex. Good eye. Min/Max is a great N2kview feature. Any recent version of n2kview supports this. Got enter Ctrl-E to edit the page, select the digital color widget you want to change, select edit and tick min and max in the popup, then two saves and you are done.
Hmm, I just checked for an update and it says I am running the latest version (6.0.14.20200324, which is also the latest on the Maretron website). But when I edit a color digital widget I don’t have the min or max check boxes available (I do for others like gauges and bar graphs). I’ll keep looking.
That looks like a mistake on my end. I may still be running a prelease copy — I thought I was back on the production version. I’m at 6.0.15. We’ve been running it for a long time so I suspect it’ll be made available soon and I’ll bet if you contact support they’ll likely be able to get you an early copy or tell you when it’ll be released. If you say you saw it running on Dirona, they’ll probably totally understand be fine getting you a copy.
Nice thanks!
James: Did you utilize a nylock nuts when remounting the side light? When can you move out of quarantine?
I didn’t use a nylock fastener on that one. With 10 years experience with these lights, the fasteners don’t seem to loosen so I don’t expect problems.
We’ll be out of Quarantine on Friday at midnight. We’re currently seeing 35 kts with gusts to 50 kts so not going anywhere until this storm passes. I’m sure the combination of those winds and the currents in this area would yield towering seas.
The Carolina Reaper was certified as the world’s hottest chili pepper by the Guinness World Records on 11 August 2017. 2.2 million SHU (Scoville Heat Units)
We found 8,706 pretty hot so 2.2 million would, indeed, be pretty challenging. This is the hottest we have ever tried and it’s got to be getting close to the record: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie%27s_BBQ.
If you’d taken the northern route back to the US had you harbored any thoughts of doing the Northwest Passage?
Yes, we have given the Northwest Passage a lot of thought. The upsides are obvious. It’s a great adventure with lots of new experiences. The downsides are it’ll take a full cruising season with lots of waiting around for exactly the right weather report. And, even with all that time and care, there is a chance that the trip won’t start or that it’ll start but have to go back. There is even a chance that the boat will get stuck in ice for a season. From our time in Norway we’re amazed how fast ice can form and then get thick.
So we probably lack the courage & patience to do it but it’s been under consideration several times.
Greetings, just wondering what exterior damage Dirona incurred from the ice – cosmetically & structurally.
Malcolm Dale Melbourne Australia
I think we just wore the bottom paint off a 8″ diameter section of paint on the bow waterline. The bottom paint is probably worn quite a bit down the sides as well but it’s not visible by eye when standing on shore. We probably have put some scratches in the gel coat below the bottom paint in the bow area. So, very close to no issues or damage at all other than wearing off the bottom paint. Easily corrected but requires the boat to be lifted out of the water to do the work.
Quite a large percentage of Norwegian’s leave their boat in the water year around and the ice doesn’t bother them. Dirona is an absolute tank at 55 tons so no issues for it either.
Hello I have seen you video while you wee crossing the Atlantic and found it very interesting.
As I am working towards my 200 Ton RYA (even though it is not required for US flag boats and would like to fine tune my skills and enrich my knowledge), we are planning a crossing of the Atlantic.
I was wondering if you have any pointers on crossing from the US and back.
What time of the year do you think is better to cross from the US? I understand that depending on vessel capacity you refueled somewhere. Was this re-fueling Bermuda or Azores, how long did it take for you to cross?
What were your intermediate ports of call?
Any input from you or the community would be greatly appreciated.
Ioannis
That sounds like a good plan. We crossed from Newport Rhode Island to Kinsale Ireland. More detail on the crossing stats here: https://mvdirona.com/2017/05/newport-to-kinsale/. Our crossing was 2,801 miles and it took 17 days. The route we took is an less common routing where you need to cover the full trip directly without stops along the way (no intermediate ports of call). By far the most common routing is the US, Bermuda, Azores, to Europe. This more common routing usually has better weather and the longest leg is far shorter at 1950 nautical miles. Another routing that is gaining in popularity is Canada to Greenland, to Iceland, to Scotland (or Norway). On the northern route, late summer is preferred once the Labrador Current is no longer bringing ice south. For the other routings early summer is better to avoid hurricane season (officially starting July 1 but sometimes early).
We were originally planning to return to the US on the northern route (Iceland and Greenland) but we want be back earlier in the year than allowed by that route so we will take the southern route (Azores and Bermuda).
17.4 knots through the Pentland Firth…I didn’t realize you reworked Dirona into a planing boat! :-)
Thank you for letting us live vicariously through your adventures. Norway looked amazing!! I also love all of the boating and cruising wisdom that you share.
Yes, we had a rocket engine installed recently. The fuel economy is impacted slightly but crossing the Atlantic is only going to be few days :-).
It was absolutely crazy fast. By far the quickest this boat has ever done. It even beats the down current speed we achieved on the Columbia river in Oregon. The boat did great in all the eddies but at one point when passing behind a small island there was a firm line where the water was running at 10+ kts across our bow sideways to our direction of travel and then, right beside that, there was a big back eddy running at about the same speed in the opposite direction. Hitting the back eddy turned the boat fast and forced it over to just under 20 degrees of heel — it hit impressively hard. Everything immediately returned to normal (other than a broken coffee pot) but it’s a location like few others in the world.
Overall, it was kind of exciting. And we also love the scenery here. It’s great to be back in the Orkney islands.
Talk about being along for the ride with little or no control…exhilarating and frightening! I’m glad to hear you are ok and that you only broke your speed record and not your degrees of heel record. Now that’s a record that doesn’t need to be broke! Godspeed with your trip back across the Atlantic. Are you planning on the southern route with the current or the northern against it?
We’re thinking Azores to Bermuda for this Atlantic crossing.
Ah, I used to work out of Scrabster for Decca Radar and I’ve sat on top of the cliffs at Dunnet Head watching the ships coming through the Firth. I was watching one Belgian trawler, you could hear her engines thundering mightily as she fought against the tide, she was my next job to repair her radar and she was making 2knts headway. Talking with the skipper later he said he was making revolutions for 16knts and had a few choice words about the tide.
I’ve done surveys of the seabed in the Firth and that was exciting! Sitting there waiting for your marker buoy to pop to the surface at slack water so you could continue from where you left off.
The line of standing waves from the mainland out towards Stroma is called The Merry Men of Mey.
I’ve only recently discovered your epic journey from a post about Nordhavn yachts on ybw.com ( https://forums.ybw.com/index.php?threads/another-new-nordhavn.558555/ ) and have started to try and catch up, it was me that made the comment about From Russia with Love on your Crinan video.
Thanks for the reference to From Russia with Love and, yes, there are some massive tides around here. Not quite as big as the Kimberley region of Australia (https://mvdirona.com/category/destinations/australia/kimberley/) or the Bay of Fundy in Canada but pretty close. The currents in this area can make for a very short trip or a very long one and, with wrong wind direction, can be absolutely punishing.
Dear James,
I once read the book “Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance” it recommended following a path up a mountain before making your own. My wife and i have just bought a Trader 445 (similar to 4087) and plan to circumnavigate the UK and then a trip to Norway. We are just cleaning and checking through systems.
Congratulations on your new purchase. The Trader does look very similar to our last boat and we really used it heavily putting 4,100 hours on it in just under 11 years. I hope you really enjoy your new boat. You’ll just love Norway.
?
Welcome to Orkney – you look to have some good weather for a few days :) Great to see your adventures.
Thanks for the welcome greeting! We were last here in 2017 so it’s been quite a while.
Sorry things aren’t as welcoming as before due to Covid – it was good to see you appear here again… I run the Marine Traffic base station on the east side of Orkney on Mull Head so keep an eye on what’s coming in, and so great to see a pink coloured target coming in. All the very best to you. Steve
Thanks for the welcome message. I don’t doubt pink targets are getting rare. It’s getting close to impossible to cruise right now with so many national borders closing and after Brexit, we now have the Schengen restrictions to cope with so we’re planning to head back to the US this summer. We’re finding even just doing that is complex.
Thanks for saying hi!
Hi there James – as you may have seen, those of us living in Orkney and Shetland have the least Covid restrictions of anywhere in Scotland and I think the rest of the UK – though still lots of restrictions on indoor socialising etc. Not just an island effect either as the west coast islands (bigger and smaller than us) have had a lot more cases. So at least we can get out on our boats a bit if we stay within the County / archipelago – you may had seen a couple of local sail boats in Scapa Flow the other day. Must be frustrating for you but with Orkney having two weeks no with no positive Covid tests there’s lot of commitment to keep it that way. At least you have a good sheltered anchorage there for any gales that may come your way. Hopefully by the time you get back to the US the world will be in a bit better shape. Best wishes, Steve.
It’s not an easy time. Hopefully things will turn around as more vaccines are given and infection rates continue to decrease.
See you are crossing North Sea. Going by some fishing vessels. https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:1.8/centery:58.6/zoom:10
Yes, there is quite a bit of traffic out here. Most we’ve seen so far have been oil rigs, rig supply vessels, and a search and rescue vessel but fishing boats are out here as well. Thanks!
Hello from Ireland! I am writing a historical article about the buildings on Brow Head, West Cork. I saw your post on this site dating from 2017 and wondered if you would kindly give me permission to use your drone view of the buildings on the site: they give such an excellent layout of what was built up there. I would acknowledge you and put in a link to your site. If not, no worries. Bon Voyage anyway!
Yes, that’s not a problem. We’re happy to contribute to your project.
Hi James, I was wondering, Have you already looked into SpaceX’s Starlink system to get cheaper broadband internet at sea?
Starlink is a pretty exciting service that has the chance to fundamentally satellite data costs. But, it’s not there yet when it comes to mobile applications. This is from the Starlink FAQ: “Your Starlink is assigned to a single cell. If you move your Starlink outside of its assigned cell, a satellite will not be scheduled to serve your Starlink and you will not receive internet. This is constrained by geometry and is not arbitrary geofencing.”
So it’s only supported at a single location and, just out of interest, I tried to register for the service and Seattle isn’t supported and they don’t yet have a date for it. I tried Boston and it’s not supported either but they expect it will be later this year.
My overall take is the service is technically very interesting but they don’t yet have the coverage needed and they claim that they can’t support mobile applications. I suspect that last statement is a point in time and I can’t think of any reason why they couldn’t support mobile terminals in the future.
Hi James, what are those speakers in the aft corners of your main salon? I’m looking for something like that for mine and I’m not seeing anything online that resembles them.
Thanks!
Chris
Sure, we are using Definitive Technology Mythos speakers connected to a Pioneer receiver.
That peculiar structure illustrated in your photo describing a water reservoir is a VOR station used in aerial navigation.
Thanks Ron, we hadn’t see that before: VHF Omnidirectional Radio Range (VOR) is an VHF-based aircraft navigation system.
Hello James,
In reference to your PSS Fault.
It seems you’ve had vibration issues since that new shaft went in. Did you ever make a determination on why?
My insufficiently deep read of the draw limitation was that it was a controller limitation rather than a power supply limitation. I do use direct 12V supply from a dedicated 12V breaker to power the LED lights but I still use multiple controllers.
Yeah, it’s kind of annoying but the shaft runout is over the ABYC spec. Not grossly so but it is higher than it should be. What we have learned here is that lip seal systems can tolerate more engineering margin of error than the Packless Shaft Seal system. But that’s not really the issue. The fault in this case is excess shaft runout. It’s not intolerably bad and not enough to be hard on the transmission but it’s more than it should be.
I don’t know the cause of the runout. The most likely cause is the shaft isn’t true but it’s possible that the transmission flange was bent when removing the shaft coupling, it’s possible the trans flange is out of line and the yard machined the coupler to match to match it. There are many possibilities and all we know is it was running true prior to the shaft replacement and, after the work, it has excess runout. What we can measure is the shaft runout and it’s just a bit above the ABYC limit. Not enough to produce an annoying vibration but the runout is excessive. The only solution is pull the shaft, coupler, and transmission flange and get a machine ship to replace parts until it’s close to true.
It’s unfortunate that we went into the yard three years ago with a true prop shaft and no vibration, paid to get a new shaft installed, and left with excess shaft runout accompanying a fairly substantial bill.
“Unfortunate” isn’t a word that would describe my personal feelings over something like that.
Unfortunate is while I don’t see anything in the way of boats shafts, I do see a lot of large blower shafts, there just aren’t many machine shops around anymore that can true a shaft of any length. They use to be fairly common but that was 40 years ago, I’d expect more from a machine shop dealing with MARINE equipment :(
I agree. Basically where we are on this project is we replaced a straight prop shaft assembly with a new one that is not running true so we’ll probably have to repeat the entire fairly expensive job at some point in the future. Fortunately, the runout is not so great that it’s damaging — just annoying.
Hey guys, couple of equipment questions:
1. I’m having trouble finding led rope lights that I like. Can you give me an idea of what you used on your outside lighting?
2. I notice that you’re using those big heavy duty three phase AC plugs and sockets. I’m familiar with these from past project work, wondering what led you to use them in certain applications on Dirona.
Thanks
Chris
We used LED Wholesalers LED Strip Lights from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0054U46Y2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1.
There is no 3 phase power on Dirona. I suspect you are referring to the 16A European mains connection we have as a second shore power connection. It’s an IEC 60309 which is a single phase 16A connection. We use this because it’s the most common shore power connection in use around the world. We can adapt to US connections as well but don’t need an
adapter for most of the world. Or you might be referring to the big waterproof plug and socket we for the patio heater in the cockpit. It’s a single phase 230V connection made by Clipsal that we sourced in Australia. We liked it because it’s very well weather sealed and you can see into the connection and know the connections are good and not suffering any heat damage. All other connections are standard single phase plugs and sockets in common use in the US.
Hi James,
Yes, it was both of those plugs I spotted in various photos. Thanks for the info on those and the link to the led strips!
Chris
About those led strips, it says the controller can’t handle the power requirement of more than one strip connected to it, but it occurs to me that you might be powering/controlling them using another method, like one of your pi devices with a beefier power supply with multiple strips connected. Looks like the strip takes 12V common and and a low side pwm for each of the colors?
Sorry I misread that thing. it’s the power supply, not the controller, that is limited to a single strip. That’s an easier problem to solve; the controller can do two strips. Still curious on your power/control approach.
Couple of questions. Will you be able to get a vaccine shot where you’re at? Are you doing any diving?
Norway will vaccinate everyone in the country but they are doing it order of need and supply is quite limited right now. As a consequence, we’ll not get vaccinated anytime soon.
No, we’re not diving in Norway although it is recommended by many. We used to cold water dive but no longer have dry suits so, with a few exceptions, only dive warm water these days. The last cold water dive I did was 58F freeing an anchor in the Orkney Islands Scotland: https://mvdirona.com/2017/09/anchor-ensnarled/. Right now we’re surrounded in 5″ to 6″ of ice so we’re neither able to leave nor able to SCUBA dive (without cutting out a section of ice).
Hello James,
Hope you guys are enjoying the cold weather, I’m certainly not :)
Anyway, “udder support” has been around quite some time. I remember my Uncle using them back in the mid sixties except he made his own.
There really is a purpose, I found this funny link explaining on reason.
https://www.newsweek.com/udder-bra-mastitis-cow-teat-921786
Your a unbounded source of information Steven. Thanks for that. The cold is not bothering us but we got caught be surprise and 2″ ice formed all around us quickly here in Farsund. It’s now 5 to 6″ so we’re trapped for now.
I replaced the HVAC units that failed months back and they worked great for a day but the water temperature has now dropped down to 39F to 42F which is too cold for these reverse cycle systems. But, the good news is they are back operating. It’s weird that two independent systems both had reversing valves stick at the same time and damage the compressors but it seems to be that is what happened.
Reversing valves do fail, it is strange you were unlucky enough to have two at the same time right after being out of the water.
I suppose the “law of average” eventually catches up with us all. The good thing is you’ve got them replaced, working and I can’t think of any reason even an air lock from being out of the water would have caused it.
Stuff just happens.
Hopefully you won’t need an ice pick to get going again. Dirona is heavy enough for breaking 6″ of ice but I doubt the hull construction would be up to the task. Maybe if you went slow :)
Lightening does strike twice (rarely). It’s not likely to have independent faults within days of each other but very rarely it can happen.
We have broken 2″ with the tender and Dirona and it cleaned the bottom paint off the big boat and did some damage to the gel coat on the tender. We watched a roughly 50′ fish boat break out of their slip in 6″ and it was horrendous. It took him a 1/2 hour and was just brutal on the steel boat. There is no way we can get out of this without help from a stronger vessel to break ice first.
This is a bit of a learning experience for us. We have seen surface fresh water freeze but we have never seen salt water freeze this fast nor this deep.
Sounds like the first act of one of those end-of-the-world movies! stay safe and warm!
-cb
Yes, exactly. The ice is now thick enough that yesterday kids were out playing on it. We’ve pushed through ice before but nothing thicker than 2″ and that wasn’t very far. We won’t be forcing our way through this.
Regarding the ship you saw in Førde. Its realy an “nobody wants” 82 mtr yacht.
Originaly build for a russian juice & milk billionære. But he died before the papers was signed.
Its an PJ World Explorer, iceclassed and with helipad. So if you want to upgrade…… :o)
More info: https://www.palmerjohnson.com/explorer-1
Great timing. We do need ice class right now. While sitting in Farsund, we were quickly surrounded by 2″ ice and it’s now 5 to 6″. We even have a picture of Jennifer (carefully) standing on it. We’re going nowhere for now. Amazing to see this much ice when the water is 5 to 6C.
Thanks for the background on the 82M yacht.
Since you still are in Farsund, i guess the ice and winter stops you for the moment.
This winter did come as a surprise for us which live on the West Coast of Norway.
Covid and travel would i guess, is not so easy for travellers like you.
I went to work this week. First Gardermoen , test that could not be older than 24h before landing in Denmark, Kastrup.
Next stop Spain , hotel and isolation. 3 days. New test, and then allowed to go onboard where i work.
This covid pandemic, affect us all :/
It is a bit warmer here btw, 20 ++
Between Algeria and Spain somewhere.
Your overhead of going to work is a already bit higher than most people driving to a nearby office but the pandemic makes it much worse. As you know, Norway isn’t greatly affected so it’s not been too much of a burden on us but we’ll soon need to cross national borders again and that’ll require testing and other new overhead.
Right now, leaving is not really much of an option in that we’re frozen in here in Farsund. The ice surrounding us is thicker than we can force our way through so we’ll either need to wait for warmer weather or pay someone to bring a boat over to break us out of the ice. It’s not a problem right now but if we don’t see warmer weather in a week or so, we’ll need to investigate other options.
I note the recent failure of the ballast on your fluorescent lights. I have had two such failures. When the first occurred, the only ballast I could find was a used one on eBay. When the second occurred I changed all the lights to LED. It turned out to be cheaper than the cost of parts for the fluorescents and are a bit brighter. Only time will tell how long they will last. Did you find the ballast quite easily or did you just have one in spares?
All the best
Murray Birch
Operata De
N6303
We have spare ballasts on board. They are $35 on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00859WZZQ). We’ve thought of moving to LED and if we found something that ran on 120V/60hz with similar dimensions (or could be placed inside the existing fixtures), we would do it. What did you elect to use in N6303 Murray?
They don’t make the ballast in my units anymore and no one could give me an alternative that would fit so that is why I bought a used unit on eBay. When the second unit failed I looked at using the new replacement LED tubes bypassing the ballast but you also had to change the tombstones fittings at the same time. Delivery time then became a problem as I am moving around. They would have fit within the same fixture. It ended up easier to just get new Home Depot 2 foot LED ceiling wrap lights for CDN$50 with next day delivery. They are about the same size and are a bit brighter. I am still changing them out but so far they have all fit roughly in the same space. A new ballast is easiest if you can get the right one, then replacing with the new LED tubes if you can get all the parts and then lastly, getting new units. Trying to get 120 VAC in Europe adds another level of complication.
Your recommendations make sense. Thanks for the advice. I think I found what you used: Progress Lighting 2′ LED Wrap Light at Home Depot (https://www.homedepot.com/p/Progress-Lighting-2-ft-LED-Wrap-Light-Semi-Flush-Mount-P730011-030-30/312500438?NCNI-5). We might just make the change when we return to the US. Thanks for the details.
The ones I bought were by Commercial Electric and look similar but were a bit cheaper. Maybe they were on sale. It will be interesting to see how long they last. Safe travels.
Thanks and all the best Murray.
Here is a decent description of Fluorescent to LED Conversions. https://zled-lighting.com/news/convert-fluorescent-lighting-led/
I’ve done them both with and without ballasts and the process is straightforward. You can use the original “Tombstone” sockets however how they are wired will have to be changed for 120VAC conversions.
The biggest problem is finding a color (Kelvin rating) that is pleasing to the individual.
I would recommend finding an electrical wholesaler and look at what is available in person. once you know what Kelvin rating you want they are readily available through AMAZON or anywhere else you want to order them from.
Thanks for the reference Steve. We probably should make the change. Our fluorescents are super power intensive but we have good brightness and I like the really high color temperatures in an engine room (but would hate it in living spaces).
Fluorescent lights put out a lot of UV which as a light source really does us humans little good. You probably like Cool White bulbs in the engine room.
I’ve never checked with a meter however LED lights seem “brighter” probably because the light they do emit is more in the spectrum we can use.
The biggest problem with the early tubes was they were more directional in where they threw the light.
The newer tubes, ones that look just like a regular fluorescent tube have solved that issue. As long as you stay away from tubes where you can actually see the individual diodes, I think you’d be pleasantly surprised at the result.
The best thing I can recommend if you are interested in LED is find a supply house or lighting store with displays set up for you to see. Almost all of them in the U,S. do I don’t know about Europe.
We’re thinking of returning to the North America this summer so we’ll probably check the lights out in the US. We really love Europe but the combination of Brexit (Jennifer travels on a UK passport) and the more serious variants of Covid-19 leading to border closures is making travel fairly high friction.
It would be a shame to have to modify plans, I know you two wanted to travel into the MED but, it’s probably going to be a long time before travel returns to normal (if it ever does).
While there is “no time like the present”, there’s always hope for the future and there is still a lot of water on this side of “the pond” Dirona hasn’t seen yet.
There’s always the great lakes and while I know Dirona was built to drop it’s mast, there is always the great loop if modifying exhaust, cabling, etc. for her to actually do it isn’t to much of a hassle.
Anyway it goes, you two have already been on a ride very few of us will ever take and you’ve barely scratched the surface on what’s left to do.
As always, you nailed it Steve.
Our thinking is there is lots of adventures waiting for us on the other side of the Atlantic and nothing will stop us from returning to Europe.
J and J: Glad you are enjoying (maskless) Norway.
A quick comment on your blocked dryer vent. Such blockages are notorious for causing fires. Some can be quite serious, so much so a 200 bed hotel in Alexandria Bay, NY was lost a few years ago due to this exact cause .
An addition to your maintenance schedule? :) :)
Norway isn’t really “maskless” — masks are very common in big cities like Begen and Trondheim and close to universal on public transit (I believe it’s required). Even in small towns where masks are rare, many people put them on when they walk into a shopping center or a grocery store.
It’s a tribute the focus and care of the Norwegian people and their government that they have been able to keep the infection rates always near to the lowest in Europe or North America.
That’s a good point on the dryer overheat and fire risk. We have a thermal fuse on our dryer that will protect against this and we did blow that fuse once by doing this which shows that it’s needed. We shouldn’t rely on the fuse and will add that task to the maintenance list. Thanks for the suggestion.
Hi James.. I just watched an IBM analyst presentation on the Mayflower autonomous ship project. I real milestone — the first I’ve heard of a marine data system that is differentially better Tham what you’ve built on MV Drone… Time to raise the bar don’t you think? :). best/Peter Christy
:-). It looks like IBM has us beat on the automation navigation front. But, I’ll bet the autonomous navigation system would have had some troubles with aspects of our last trip. On that one, we did a channel with only feet to spare on either side of the boat followed by pushing through 100′ of 2″ ice to get to the harbor.
It will be a long time I think before autonomous systems are as good as a human augmented system. I’m not sure if or when a Tesla will be good enough to enable a snooze in the back seat but I do think they have already created a safer car with their augmentation. Assuming the same is true with boats — may be necessary to limit paths compared to having a human pilot available.
I agree. It will definitely come but hasn’t yet.
Check out Yara Birkeland , I think this is the first one i Norway.
Also for the subsea use, things are ongoing.
http://reachsubsea.no/future-proofing-subsea-services-remote-autonomous-operations/
Not my company. But already we are able to sit onshore, controlling ROV’s offshore.
I
Nice technology and it makes perfect sense in that a human operator can have access to all bridge data on the bridge or in a control room many miles away. There is no reason why a pilot needs to be on the vessel even without going to fully automated operation. Thanks for posting it.
Looks like you are just passing Egersund. it is a very nice littel town, sail safe, and be awear that on the east side of Lindesnes there will be more ice. in the winter. so look out.
Thanks Geir. We appreciate all the local advice you’ve been giving us. Even before passing Lindesnes, we’re already finding a lot of ice.
Jennifer
may I ask would dirona be anchored on the main anchor or the spare anchor while the windlass is worked on
thank you
We only use the spare anchor when we have lost the main anchor (hasn’t happened on this boat) or when the main anchor won’t hold (had only happened a couple of times). Other times we’re on the main anchor reguardless of weather conditions. One exception where we had to use the spare anchor and rode was when the main anchor got jammed up in an old mooring chain. You can see it here: https://mvdirona.com/2017/09/anchor-ensnarled/. In that case we anchored off the backup anchor and rode and then loosened up the main anchor so we could dive it and use a pry bar to work the anchor out of the chain in which it was ensnarled.
You were asking how we service the windlass while on the main anchor. When we don’t leave the anchor loads on the windlass. Instead we put out a snubber which is a short length of rope that can attach to the chain and then tie off on a deck cleat. This is where the anchor load hangs so the windlass is not loaded in the normal case. Since there is no load on the windlass when at anchor, we can service the windlass by lifting off the chain, doing the work, and then putting the chain back and testing the system.
thank you for the information James
Welcome to Kvitsøy.
Nice boat.
I hope you will have a pleasant stay.
My house is the white one with the tall windows on the right hand side of the flagpole.
Beautiful house and, wow, what a location. We’ve been walking around the island and exploring by tender. Thanks for the welcome!
Hello James & Jennifer
We’ve followed you about 4 years now, keep-up the great blog. Providing inspiration and experience such as yours to others is an important element to the longevity and promotion of our cruising lifestyles. As an engineer I appreciate your technical content.
I’m curious about the “bow-eye” you have on Dirona, was it a factory design or a James Hamilton design? We are planning a spring haul out for our DeFever 52 Offshore Cruiser and plan to install a bow-eye. I’ve made several design inquires of others and have received many opinions on what’s important, however not much of the advise converges to make me comfortable with a particular approach. Dirona has been at sea several years and on-the-hook much of the time, hence I’d be interested in your thoughts on the design and construction of a robust bow-eye system for my similar sized 90,000 pound cruiser (I think you are somewhat more). In discussion with other fellow DeFever owners stem thickness ranges between 2 and 4 inches solid (non-cored) fiberglass.
The intent of our bow-eye is for anchoring. As you and many of your readers know by lowering the attachment point for the anchor snubber allows for less anchor rode for a given depth and desired scope. In our case lowering the attachment point by 6 feet can reduce rode length for given scope at 7:1 by 42 feet, this is significant for us when anchoring in shallow and narrow spots in the US southeast low country……especially in 8 foot tidal ranges which can really test your scope requirements.
I’m also making the same inquire to marine architect consultants, however the more input I obtain the better my confidence will become.
Thanks and safe travels!
Steve McCreary
MV Last Laugh
DeFever 52 Offshore Cruiser
Now lying Lady’s Island, Beaufort, South Carolina
Thanks for the feedback on the blog. Your right, we are somewhat heavier at 110,000 lbs but not much more. Your Defever sounds like a heavily built boat. Our bow eye is a popular option available from Nordhavn. It’s official purpose is towing and it’s ideal for that purpose but many owners also use it for exactly the purpose you intend. This is an excellent description of it’s use from Milt Baker a Nordhavn 47 owner and very experienced boater:
With its tall bow and broad shoulders, our N47 used to sail at anchor a lot. That was until we discovered that using an anchor snubber line reduces sailing markedly if we lead the line down through the towing eye at the stem just about the waterline. We do that, then run the line back up to the deck where it’s secured until we anchor. When we anchor, we let out sufficient chain for the water depth (including freeboard forward). Then we secure the snubber line to the anchor chain (outboard of the bow roller) with a proprietary Kong Chain Gripper (though a rolling hitch or galvanized chain hook will work), lower the anchor chain until the chain-snubber connection is about 5 feet below the surface of the water, then secure the bitter end of the snubber line on deck. Finally, we let out another 5-8 feet of chain. That means the pull on the anchor is effectively from the waterline forward rather than deck level, which changes the dynamics dramatically. We found that one simple change reduced sailing at anchor by roughly 75 percent. YMMV. Having the pull right there at the waterline also gives you the effect of having more line out (greater scope) because the pull is not from the deck but, rather, from the LWL, so the measurement from deck to LWL doesn’t have to be included in the scope calculation.
Hi James, we have been in touch a while ago. I am following your blog with interest and pleasure – but, actually, for me personally – in this time if the year – Norway would be a bit too cold and dark – but perfect to protect yourselves from being caught by the pandemic! :-)
I am presently installing two Electromaax serpentine drive systems for the alternators and 2 new Electromaax / Genmaax High Power alternators, @ 12V/215A each, on my Sabre 42 Hardtop Express. One on either of my 2 Yanmar 445 HP engines. I read your Balmar posts with interest. I am considering to use Balmar controls and not Electromaax controls – but, opposite to you, with my two independent engines, I think I should install their Centerfielder module as well. Would you agree? Thanks for an opinion, and all the best!
Take care and stay healthy, Christian
Good project. I’ve not come across Electromaax before but looking through their website, they look pretty good. 215A@12V is pretty good. The alternator we have puts out 190A@24V or 265A@12V so a bit more output than what you are planning will get you a combined output from your two engines of 5.1 KW which is very respectable.
The need for a centerfielder is an interesting question and strictly speaking it’s not required and I didn’t use one on our last boat that had two alternators on two engines, a similar configuration to yours. Anytime you put two alternators without a centerfielder or other way to coordinating the charging, you will go through long periods where “only 1 alternator” is working which, for many is a concern. It’s not really what is going on but it looks like only 1 is working.
What is really happening is during charging the battery acceptance amperage decreases. When you start charging, you get full output from both alternators but as the the battery acceptance rates decrease, one alternator will end up winning and supplying the full load. So, without a centerfielder what happens is both alternators run flat out and, over time, one will stay at max and the other will decrease to 0 and you’ll be charging on only 1 alternator. Then as you get closer to full charged, the alternator that was running flat out will decrease down to very low but the entire time the other one will be at zero.
This phenomena doesn’t slow charging in any way. If you look at the system when it’s charging with 1 alternator close to flat out and one is completely off. Let’s say 1 is at 185A and the other is at 0. If you where to put a centerfielder on the system without changing anything, you would still be charging at 185A. That wouldn’t change. The only change is that both alternators would be putting out 93A. The net effect is that a centerfielder equipped system charges no faster than an independent regulator system.
Given that amperage production doesn’t change is there any advantage of using a centerfielder. Yes, there is. An alternator running flat out is hotter, somewhat less efficient, and wearing more than an idling alternator (more bearing load and more bearing heat, more heat in windings, more heat in diodes, etc.). On our first boat we had 2x 105A alternators on two Cummins B-series diesels and we ran the regulators without a centerfielder. It works fine but, as I said, one alternator will carry most of the load much of the time.
The same question comes up in our current configuration where we have two alternator on a single engine. 1 alternator will carry most of the load most of the time rather than it being equally carried between the two. We ran this configuration for many years and, again, it works fine. A couple of years ago I changed the system such that when the alternators are charging two independent battery banks, they run on two regulators and are 100% independent but when both attached to the house bank (the normal case), both alternators run off a single regulator. In this later configuration, they run 100% in lockstep as they would with a centerfielder but you only need a single regulator and don’t need a centerfielder.
The short answer is the running without a center fielder is fine and chargers at the same speed as with one. Adding a centerfielder will balance the charging rates and allow the alternators to run somewhat cooler but is otherwise no different. Running both alternators off a single regulator is the same as a centerfielder in effect without the cost of a second regulator and center fielder. I’ve seen all three configurations and we have used two of them ourselves and they all charge at the same rate with the balanced configs slightly better in sharing the load across two alternators.
A last point on your choice of regulators. We’ve always used Balmar MC612 (on 12V) or MC624 (on 24V) and we’ve been happy. Recently a company called Wakespeed has entered the regulator market and their specs look good, the system looks easy to work with, and others report they work well. We’re still happily running Balmar but there are now more options.
Many thanks James for your detailed comments. Actually, I already have the Electromaax alternators here in Germany, and they indeed are a very nice product. CNC milled housings hard anodized, solid and large cable ports, piece of art equipment. Same applies for their serpentine pulleys – but these are a simpler product category. The Electromaax control system is more sophisticated than the Balmar MC614, with communication ports for a laptop via USB and via Bluetooth, but it seems they have a bit of a problem with supplies now, in pandemic times.
The latter brought me to Balmar for the control system, and this I think is a good move, as Balmar is – kind of – the leader of the pack, is world wide organised, with more product out and available, probably more proven components, and probably the most experienced team. Also, their system configuration is more straight forward. Less system components, but more programming options, and a simpler wiring. No hookup to the laptop, no bluetooth – but, really, I do not see a reason for this information to be on the laptop, or a need of communication with regulators through the air.
Regarding the Centerfielder, I am sure what you say is correct. However, its cost is not a big part of the investment, I am running wires through the engine room anyway, so the amount of work is not a lot different – and I like the idea of less heat in the systems, and also more safety. With 2x MC614 and 1x Centerfielder – what ever may happen – one system will remain functional, in nearly any foreseeable scenario.
Talking about Balmar – with our previous discussion about battery monitoring systems in mind, I looked at their SG200. I am wondering whether this thing may get some of the weaknesses of battery monitoring systems under control, which mainly relate to changing battery capacities, and the monitoring system not including this into their calculations. Any SG200 opinions or experiences to maybe report here, out there in the group of people reading this?
Sounds like a good approach. I too prefer to reduce alternator heat so elected to go with the single regulator for the two alternators but you’ll get just as good a result using two regulators and a centerfielder and you’ll get better failure behavior on regulator failure with that model.
On the SG200 SoC meter, I’ve not tried that one but I have used Mastervolt, Xantrex, and Maretron. Rhey all count amps and so all suffer from the problems: 1) overall bank capacity is entered as a config parameter but it is actually falling from day one until you replace the battery bank rather than being a fixed value. This means that 50% charge on your SoC meter is slowly going to actually be 40% charge after some time and it’ll go lower than that. And 2) if you count amps out, and count amps in and estimate the amount lost to battery inefficiencies (Peukert constant) which is what they all do, you get a slight error on every discharge cycle until fully charged again. This slight error is additive over time and will keep getting worse until the system is brought back to a 100% charge to get the error reset. The combined impact of these hard to predict error rates limits the accuracy of SoC meters.
For the above reasons, I’m not a huge fan of SoC meters and even though we have many SoC meters on the boat, we know longer display any of them and only use SoC measurement to have the system automatically start and stop generator. And, even there, I don’t find the SoC data that accurate so I autostart on max voltage over the trailing 15 min and autostop when battery acceptance amperage drops below a threshold. I’m not against SoC meters but we have ended up not using SoC meters on Dirona. Most people we know both use and like SoC meters so our perspective definitely in the minority. Hopefully someone else can comment on the Balmar SG200.
Well, I am in your minority group. They say that the Balmar SG200 will find age capacity reductions, it will work these into the displayed SoC and SoH information, and even after very many charge cycles to less than 100%, it will display an error which always remains below a maximum of 3% away from reality. Sounds miraculous.
That is almost too good to be true. Exciting. I read through the manual and the SG200 appears to be a closed system without NMEA0183 or NMEA2000 output. That ended the enthusiasm for me in that, if it can’t be used to trigger autostart or send data to other control or display systems on the boat, then it’s not very useful (at least to me).
If they produced data consumable by the rest of the boat systems, I would be much more interested in it.
Hi All,
I used an Electromaax alternator on my former sailboat and loved it. I used their serpentine belt conversion kit on the Yanmar engine which went together perfectly, and the alternator ran flawlessly. I found the company a pleasure to work with, and the products were outstanding.
As to the SG200, I tried one of those on my new Nordhavn and found it disappointing. As James pointed out, it’s a closed system. That’s a pretty much fatal strike for me as well, but performance was not great, it lost its configuration once and I had to reprogram it, programming was kind of clunky with their one-button interface, and I think the shunts are a bit undersized. I killed one shunt probably due to overheat from too much current; I think their maximum peak (short duration) current spec may be too generous for their design, but unfortunately perhaps too lacking for my demands.
I switched all my current/battery monitoring over to Mastervolt using Mastershunts and DC Distribution gadgets and I’m very happy with those. But I also agree with James on the dubious value of SoC metering. I use it mainly for the entertainment value, and of course I want to see the actual current on the battery so the necessary shunt provides me with that value regardless of metering SoC.
Mastervolt is not the easiest thing to interface onto our N2K networks but there is a device to do that and I finally found one and it works great.
Victron also makes similar battery monitoring gear and their devices are much easier to to interface to N2K. They even have a 1000A shunt! The largest Mastervolt has is 500A but you can parallel them for more capacity.
Awesome. Thanks for your experience with the SG200 Chris. Also a good point on the SG200 shunt rating being low (and that even within that rating, it might not be able to manage continuous running at near the rated load).
Thanks from me as well for your input, Chris. Very helpful. So I will keep my existing battery monitor – it has the latest technology, similar to the Victron, and I will live with its limited information value.
Looking at the amount of work this alternator upgrade project creates – I actually found a lot of things in most of the “heavy wires” dc installations on board my Sabre 42, which desperately needed to be upgraded. Talking of battery to charger / to engine starters / to switchboards cables and cable terminations here.
My boat was built in 2004. I now installed about 15 additional overload protection fuses, I upgraded about 35m of heavy cable, which means that 70 cable terminal swages had to be done, and I added 3 pieces of busbars, for an improved cable organisation, and for more safety. This bit actually took a lot more time and effort than the alternator and their output cables upgrade itself.
Don’t want to think about how many thousands of boats are out there that would desperately require this kind of safety upgrades as well.
That is a big project but, as you said, it’s super important to get it right. The current levels in modern electrical systems can be very high. When we are charging at full rated output, we’re charging at 250V. And, just the 240V inverter alone can draw 250A and for shore periods it can draw more than 350A. And, of course, even higher current can be expected on component or insulation failure. I’m sure you are correct that many boats out there are not properly protected against over current.
Dear James,
Please allow me to challenge your technical knowledge …
Last weekend a marine surveyor pointed me to potential problems with 120V 60Hz shore power in the USA.
I have a Victron 8kVA quattro charger/inverter on board, that will accept 180-265Vac at 45-65Hz, and outputs 240V at the same frequency as the input. Input into the Victron is generator or shore power.
Would a Victron autotransformer be the answer to step up the US shore power? What with the frequency? Would my washing machine and dryer suffer?
Alternative would be to add a 110V battery charger (eg Victron phoenix) , and run all my 240V appliances from the Quattro inverter, without using its charger part. This would solve the frequency issue.
Most US marina power is 50A at 240V 60hz so the Victron will see voltage and frequency within it’s correct operating range and it’ll produce 24V (or 12V if you are a 12V boat) so it’ll charge fine. But, as you point out, it’ll also be delivering 240V 60hz to the boat 240V system and you definitely don’t want that (assuming your boat is a 50hz boat). You have a couple of alternatives:
1) use dedicated chargers that can accept 50hz or 60hz and charge properly and then have a separate inverter for your house systems. When plugged into a frequency incompatible with the boat internal systems, you need to switch off the breaker that feeds the inverter so it’s not charging (and feeding an incompatible frequency to the boat). When plugged into a boat compatible frequency (shore or gen), the inverter can be switch on. This is the approach we take: https://mvdirona.com/2014/08/a-more-flexible-power-system-for-dirona/. This is effectively the suggestion you made at the end of your question.
2) put an frequency converter (ABB Atlas are examples) so the boat always has the correct frequency. This is expensive but common on big boats. Personally I find it less flexible.
Above I explained that the most common shore power configuration is 50A @ 240V 60hz but small marinas/slips may only be equipped with 30A @ 120V. We’ve only used this 4 or 5 times in 11 years but it’s nice to be able to handle it. Our approach is to transform up to 15A @ 240V 60hz which works OK but the power losses in the transformer means you only get around 14A which is fine but not a lot of power. We support this approach but we also have a connector that takes two opposite phase 30A@120V shore power connections and produces 30A@240V 60hz. This needs to be done by an approved device but they exist. For example: https://www.hubbell.com/hubbell/en/Products/Electrical-Electronic/Marine-Products/Molded-Adapters/YQ230/p/1631060. We love this configuration because it gives 30A at 240V.
We have a large variety of plugs to allow us to plug in all over the world.
Some other example configurations out there that might matter depending upon where you go: Tahiti 240V@60hz, South Africa 220V@50hz. We’ve not been there by boat but I’m told that some parts of Japan are 60hz and some are 50hz.
Hi Spitfire & crew, check out the new N51 twin 160hp jd model. Bigger sister of the N41. Another Turkish delight. Very cool!
Nice looking boat! 320 HP should move impressively quickly and that engine seems to run very well at low load so it’s probably going to be quite efficient at lower speeds as well. The boat should sell well.
Seems to be missing the Portuguese bridge. Thumbs down if that’s true.
Hi James and Jennifer,
A happy new year from Monara in Antwerp.
Monara is scheduled to leave on a world tour on July 1st, and we would love to show our location to our family and friends. We have an Iridium Go on board, which allows GPS tracking.
What system do you use to track Dirona along your trip?
Hello from Dirona in Bergen! Congratulations on your plans to do a world tour starting this summer. That sounds exciting. Our trip has been an amazing experience.
For tracking, we recommend Spot (https://www.findmespot.com/en-us/) or Inreach (https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/p/561269). They produce good results and we have seen cruisers using Spot with very nice embedded maps. The systems seems pretty good and it gets good reviews but we’ve not used it ourselves. What we use on Dirona tracks is produced by custom software that is primarily used for other purposes — the tracks produced are just a side effect of a broader system. This software takes all data off boat-wide NMEA2000 data communications bus and stores it in a database every 5 seconds. This data includes all data from all the main engine, wing engine, generator, all electrical systems, all navigation systems, the electrical systems, and many other discrete devices in the boat. The data in the database data is used by other custom software systems to track historical changes, alert on problems, set indicator lights, send warning email, auto-start the generator when the battery discharge, shed power load when starting to reach the limits of the current boat power source, etc. A small part of this data is auto-uploaded to the web site to show the track on the map at http://mvdirona.com/maps using a combination of google maps and custom code shown inside WordPress (the blog software).
I have a SpotX which I’ve been using for about 6 months. I’m very disappointed in this device. A lot of boaters are drawn to it for its low entry price and low subscription cost but it is really not suited for continuous duty boat tracking. There are two main problems with it in this scenario: 1) it’s a handheld device that needs a clear view of the sky. I don’t think it will be reliable if kept indoors while it is expected to be pinging the satellites. 2) This is the major failing here: it is programmed to go to sleep and stop communicating at every opportunity and there is no configuration option to avoid this. To wake up it needs to see a significant jerky acceleration, like it would experience while being carried by a walking human. Because that is exactly the use case that it is designed for. Recently I ran my boat all day across a 35 mile leg in very calm conditions. My ideal boating day. The stupid SpotX went to sleep on the flybridge shortly after I put it there and didn’t send a single position report the entire trip. I talked to the Spot support person about this and he confirmed this is how it works and that there is no way to change it.
So I’ve got a new YB3i from PredictWind, which is a fixed mount, powered (no batteries), continuous duty tracker that uses the Iridium network and integrates into your PredictWind subscription for track mapping (additional subscription fees for the tracker service apply). A bit less than the Iridium Go if you’re willing to give up voice/text communications, or already have that covered using another piece of tech.
Other friends of mine are using the Go and it works great too, also integrates with PredictWind.
Don’t get a Spot. Your friends will think you sank without a trace 10 minutes after departure.
Thanks for the tracking recommendations Chris. It’s good to have up-to-date experience. We’ll recommend Iridium Go or Predict Wind YB3i. Reading through the information on both, they look quite good.
Thank you for that info Chris. I’ll install the Iridium Go with the external antenna, and was planning to use the Predictwind service for weather forecasts anyway, so we’ll be safe on that side.
I’ve been pretty happy with a Delorme Inreach (now part of Garmin) for tracking and messaging. It stays running for months on end plugged into a USB port and suction cupped to a pilothouse window. Occasionally it needs rebooting. I like the messaging app better than Iridium Go. And it’s easy to throw into a dry bag for dinghy trips or a pocket for hiking.
Thanks for the data point on Delorme Inreach Sam!
Hello james and jennifer Dirona is life in bergen see
https://www.bt.no/nyheter/i/Ja9Lm/vaagen
Absolutely! We are enjoying the snow and taking the opportunity to pick up full load of diesel, gasoline, groceries, and picking up a parcel.
Hello from Thailand… where its warm!
Glad to see your okay.
I enjoy your maintenance videos
Hello from Norway where we are surrounded in snow (https://mvdirona.com) and it’s definitely cooler than Thailand :-). Thanks for the feedback on the videos.
With more dark hours than light hours and cruising in the dark so you can be anchored when the sun comes up I believe it is prime for a video that can help so many of us. A video on cruising in the evening. Radar, spot light, instrument lighting, no moon/full moon. You have acquired some really great night time experience in tight quarters (as well as open seas).
I know you are busy folk with work and navigating, but I would enjoy learning from your experience.
That’s a really excellent suggestion. Both Jennifer and I think it’s a great idea. We’ll plan to do it a night time operations video. Thanks for the good idea.
James & Jennifer; you made the case for installing stabilizers and the matter is settled to the delight of my co-skipper. You bet there will be more than a glass of wine when you show up at our doorsteps! We thank you as well for your other recommendations. We learned the hard way that one disrespects the sea (and Lake Michigan!) at one’s peril and will be careful during our crossings.
Jan-kees; thank you for your comment. We choose a Linssen primarily to cruise the waterways and attempt La Grande Boucle in Europe. But the lure of the Norwegian fjords is somehow irresistible. Why else would the Hamiltons spend a dark winter there…
All the best. Ed & Sabine
Dark? Are you kidding Ed? The shortest day in Trondheim was 5 hours of blistering hot sun :-).
We agree with your assessment. Norway is truly worth visiting. Jan has also been working on us to do inland river and canal cruising but, as he said, our current boat isn’t the right platform for many of those trips. We were able to do the Crinan Canal, the Caledonian Canal, and Amsterdam to Antwerp but most of the canals need a boat with both less air draft and sea draft. Between wanting to do the great circle and being interested in the European waterways, we might actually end up with a second boat or if we are ever willing to give up on longer range coastal boat travel and ocean crossings.
And thank you Jan for raising our interest in the European inland waterways.
Thank you for allowing us to follow your wonderful journey. You inspired many, among them this French couple, to buy a boat and embark on admittedly more modest adventures on both sides of the Atlantic. Our 32’ Halvorsen completed the Great Loop and is now cruising the Western Med while we await delivery of a Linssen 40AC. Two questions if we may: creature comforts aside, can we, in your opinion, cruise safely from Holland to Norway, then spend time as you did in Norway’s fjords, in such a boat? The second one is about stabilizers. We still have time to tick this option, adding about 10% to the cost of the build. We were ready to do it after too many miles on our floating cork. Then someone with far less experience than you have, told us that northern Europe’s waters were more comfortable. Your thoughts?
Last, but we hope not least; when you make it to our beautiful shores (Cannes), please make yourself available for a fine meal. The neighbors claim I have the best wine cellar around!
Safe travels and all the best for this New Year. Ed & Sabine
You’ve already done a lot of cruising and your new boat looks like a good, strong vessel. It’ll do fine cruising the inland waterways of Norway. We often don’t even bother to turn on our stabilizers when operating in this area. But, the North Sea between Norway and Holland can be very rough. Particularly the German Bight and just south of Norway. This area can get rough enough to have disable mid-sized cruise ships and cause container ships to loose containers. Care is required in these waters but, with careful timing, you’ll have no trouble finding the right weather for a safe passage in your boat. We seen these areas in near flat water but we have also been in these areas when it’s rough enough to require care when moving around in the boat. You don’t want to be out in bad days in your boat but it’ll do great if you choose the right weather and is totally capable of making the trip and being comfortable.
On stabilizers, they are nice to have and really make the boat much more comfortable when in a heavy swell but, in the last month, we’ve probably only used them 1/4 of the time and it would never have been uncomfortable without them. But, over the years, we have seen a great many days where we did need them. If you want to cruise the west coast of Ireland, the off shore islands of Norway, the west coast of Germany, Holland, Belgium and France, you’ll prefer to have stabilizers. If you are willing to avoid these area or chose your weather well, you’ll be fine without stabilizers. If you are wiling to take heavy rolling on the less calm days, you’ll be perfectly safe without stabilizers. It’s a Class B boat so you’ll want to avoid the very rough stuff even with stabilizers. If you are mostly focused on inland cruising, you don’t need stabilizers. It really depends on where you want to go, how sensitive you and your family are, and how much a bit of extra comfort is worth to you. Given the price delta you report, I understand why you are giving it careful thought.
We personally wouldn’t want to do our trip without stabilizers but, as you said, our trip is a bigger one that is exposed to a wider variety of conditions than you currently plan.
Thanks for the invitation to Cannes. It’s already a pretty attractive location even before introducing your wine cellar :-). We would love to visit, have a glass of wine, and talk boats and world cruising.
Ed
I see you have doen the great loop, now with a Linssen, have you not pondered the European inland waterways?
Having done only the loop from Ohio to Jacksonville, it was no comparison to the thousands of waterways and rivers in Europe.
Yes we have nudged James and Jennifer, but their boat is just not suited for it.
They did do a the canals from Amsterdam to Antwerp and they also did the Gota Canal. Stabilizers are not needed on the canal and rivers, and if you want to, you can go from Maasbracht, where you wil probably pick up your yacht, al the way to the baltic sea and even to Moscow. But the canals and rivers in Holland, Belgium, France and Germany give you many more times the mileage of the loop with much more interesting views.
Good cruising
Ed,
From Holland to Norway, instead of the direct route along the exposed west coast of Denmark, you could choose to go via the North Sea canal to Kiel. From there east of Denmark up to Norway. Then you avoid most of the North Sea.
Your Linssen is more than good enough for this.
That’s a good point that much of the offshore portion of the trip can be skipped using the Kiel Canal. And, the Canal is kind of a fun adventure as well. Thanks!
James
Happy New Year to yourself and Jennifer
What are the specs of your battery tester, please.
Many thanks
PS How is your Norwegian coming along :)
PPS You are very fortunate not to be under lockdown
Happy New Year Rod! Norwegian’s almost always speak excellent English so we can’t say our Norwegian is improving but we’re really enjoying our time here.
The battery tester is a Midtronics MDX-640 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002YKPXQA).
happy new year 2021 James and Jennifer hope it will be a year of adventure’s for you thank you for sharing your travels on the blog
Thanks, we appreciate the feedback. Happy new year from Jennifer and James.
Hallo Jennifer and James Hamilton! I found the Dirona on Geirang’s webcam! I wish you a nice day. https://youtu.be/yMSc-qqW3To
Thanks! The weather is nice and clear. It’s a bit chilly at 38F but without any wind at all it feels surprisingly warm. We’re really going to enjoy New Years Eve here.
look at this livewebcam dirona look very good https://www.geirangerfjord.no/webcamera
enjoy
Thanks for pointing out the webcam. It looks great. This is our third time in Geiranger and it’s still amazing!
You have a great web site. Very interesting to follow your adventure. Question I have is what the pink dots, blue dots, pink line , and blue line represent. I figure the dots are either walking with AIS and blue dots are dingy adventures?
We probably should find a way to document that better somewhere. The solid lines are trips made by us on the boat. The dotted lines are trips made by us without the boat. And, the colors differentiate trips from different years.
Hi. Observed a boat on the fjord and found you on AIS and Google.
Tip for you to visit in Romsdalsfjord. Veøy and Hjertøy
62°40.504’N • 7°26.014’E
62°43.054’N • 7°10.286’E
Thanks for the suggestion of Ramsdalfjord. We appreciate the advice and we were there in 2018 and really enjoyed it.
Great stuff!
In Norway during solstice has to be night cruising most of the time. Great you are living your dream!
It’s true we are moving frequently at night. For example, it’s currently 10am as a write this and we just dropped anchor as the sun rises. We’ll now have 5 hours of light to explore the area. It works pretty well but the days are short.
Hi
You were visiting Vanylvs fjord before Christmas. I took a picture of you when you passed the pier with my boat at the quay. Very nice boat you have, You also landed in our local newspaper, >> Synste Møre :-) You were by Slagnes. Inside Åheim, they will start on the world’s first boat tunnel that will go through the mountains. The Norwegian Coastal Administration will start blasting holes in the rock next year. size of tunnel shall be room for vessels of 20,000 DVT. The tunnel will be completed in 3.5 years. When the tunnel is finished, vessels do not have to go past Stadt in bad weather. >> Attaches link.
Hope you have a nice trip and that Covid 19 is soon over, then it will be easier for everyone to take a trip and visit people etc. I traveled to work in the North Sea where I work as Chief Engineer at a larger PSV and I have celebrated Christmas on board. There will be a lot of flipping in photos from the boat holiday last summer and autumn. I am planning the next trip on the west coast of Norway. Norway does not work anything along the coast for boats until May. But when it is boating season, there are many vessels along the coast.
Hope you had a nice Christmas and have an even better New Year.
https://www.kystverket.no/Maritim-infrastruktur/Utbygging-av-fiskerihavner-og-farleder/Stad_skipstunnel/
Nice article in Synste Møre (https://synste.no/2020/12/12/pa-battur-i-atte-ar/). Thanks for mentioning it.
I’ll bet the engine room of the PSV you work on is pretty interesting. They are usually very well equipped ships.
Happy New Year and all the best in 2021.
Happy Holidays Hamilton Family! I have been following the Dirona for many years and have been so inspired by your travels. I curate a podcast called Device Nation and would love to have you on the show to talk about the path that got you here and what you’re passionate about now. A phone call is all! I hope you say yes as I know my audience (as would I) would LOVE to hear your story!!
Between work, the blog, and the adventure, I’m pretty close to tapped out so can’t do the podcast but thanks for the invitation and all the best in 2021.
Some days I feel lucky if I make it from my bed to the coffee machine in the morning.
Hallo from Germany! Dirona live in Kristiansund!
https://youtu.be/nF-EXXRVt-c
An even better web cam angle! Thanks for finding that Ulrich and Merry Christmas from Dirona!
may I say dirona can be seen on the Kristiansund Sentrum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7Hc38fXxYw
and merry christmas to dirona and all viewers of the blog
thank you
Merry Christmas to you as well James and thanks for the pointer to the Kristiansund webcam. Looking “back in time” on the webcam, you can see us arriving in the dark earlier this morning. Thanks for pointing out the webcam.
your welcome
Marry Christmas Dirona!
Thanks and Merry Christmas to you as well!
Dirona can be seen in Trondheim
https://tsftp.no/Trondheim/cam63_1.jpg
Michel
Love it. Nice resolution and the light is nice right now. Thanks for sending our way!
Hi,
I grew up in Laerdal, at the end of Sognefjord , north of Bergen. That would be a awesome trip. Hope you make it to the Wild Salmon Center. Say Hi to my sisters.
Erik Brors
We had a great time in Laerdal but the Wild Salmon Center isn’t open in the winter so we couldn’t visit. You’re right, the Sognefjord was pretty cool. Amazing views.
Hi J and J. Have you considered wearing ski goggles on your colder 32 knot tender trips? I find them useful in Seattle now and then. ps, we still ask for the “Dirona” slip at Bell Harbor.
It’s funny you should suggest that. On our last trip we were just talking about googles probably helping when it’s this cold and we do plan to do it. Thanks for the suggestion. The “Dirona” slip at Bell Harbor! That’s just great. We’ve seen a lot of great moorage locations around the world but our stay at Bell Harbor still ranks in the top 10 to 15%
J and J, have you given any consideration to a diesel outboard? I’ve been told it’s just not worth it but the thought of having a single source of fuel onboard is appealing.
We’ve looked at diesel outboards since carrying gasoline is a slight hassle and care needs to be taken when handling it. But, the power to weight ratio of gas engines is absolutely amazing when compared to diesels. Our 50hp Honda outboard is only 214 lbs and staying light keeps the tender fast. It’ll do 32 kts (37 MPH). Diesels are very heavy, expensive and there aren’t many options in the small horsepower ranges.
Moving to a single fuel on Dirona would be attractive but it comes with so many compromises that are hard to accept, we carry enough gas that we don’t need to fill often and we haven’t found gas hard to find.
Hi
may I ask would there be a post about deck equipment onboard dirona
thank you
James
We’ve been talking about doing a video on the systems. We think it’s worth doing but just haven’t found the spare time to bring it together but we will do it. Thanks for the suggestion.
your welcome it would be interesting to see
thank you
James
merry christmas and a happy new year to jennifer and James hamilton spitfire and all viewers
hello Jennifer and James and spitfire
in the next year or two I’m planning a cruising trip to norway may I ask any tips on finding petrol in norway the vessel I have has a 136 liter or 36gal fuel tank and for longer trips I have 10 spare tanks 5 liters each I’ve had 25-30 nm on a ful tank
thank you
Merry christmas and a happy new year
We only fill up very rarely so haven’t a lot of personal experience and when we get fuel, it’s often by having a truck deliver it. We usually 3 to 4 times only because we carry a lot of fuel (6624 liters). However, the good news is that Norway has small settlements just about everywhere and nearly everyone seems to have a boat. Consequently many settlements have fuel available and settlements are all over along the coast. Most of Norway’s fuel stops are without attendants. You just need a credit card and you can buy fuel there 24×7. These fuel stops are very plentiful. And you are willing to carry your gas cans a block or two, then most towns of any size can be fuel stops for you even if there isn’t a marine stop in that area.
thank you for the information James
Hello James and Jennifer,
Your site and stories are the highlight of my day. Thanks for sharing your stories and adventures.
I have been looking for the story of when you made a crossing and hit really bad weather and took a big
hit to Dirona. Could you please direct me to that story if there is one?
hi doug
click on topics and select nordhavn and at the top in the cruising section is the information regarding 69.1 degrees it maybe the post your looking for
James suggestion is an excellent one. The shortcut to that video is at:
https://mvdirona.com/2014/09/69-1-degrees/
We had a mechanical problem on our North Atlantic crossing that made it a more difficult than expected trip. That write-up is at:
https://mvdirona.com/2017/05/alarms-at-115am/
And our planned follow up work is at:
https://mvdirona.com/2017/12/alarms-at-115am-follow-up/
Hi James & Jennifer,
I can’t help but notice…in the Spare Cat photo, should the floor panel closest to the photographer be rotated 180deg? Looks like the lines on the Teak & Holly would align better (assuming they were aligned from the factory!)? Sorry, just my OCD catching things!
Yes, the woodwork does align. The cover is only temporarily re-installed as we work.
Hi!
It`s good to see you back i Norway again!
Just a tip: 0.5 NM NNW of your current position is a great hotel you should see. Håholmen (link: https://nb-no.facebook.com/HaholmenHavstuer/) is an old place converted to a hotel and museum. They have the remaining parts of the replika viking ship Saga Siglar which sank in the Mediterranean Sea. It`s a beautiful place, althoug I have only been there in the summer.
Another tip which is a bit more north of you, Grip (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grip,_Norway) (63.2195N 7.5931E) Also a very beautiful place, but again I have only been there in the summer. No one lives the during the winter, but it is so special that I think it is still worth the trip.
Regards,
Stig
Thanks for sending along both recommendations. Some of the best experiences of our world-wide cruise have come from reader recommendations. Thanks!
Hi James and Jennifer, Thanks for all the great posts of your adventures and preparations as well. So useful and I love seeing your adventures. I have adapted your maintenance spreadsheet to our boat. Lots of work to get it set up, but provides such useful tracking. A couple of questions. We are traveling with two cats, Nikki and Chicha. What is your planning in case you need to abandon ship? Do you have preservers for them?
Secondly, I’m trying to figure out a good method for managing our tracks and sharing that information in my online journal. Could you provide some insights on how you are managing yours?
Thanks!
Glad you are finding the spreadsheet useful. For Spitfire, we don’t have a life preserver. It’s hard to get him into anything and just about impossible to keep him in anything if he is in a panic and we’re not sure we will have time. If he’s scared though, he will trust me and cling to my chest so our plan is to put him underneath our winter flotation suits. You an see the Mustang 2175 in the picture at the end of this article: https://mvdirona.com/TechnicalArticles/PY_JAN06_WINTER_CRUISING.pdf.
For tracking, we recommend Spot (https://www.findmespot.com/en-us/) or Inreach (https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/p/561269). They produce good results and we have seen cruisers using Spot with very nice embedded maps. The system seems pretty good and gets good reviews but we’ve not used it ourselves. What we use is an more complex integrated system where we have written custom software that stores 100s of data points every 5 seconds in a database. This includes all engine, navigation, power, weather, and location data. A subset of that data is uploaded to the web site automatically for display.
Thanks James for the reply. We can usually get our cats into carriers, but those live in a compartment under the bed. Not easy access in a hurry. Our cats will cling to us us well. Your idea of carrying them that way may be a better option. We can get them to wear harnesses, but they have no flotation and perhaps that is not the biggest issue. If we can get to our life raft or dinghy, being in a warm spot may be more important. Will think on that more.
Funny that you mention SPOT. I have a Spot Trace and our Kady Krogen does not seem to have enough motion to wake it up after sleeping at a marina or anchorage. I’ve been in contact with them, installed their greater sensitivity tool and even had them send me a new one. I have tried locations all over the boat to no avail. I typically have to power cycle it every time to wake it up. It would be a good tool if I could get it to work… I’ll keep fiddling and do some additional searching.
Certainly flotation for cats is available (https://www.amazon.com/s?k=cat+floatation+vest&ref=nb_sb_noss_2). One of the biggest problems with lower cost human floatation aids is not all keep the head above the water. I have no idea how cat floatation vests due by that measure. There is no certifying authority and testing would be cruel. It wasn’t the direction we took but might be a good solution. We just don’t know.
On your unhappiness with Spot Trace, the Trace is designed to track personal assets. It’s not the choice for people I know that have chosen Spot devices but it appears to be supported by both the Spot Basic and Flex Basic plans so it might work for your needs. However, I believe you need one of these plans and a device support by the chosen plan in order to get the tracking support you want. These plans offer Basic tracking with 5, 10, 30, and 60 min check-in supported (https://www.findmespot.com/en-us/products-services/service-plans#spot-gen4-plans). Either plan using a 5 min check in would yeild a reasonably high resolution track.
Hi James, Yes I’d hate the do the kitty head above the water flotation test. My kittens would disown me!
Regarding Spot, I have the Spot Basic plan currently. When I reboot, it mostly tracks, but seems useless for asset tracking as it never turns on without me rebooting. Of the folks you know using Spot, which device are they successfully using?
My read of the Spot Basic plan is that it should work for you. I’ve not heard the “reboot required” complaint before and don’t know if the reboot problem exists with other Spot devices. Good luck with getting the tracking you want.
J and J: Am a bit confused with your recent posting of photos in the Highlights section of Dirona.com where all are being tagged with the same date, namely 10/20/2020
You are not 2 months behind in posting photos are you? :)
Merry Xmas
Yes, we are 2 months behind. The map always shows our current location but the trip log and blog entries are written as we have time and we are running way late. We expected cold weather and short daylight hours in the Norwegian winter would have us fully caught up and looking for things to do but we’re having a ball and keeping very busy.
It’ll certainly rain soon and we’ll get closer to caught up :-).
Love your videos! Thank you for sharing a wealth of knowledge with those of us that hope to travel like this someday! Loved your trip near Amsterdam. What do you use for your four camera view and how do you edit that into your videos? Have a Merry Christmas!!
Yes, you are right. Travelling by small boat is a wonderful way to see the world. For cameras we have many Reolink Dome cameras (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FQ2T89L) throughout the boat (6 outside and 2 inside). For video editing use use Adobe Premier Elements 15. Thanks for the video feedback and happy holidays.
Well I am jealous, on your tender track you went by our boat on the hard at Ulsteinvik Marine. Right behind the two very large supply boats. The whole area is a Gem. Hoping to be able to return in the spring.
It’s a wonderful area. Hope you can return to it in the spring as planned.
Will you have a stop in Kristiansund? If so, you are welcome for a beer on board my boat Fridtjofen, which was built for University of Bergen as a research vessel in 1955.
Thanks for the kind offer. We’re really enjoying having absolutely no plans or schedule and just continuing to explore north. My expectation is there is a very good chance we would make it as far north as Kristiansund. All the best!
Cruising along the coast with no plans or schedule sounds good :) Just send me a message if you come to Kristiansund and would like to visit Fridtjofen. Best regards. Egil
You could spend a lifetime on the Norwegian coastline and never see it all. We’re loving it.
Team Hamilton. I am gaining the necessary confidence and approval :) for an ocean bound adventure trip and looking at both the Nordhavn 52 and 60’s. Curious if you had insight on this topic and if you looked at the n60 prior to selecting the n52? I plan to buy a hull that is capable of a world adventure, but do not want to buy a boat bigger than necessary. There is little discussion on this topic i can find so appreciate your thoughts. Safe Travels. Chris
When we were in the boat market, we looked at Nordavn, Kady Krogan, and Selene and ended up deciding the Nordhavn was the best choice for us. The Selene was less expensive than the Nordhavn and that was attractive but the cost of equipping it the way we wanted the boat for world cruising narrowed the gap considerably. With the effective prices very near, we decided we preferred the Nordhavn. In the Nordhavn line we looked at the 40, 43, 47, and 55 since neither the 52 nor the 60 where yet available. Since the boat was going to be our home and we were going to be on the boat 365 days a year without an apartment or house, we concluded the N40 was too small and with a fairly short waterline length, it’s also too slow for our tastes. We tried hard to make the N43 work but ended up concluding it just wasn’t quite big enough and we liked the additional fuel capacity and cruising speed of the 47. The N55 seemed bigger than we needed and we found it optically a bit vertical. While under contract for the N47 but before it had been started we gave serious consideration to a N55 that had been started but the buyer had elected to back away from the purchase. We again, decided to stay with the N47. We were shown the N52 drawings around the same time and we fell in love with it. The two most important features from our perspective was the additional space in the cockpit — we love spending time outside and are outside daily even in the winter in Norway where we are right now. The second feature that attracted us to the N52 was it carried an additional 200 gallons of fuel over the N47. We elected to upgrade our N47 build to the N52 and that’s where we ended up.
More information on our decision process and choices can be founded here: https://mvdirona.com/blog/content/binary/Hamilton_TF10_BuildingTrawlerWebPost.pdf.
The N55 was later upgraded to N60 and we find the 60 a much more attractive boat than it’s predecessor the N55. The stretch took away some of the vertical look of the N55. We find the N60 very attractive and really like the floor plan. We are also attracted to the twin engine configuration available on the N60 with two John Deere 4045s. If we were to build a boat today we would be choosing between the N60 and the N52 with the N60 having the advantages of twin engines, more fuel, and a better floor plan. The N52 has a significant advantage on price and is big enough for us. It’s hard to say where we would end up but I suspect we might do the N60. It mostly would come down to economics and value as they are both great boats.
Thank you so much for the thorough response and great perspective. I am trying to get on board an N52 in Seattle soon as i think the size, capabilities and style are right for us as well. the N47 felt a bit small and the N60 seemed like more than we needed for a crew of 2. We would like to follow your footsteps someday on a major circumnavigation, but in the meantime plan to use the boat for extended journeys (1-2 weeks) and long weekends. While we may not cross paths in Norway (love the blog BTW), we hope to meet you and Jennifer down the “channel”. Merry Christmas.
That sounds like a great plan. We did something similar where we got Dirona years before planning to retire so it would be setup the way we want when retirement came. We ended up starting the big cruise before retirement and I ended up not retiring when I expected we would. Plans have changed all over the place but no regrets. The boat has been an amazing adventure platform and a good home.
The loss of KNM Helge Ingstad
On this site you will find a list of preventable accidents involving navy ships:
https://www.savetheroyalnavy.org/why-do-peacetime-naval-accidents-keep-happening/
That’s a great summary of Naval warship accidents over the last couple of years. I agree with the author that the list is surprisingly long. From my perspective, the practice of navigating without AIS when not in wartime operations is needless risky and gives up information that can really help avoid collisions. AIS clearly isn’t required to avoid accidents but, when mistakes are being made, it might be the difference between a close call caused by a few bad decisions and a collision.
Thanks for pointing out the article.
Watch out for this guy:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sTB64SZFgI
He can do 17 Kts submerged.
As long as he stays submerged, we’ll get along fine! :-)
James, Jennifer and Spitfire,
I hope you’re having a great time in Norway. Every once in a while I enjoy spending a few hours on your website, living vicariously through your travels and adventures.
Don’t most rational sailors head down to the Caribbean about now?
Be well.
Kevin
Hey Kevin. Great hearing from you. You asked “don’t most rational sailors head south about now”. Of course, you are right but we have bound sailing without rational sailors is more interesting. Norway in the winter is an all new adventure. We’re loving it. It’s not warm, the days are short, the wind can kick up but the natural beauty is truly amazing. Hopefully I’ll be back to doing air travel again next year and we can catch up in Seattle over lunch, a drink, or whatever. It’s been way too long.
Dear Mr. Hamilton,
I own a Botnia Targa 44 with Furuno navigation equipment on board. Last week my Hatteland displays showed black screens and after some fault finding I have come to the conclusion that it must be the graphics card in the MFDBB. When I googled I found that you had similar challenges with your Furuno Graphics Card. In https://mvdirona.com/2015/10/thank-you-plug-n-play/ you wrote that you replaced it with NVIDIA 6200 Card, but that the exact card would have been NVIDIA 7600. Question 1: Do you have the exact NVIDIA 6200 specification? Question 2: I can get my hand on a Asus EN7600 GT/2DHT/256Mb a NVIDIA 7600 clone did you have tried these as well or only the NVIDIA 6200 card?
The good thing of the very extremely annoying failure of my navigation equipment onboard is that I stumbled on you site. We are now watching your videos on youtube they truly great! Loved the one over “De Staande Mast Route”
Amsterdam to Antwerp by Canal. I live in Amsterdam and Medemblik The Netherlands.
Kind Regards,
Antonius Welling
Sorry to hear you are having troubles with your Furuno graphics card. I recommend plugging your Hatteland monitors into a PC to confirm they are still working since that’s a far easier problem than opening up the MFDBB. The Furuno NN3D MFDBB, when it was in production used a Elsa Gladiac 776 GS and the specs of that out-of-production card is here: https://www.gpuzoo.com/GPU-ELSA/GLADIAC_776_GS_256MB_-_GD776-256ERGS.html. Given that the MFDBB runs Windows XP it may be possible to get it to load different graphics drivers based upon what was installed when Furuno prepared the build image. Or the device driver they are using may support a wide variety of graphics adapters. There is no way to know other than to to try it.
To minimize the time invested in this project, I would try to match the Elsa Gladiac as close as possible and I would only look at cards based upon the Nvidia GeForce 7600 (https://www.gpuzoo.com/GPU-NVIDIA/GeForce_7600_GS_DDR2.html). You could try clones but just using an adapter with the exact and correct Nvidia part seems like a better path to me. Best of luck and thanks for the feedback on the video.
Thank you for the swift reply and good advice really appreciate it,…. i am off tinkering now…
Best of luck. I found the MFDBB would boot Linux off a USB so I used that to debug the hardware and then brought up the Furuno/WinXP stack and it worked pretty well and wasn’t that painful to deal with. Hope you quickly get good results.
Hi,
I noticed your beautiful boat today in Pollen.
Checked Maritime Traffic ?
I love your trip !
My holliday house is close to your position.
Please let me know if you need anything.
What a wonderful area for a holiday house. Thanks for the welcome and for the offer to help if we need anything. All the best from Dirona.
Happy Thanksgiving from California
Happy Thanksgiving to you as well.
I’m curious how you approach redundant sensors on your NMEA2000 network. The easy answer would seem to be “do the right device and data instance assignment”, but where I’m having the issue is with TimeZero. The only way TimeZero seems to support explicitly defing a ‘primary’ device is through the input port itself. But, that feels very much like the NMEA0183 world, where generally only a single device would come in over a given port, versus the NMEA2000 world where a single port can see the entire network. How have you approached getting TimeZero to prefer a specific data source?
It’s a mystery why engineering teams can’t really implement NMEA2000 instancing. It’s not that complex. Every PGN comes from a device and that device does have an instance number. For some PGNs the instance number is transmitted in the PGN so it’s really hard to figure out why many implementations don’t use it. For other PGNs, the PGN does not contain the instance number and you only know the CANbus source address and the CANbus source address isn’t stable (can change) so can’t be used directly to identify a device.
Fortunately a device on NMEA2000 can ask all devices to send their product information that includes instance number and lots of other data on the device. So, by holding state all PGNs do have an instance number either by having it directly in the PGN or by having the CANbus source address set and the reading program keeping the CANbus source address to instance number mapping.
One of the decisions made by CANbus and carried on by NMEA2000 is to not have instance numbers in each PGN. It makes it more complex to support instance numbers and the outcome is that many manufacturers won’t properly support them. The saving of a few bits isn’t worth it. Complexity of implementations go up and, when that happens, implementation quality will suffer.
That’s a long way of saying I 100% agree with you that the TimeZero implementation of NMEA doesn’t make it easy to support multiple devices. I work around these failings to get things working. In the case of Timezero, it’s been 10 years but, as I recall, TimeZero choses the SC-30 for heading and position on our network probably because the SC-30 has instance number 0 but it could just be fluke. Then, if that device goes away, they might use the next best they can find on the NMEA2000 network or they might fail over to the the secondary source configured in TimeZero.
Here’s how I set my secondary sources: For all data I have a NMEA0183 feed or data available from the Furuno NN3D network. It’s clumsy to configure a device to produce NMEA0183 output of a secondary position sensor that is already on the NMEA2000 network. But, it works and I can do it without getting on the phone with Timezero so, that’s the path I took. Clumsy but effective and not that hard to implement (but I agree it shouldn’t be necessary).
OK, so that aligns with my experience and frustration; I agree that in concept this all should be trivial to get right and it’s mind-boggling that software can’t be smarter about NMEA2000 instancing.
What do you use as your NMEA2000 to USB gateways? I have three of them that TimeZero can subscribe to, each one having its own issues:
Actisense NGT-1: It uses the lowest ‘Source ID’ for a given PGN. I’ve seen this change between devices whenever there is a state change on the network. For instance, sometimes when the network first starts up, TimeZero is preferring one device, but as soon as I start up N2KAnalyze, it shifts over to another device. Weird.
Vesper XB-8000 (this is our AIS transponder, but it is also a NMEA2000 gateway): This is the most dangerous one, as I’ve seen it send PGNs from multiple sources within a single second. The only way this one is safe to use if there is only one device at a given time for a given PGN. In practice I only use this one to get the AIS data (no need to send all that noise over the overall NMEA2000 network).
Maretron USB100: This one has the most promise, as it lets one set a specific devices to ‘offline’. Unfortunately, it is not playing well with the scenario I am trying to work with, where I have a Furuno SCX20 satellite compass, and I’m trying to ensure that is preferred over a NMEA2000 fluxgate compass I also have. It does not ‘remember’ that the fluxgate was supposed to be offline but it does for other devices. Of course even if this setup works, it isn’t truly working as a ‘standby’ as I would have to reconfigure the USB100 to bring a backup device online.
So at this point I either need to disconnect the fluxgate from the network when I am not using it (which is dangerous), or potentially partition my NMEA2000 network into ‘primary’ and ‘backup’ sensors. That seems to be what you have done, and that would work fine for TimeZero, but less so for other systems I have (such as the autopilot) that cannot connect to multiple NMEA2000 networks.
This should be so much easier than it is! It makes me tempted to write a new driver for one of these gateways that actually operates predictably and transparently.
There is no end to the exasperation and frustration with N2K and all these half implemented (at best) firmwares and drivers, and the whole architecture with all its poor decisions baked in. Nordhavn owners should band together and form a company, an LLC or whatever, with partners contributing capital to fund the purchase of the N2K spec (not cheap) and contributing engineering expertise to write software and build some hardware to solve a lot of these idiotic problems. Off the top of my head I could easily come up with a list of several interface devices, translator devices, etc that would be hugely beneficial to systems like ours that no one else in the commercial space seems to get right.
I would certainly be in on this. In fact I’m going to put this idea to some of the people on the NOG.
It’s true that many solutions are possible with custom software. A NMEA200 smart bridge that prioritizes the sources for different PGNs and flows the highest priority working source device PGNs would be quite welcome and not especially difficult to implement.
Your approach make sense Alec. My general take on this is NMEA2000 has all the tools needed to allow a really nice, fully redundant system to be constructed where each critical consuming client can have a hierarchy of receiving devices. But implementers haven’t implemented these facilities. I suspect that the vast majority of boaters and installers don’t care and really don’t equip there systems to be able to operate through failure so there isn’t great demand for this feature. Most systems have one of what is needed and, if something breaks, then it’s broken until service. What we are trying to do is less common. It should still work but it’s less common.
I see two possible approaches to what you want to achieve: 1) backup device are only connected to the bus on failure and 2) it would be possible to put all sensors on one network and all consumers on a different network and put a bridge between them that implemented the prioritization you want and flows the data from a single fixed sensor of each type and, if the primary goes away or has erratic or unreliable data, switch to secondary. This is work to write but it wouldn’t really be that much. You would need a system with two NMEA2000 adapters and you would effectively just be implementing a smart bridge.
I implemented the NMEA0183 version of this on my previous boat. In the course of one year we had two NMEA0183 multiplexer failures so I gave up and wrote one myself where all NMEA0183 sources flowed into a single embedded computer and a single flow of NMEA0183 flowed out to all consumers. That ran great for the next 8 years until we sold the boat. Never another glitch and, over time, I started storing all the data in a database. Then started displaying the data and alerting and alarming on it. Over the years, that system has evolved into what we currently use. So it would have been easy to write the smart NMEA2000 bridge that I described and we probably should have done it.
But, it’s work and we ended up with a hybrid approach where most devices are on the network and I’ve got the system stable so the same primaries are always chosen. There are fault modes that would require me to add or subtract devices so, in some cases, we wouldn’t have automatic failover but, we have the parts to work through failures, failures are rare, we can operate without any of the sensors for short periods. We took the easy way out and decided to just accept the poor job that was being done and work around the sharp edges rather than implement a fully custom solution but the latter could be done and would be a nice enough solution that I suspect there would be a commercial market for such a device. Overtime, manufacturers will learn to do a better job but embedded software changes somewhat slower than continental drift and it’ll take 15 to 20 years and many will never get there.
Thanks for passing on your experience Alec. That’s useful to know for us and others.
Of course; I hadn’t considered a smart bridge between ‘sensor’ and ‘computer’ NMEA2000 network. That’s a really good way to think about it, rather than putting the smarts in the PC/NMEA2000 gateway. I’ve been looking for a Raspberry Pi project and this feels like one that might fit the bill. If I come up with something useful I’ll put the code up on Github.
It would be an awesome Raspberry Pi project. Not too big a project but these sorts of jobs are full of mess management and, by the time it’s done, it’ll take a slice of time to get it all the way you want it. But, it would be wonderful to be able to have code that can be changed and updated easily and can detect devices going away or, for devices like sat compasses that often keep transmitting when they don’t have good location data, you can detect that as well. It would be highly cool.
Hello, i can see that you are currently ancored at Heggøy and i have a tiny farm on the other side of the island. Nobody is living there at the moment but it is used extensively during the summer as a retreat from the ordenary da to day life.
Safe journey
That’s great! We’re enjoying it. Winds have been high overnight. We saw gusts to 64 kts with averages in the 35 to 40 kt range so it’s been windy. But it’s a wonderful location and we can see why it makes a great retreat. Thanks for your comment.
James
You mentioned engine oil leaks from a clogged CCV filter recently. Where did the engine leak? I would be most interested in your results from the new WIX filter.
Thanks
Murray Birch
N6303
Operata De
As soon as I saw the issue, we changed the RACOR and started monitoring crankcase pressure more closely using a Manometer. That’s how we found out how fast it can start to rise. We don’t check it often now having gotten use to the rate of filter changes that are needed. I’ll check it in a year and see how the Wix filter is doing.
The oil leaks we developed before I took action where the oil pan and the rocker shaft carrier gasket. I changed the carrier gasket when we changed the fuel injectors 3 years ago at 9,000 hours. The oil pan seep is very minor as long as the crankcase pressure is not excessive and, with 11,000 hours, we feel lucky that the engine is still nice and white without leaks all over the place. It’s doing surprisingly well.
Hi… I`ve been following you for some time. You are now entering my childhood area. I`m no longer living in the area but would offer a suggesting for route and landing.
I would suggest that you got DALSFJORDEN all the way. Dalsfjorden stops at Bygstad. The start of the fjord is “common norwegian”, open with surrounding mountaints and waterfalls. Further in its mor narrow, end ends at this small “city” Bygstad.
For landing I will recomend my hometown of ASKVOLL. I lived my first four years in a buliding at who is now gone..At the waterfront. Most of my youth this quay was my summerjob. Delivering building materials and replenish boats passing. https://goo.gl/maps/E3qHJKcSGm2jTNCm6 i would higly recommend a visit to Askvoll Sjømat & Delikatesser 50 meters from the waterfront. Its a deli, specialicing in seafood.
Safe voyage!
We love getting local advice in our cruising and some of our best side trips came from helpful readers. Thanks very much.
I see you like a hike… 61°19’14.7″N 4°46’13.1″E The island Alden. Aka “The Norwegian Horse”. 481 moh, and visible from 100 km ot at sea.. trail form the port on the southside.
Thanks for the suggestion Olav.
I see you found Flekkefjorden all by yourself :o) You where passing Red Cross Nordic United World Center inbound. Haugland and UWC is a grat tender landing. Enjoy..!
What a beautiful area!!! Thanks for recommending it. We did a tender tour of the area. The Red Cross complex is a big one.
Lynn and I spent a month in Norway a few years ago and I have to say it is my goal to get over there cruising. The virus has delayed our boat several months we are now “firmly” March from the factory, so hopefully commissioned by May. Btw N60’s are now 3 years out!
Wow, 3 years to get a new 60. With three years to wait if we go to a N60, we better take extra good care of Dirona! Congratulations on being close to taking delivery of your new boat.
I have to say, while it has been a super exciting experience with the time and knowing that every month is a month we could have been spending time cruising … I would strongly consider buying a well kept used in hindsight, although are hard to come by lately. I figure I’ve spent 200 hours min researching specifications, reading instruction manuals, blogs, etc on every mechanical, electrical, aesthetics and so on, this base knowledge though and the fun of selection are priceless. Even near the end we continue to have some minor change here or there. I am pretty amazed that [they] keep up with all of it. I saw your comment also on the 41 for the Great Loop and that was funny that Lynn and I thought the same thing awhile back.
I totally know what you mean. We avoid the “missing cruising” issue by contracting for the boat before we intended to go full time cruising and keeping our old boat while the new one was built to avoid missing weekends and holidays. On the hundreds of hours that need to be invested, we just did our best where work and cruising took priority. That means that some of our decisions where considerably less well researched than some achieve. We just ran risk on a few. Looking back 11 years later, no big regrets. We didn’t miss many but a lot but, there is no question we could have done some better.
I agree that just managing all the changes is a major project management challenge. Nordhavn does well by this measure and we appreciate their flexibility. We hope your boat moves along quickly to completion. You’re going to love it.
Hi, I understand you have a great maintenance spreadsheet use. Heard of it on the Waggonierse website. Can you post it or send it. Thanks
Yes, the maintenance log spreadsheet is posted here: https://mvdirona.com/2018/11/updating-the-maintenance-log/ and the original posting is at: https://mvdirona.com/2015/03/maintenance-log/. It’s good to hear it’s working for people.
James and Jennifer,
Hello my wife and I have been following your journey for years. We anchor out often and could not find a reliable, easy to use anchor drag alert system and weather warning system. During COVID, I used the time to develop an anchor and marine overwatch application (currently for iOS/iPad). I recently became an authorized Iridium developer and am starting to integrate satellite solutions for offshore use. I would love the opportunity to discuss the application with you to make sure I’m addressing requirements for offshore cruising.
That sounds like a useful application. We might not be the best to give advice on your project since we lack experience with dragging anchors, use a KVH V7hts for satellite connectivity rather than Iridium (we do have Iridium as a backup when crossing oceans but only then), and use Android mobile devices rather than IOS. But we’re happy to help if we can.
Our approach to anchoring has been to use modern anchors, go to the large side of reasonable, and use a lot of rode. For the first 10 years in a 15 ton 40 ft boat, we used a 66 lb Bruce, 200 feet of chain, and then 300′ of rope rode. We always used 5:1 and often 7:1 scope. And we usually set an anchor alarm. We always set at the equivalent load of a 40 kt wind. Over the 10 years we used that boat, we were rewarded for putting some care into anchoring by never dragging and we saw up to 60 kt conditions.
The current boat is a 55 ton, 52 footer and it has a 154 Rocna with 500′ of chain. Again we always set with equivalent force to 40 kts of wind. After just over a couple of decades of never seeing a drag, we no longer set the anchor alarm partly because it’s difficult to set the anchor circle small enough to warn before the boat hits land but not warn as winds and currents change. And partly because we’ve not seen any dragging. Over the last few years we have started to use lower scope ratios when anchoring in very deep waters. For example, we are currently in 100′ of water but only have 330′ of rode deployed. Our current approach is to use around 4:1 to 5:1 in shallow water and drop back to 3:1 to 4:1 in deeper water.
If you have questions for us with respect to your project, feel free to drop me email at jrh@mvdirona.com.
Currently the application is designed to run on a phone or tablet. We’re integrating in several weather feeds into our overwatch system to include future integration of GRIB data. We’re also working on an option to make our system able to send back data to weather providers from our onboard sensors to potentially assist with regional weather modeling.
Playing with hardware and software application designed to integrate with the ship/boat NMEA /183 2000 backbone. I’m making it compatible with an onboard telemetry module that will also connect over satellite and LTE when near the coast.
I will send you a direct email as I have found you a wealth of information of the years and may have some feature integration ideas that I have not thought of. The focus of the app is a more simple “Chartplotter Companion” to aid in tracking, alerting you on land of severe weather at your boat’s location, etc.
Super interesting project. The combination of seeing NMEA2000 and NMEA0183 traffic and being externally connected could do some really interesting things. An ambitious but exciting project.
That’s an interesting project.
Carson. I was going to write some of this type of thing a few years ago but the cost of access and lack of transparency in N2K put me off. I reversed a little bit of it watching some obvious messages with obvious data content on a can bus monitor but that really doesn’t make for a practical flexible interface. How are you handling the N2K side of it?
Chris
The PICAN-2 setup on a raspberry pi has worked great to plug into N2k networks for a while, and they just released a PICAN-M unit. Makes it super easy to play with. I’m actually working on developing something similar, but more extensive. Full remote boat monitoring with remote anchor alarm, live web streaming of all of this, etc. But the PICAN-M is a great starter way to get N2k data onto a Raspberry Pi and start playing around with apps.
We do as well. We read the NMEA2000 bus using Actisense NGT-1-USB (https://actisense.com/products/ngt-1-nmea-2000-to-pc-interface/) and we read Masterbus, a proprietary CANbus design using CANusb (https://www.can232.com/). We also have full remote monitoring and alarming, live web streaming, etc.
TImely write-up as I had an anchoring question while following you around Norway. in early 2000s, I was invited on a customer’s boat in a fjord near Oslo.
We did not anchor; rather we pulled up to the fjord wall and tied off to an embedded ring. The customer said it was better that way as they could enjoy a day trip without having to deploy and possibly hang the anchor on rock. It was a truly remarkable day that I will never forget and your photos brought it right back into focus.
With all the rocky mountains surrounding the fjords, I assume the bottom is pretty rocky but was wondering what type of bottom you are encountering and how you avoid anchor hangs on retrieval? And if you do hang, what procedure or tools do you use to free the anchor. I had a Rocna on my previous boat and it worked great, however, we are in Florida so mostly sandy/mud bottoms.
Hey Tim. Norway is, as you said, truly remarkable. Norway’s natural beauty is incredible.
On your anchoring question, conditions vary widely. Many reports say you just can’t anchor in the fjords and there are some that are so deep right up to near shore that anchoring isn’t possible for us but these are the exceptions. Just about every fjord we have been in has at least some anchorable sections. Often they shallow near the or in a bay along the way. Sometimes these “shallows” are not all that shallow — we often anchor in 100′ to 110′ but not a problem for a well equipped boat. Some of these fjords have remarkably shallow sections. For example, we are currently anchored at the end of a fjord but in only 50′ of water.
When a potential anchorage has relatively stable depths, we find they are usually mud, clay, sand, etc. rather than rock. Rock bottoms tend to have a lot more variability. When testing the set of the anchor, if the chain is running over rock, we’ll hear it as we set. Generally, we try to use more scope when anchoring on rock since it can be less secure but we rarely find that we don’t get a secure set. Our definition of secure is pulling back at roughly the same force as a 40 kts wind.
As you notice we anchor a lot. The shallowest we have anchored in is 7′ (we draw 6′ 7″) and the deepest is 146′ (we carry 500′ rode). It’s very rare that we have had trouble recovering an anchor. On our previous boat we lost one anchor to logging debris (chain and boom cable discarded by loggers). This was in 80′ and we probably could have recovered the anchor by SCUBA diving it but it was winter and the water was 46F and visibility was under 5′ so we decided not to. On this boat, we have hung up anchors a few times over the 11 years we have had it. For example, in the South Pacific we had 2 or 3 cases where the boat had moved around and the chain hard wrapped around a bottom feature. But in these cases we were always able to untangle it but moving the boat around to tug at different angles to free the chain from whatever crevices it was hooking up in. As we got the chain free, we pulled it in as we created slack and kept working until it was untangled from the bottom. In the worst case, we probably invested 30 to 45 min to recover the anchor. In Scotland’s Orkney Island group we got an anchor hung up in a very large chain where we were unable to free it. In this case, the anchor tip had actually slid into the center of a chain link and it was sprung in place. Pulling hard in all directions wasn’t effective. We were able to free it by SCUBA diving prying it out using a 1 meter steel pry bar. It was really in there (https://mvdirona.com/2017/09/anchor-ensnarled/).
We don’t use it frequently but we recommend using an anchor trip line to aid anchor recovery when the bottom is potentially foul. This is a write up on the procedure we use: https://mvdirona.com/TechnicalArticles/WilsonAnchorBuoy.htm.
It’s pretty rare that we have trouble recovering an anchor. And in 21 years of boating, we have had only two situations where were were unable to work anchor and chain free by moving the boat around. The last time was more than 3 years ago — we haven’t had any problems so far in Norway.
Thanks for the details. I’ll look into those other posts.
Dear Jennifer and James, the hull for my N41 is now under construction. The design philosophy of the 41 is to build a complete boat with very minimal factory options available. I have been asked to choose the electrical system, and have opted for a 50hz/240V boat, which I hope will prove better for circumnavigation than 60hz/120V. My last boat was 60hz and it was an ongoing nightmare getting shore power to work in Australia. The only options I have requested so far are a 2nd autopilot and a watermaker. All of the standard navigation equipment is Garmin with no other brand offered by the factory. I was going to send you a private message to ask whether, in your experience, there is anything significant that I should request at build stage, but thought that maybe the group can benefit from your answer. I would be super grateful if you could spare a moment to look at the standard 41 specifications and share your thoughts https://nordhavn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Standard-Specs-with-Photos.pdf Please remember I am your most technically challenged friend so nothing you say can be overly simplistic! Thank you so very much :-)
Man, what a boat. We want one for the great circle and to tour European rivers and canals. It looks like a wonderfully well though through boat and the sales success suggests it’s a really good value. We really like the N41.
We are perhaps the wrong people to ask about options and changes with Dan Streech reporting that Dirona had the most change orders per linear foot :-). In reading the reference you sent us, it’s titled standard specs but included a generator which it lists as optional in the text. Many entries in the list appear to be standard equipment (e.g. Beta Marine engine) so we weren’t able to figure out which of these specs were optional and which were standard. If you could get us a list of which of these features are optional, we’re happy to pass on our thoughts.
It’s exciting to see the N41 project taking shape and to hear your boat is now underway. It looks like this model is on track to be the most successful boat in the history of PAE.
Thanks for such a fast reply James. I did a cut and paste from the Nordhavn web site, so will dig out my actual contract and send to you. Thanks again. Kate
Great. We’re both happy to read through the list of options available for the 41 and those you have selected and let you know if we recommend adding any to the list.
Kate
I see you are having a Victron Mulitplus, I did not see if you will also have a Venus GX, or Gerbo GX of Victron. but the multiples combined with either you can program the multi to auto start the generator when the batteries fall below a set parameters, like SOC, Battery Voltage, power use over a set wattage etc.
I have it programmed even programmed to treat the shore power as a’generator’ for the few times my solar panels can not keep up.
You will also be able to use these control units as a remote warning for bilge pumps, intruder alert, smoke alert etc.
Hi James
Dirona is online at Flam see
https://www.visitflam.com/information/webcam/vision-of-the-fjords-webcam/
Great to see. We took a screen shot. Thanks for pointing the Visions of the Fjord webcam out.
Hello James and Jennifer. I’m a Nordhavn dreamer currently, but my wife and I have plans to sell it all, and get on board one within 10 years. Your videos have partially contributed to this plan, so thank you.
I just noticed where you folks are right now. A very good friend of mine owns this place: https://www.flamsbrygga.com/ and the associated brewery attached. His name is Evan Lewis, and his wife’s name is Aud. Their place is amazing, and his beer even more amazing. If you happen to stop up that way, mention that Jason says hello.
Looking forward to continuing to follow your adventures.
Your friend makes great beer. We first visited his place back in 2018 and dropped by again yesterday and picked up a couple of cases of beer. We’re big fans.
Do you treat the output of your watermaker before drinking it? Do you assume it is free of bacteria, virus and parasites?
Yes, we do drink reverse osmosis water and are confident that it’ll remove all pathogens and parasites and we don’t further treat the water prior to consumption. Here’s a fairly typical news article on R/O safety:https://www.uwhealth.org/news/dr-jacqueline-gerhart-theres-good-and-bad-to-using-reverse-osmosis-water-systems/36710#:~:text=If%20you%20are%20on%20a,these%20substances%20from%20your%20water where they say “If you are on a camping trip, traveling in another country, or in an area with bacteria or parasite-laden water, reverse osmosis systems allow contaminant removal, and safe drinking water. If you live in an area with heavy pesticides and herbicides use, reverse osmosis can remove these substances from your water.”
Most of these reports are also concerned about the removal of minerals from the water potentially introducing another health risk if there are no other sources of these minerals and only R/O water is consumed. The US Center for Disease Control (https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/home-water-treatment/household_water_treatment.html) says:
*Reverse Osmosis Systems use a process that reverses the flow of water in a natural process of osmosis so that water passes from a more concentrated solution to a more dilute solution through a semi-permeable membrane. Pre- and post-filters are often incorporated along with the reverse osmosis membrane itself.
*A reverse osmosis filter has a pore size of approximately 0.0001 micron.
*Reverse Osmosis Systems have a very high effectiveness in removing protozoa (for example, Cryptosporidium, Giardia);
*Reverse Osmosis Systems have a very high effectiveness in removing bacteria (for example, Campylobacter, Salmonella, Shigella, E. coli);
*Reverse Osmosis Systems have a very high effectiveness in removing viruses (for example, Enteric, Hepatitis A, Norovirus, Rotavirus);
*Reverse Osmosis Systems will remove common chemical contaminants (metal ions, aqueous salts), including sodium, chloride, copper, chromium, and lead; may reduce arsenic, fluoride, radium, sulfate, calcium, magnesium, potassium, nitrate, and phosphorous.
Thanks for the detailed reply.
Any concerns after the water comes out of the watermaker? While in the storage tank, for example.
Pure R/O water will grow things especially in warm weather so you need to be aware of the issue. If the boat is being used and water is flowing frequently, it’s not a problem. Our strategy is to take on city water frequently which is chlorinated and, even if we run on R/O for a couple of months, it’ll get another treatment of chlorinated water every couple of months. It’s never been a problem but, for boats that get left unused for long periods or boats that are running pure R/O water, I recommend a small chlorination treatment. This treatment method is well covered in Peggy Hall’s book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Get-Boat-Odors-Peggie-Hall/dp/1892399156. We’ve never needed to do it since we are always using the boat.
Thank you (again!) for the detailed reply.
Not a problem.
hi may I ask any maintance on the tender example washed down after use engine flushed out and were is the fuel stored for the tender and how is the tender secured to the deck of dirona
The tender sits on four pads and is held in place by three ratchet straps. There are two ratchet straps on each side of the rear and one on the bow. The motor comes with a attachment point for freshwater flush and I’ve put a garden hose quick connect on that so I can attach a hose quickly and flush the engine after use. I also spray off the engine and mechanical equipment during stowage.
The Tender holds 9 gallons of gas and up on the boat deck we have 2x 29 gallon gas containers and also 4x 1.25 gallon and 1x 5 gallon containers.
thank you for the information on the tender
The airplanes you pick up on AIS, are SAR, and sometimes air ambulance helicopters. Some SAR helicopters are based on the oil rigs in the North sea.
Thanks for the explanation Trond. We figured you would know.
hi
Greetings from Terschelling in the Netherlands , i live on Terschelling but my work is in Norway, and at the moment your passing the hotel and the house where i live in Norway.
i have been following your blog for 2 years now, the hotel that i work is lavikfjordhotel in lavik and the owners are my sister and brother in law.
Greetings from Folkert Cupido
Cool. A big wave to you in Lavik from Dirona. Thanks for saying hi!
Hey James,
Really looking forward to your water maker repair blog. I can’t tell for sure but your unit looks like mine – Offshore Systems? We pickled it when we bought the boat a couple years ago as we had no need for it and really can’t run it in our local waters as they are too silty, but as we eventually plan to get to the Bahamas when this virus settles down, I am going to need to activate it again. When I last tried to use it several of the plastic press fittings had disintegrated so the water was leaking everywhere. Also appeared to be a leak in the high pressure pump seal. Contacted the service team and they just said to leave it until a few months before we need it then pull it and send in for full service. BTW – any idea how much the unit weighs? I have to pull it out from under the STB engine exhaust outlet to get to any of the internal components. It looks heavy… :>)
It’s a Village Marine STW600 rated at 600 gallon per day. We run a media filter (like a small version of a pool sand filter) in front of the water maker so it can make water without problem in silty water. There are 2000 hours on this one so it’s seen a lot of use over the last 11 years (now at 2,071 hours). During this service we replaced the membranes for the second time where the first set did 4 years and the second set did a bit more than 6 years with periods with high hours. We view the membrane changes as just normal maintenance. The big problem was the motor experiencing winding failures where some windings were no longer working so the motor couldn’t start in certain positions. Replacing the motor corrected that issue. The final issue is a trivial problem that has been there for 6 years where the system always reports a fault indicating that filters need to be changed. What happened is the NVRAM on the control board where maintenance hours are stored was corrupted and produced random errors. This problem doesn’t impact operation in any way so we’ve been ignoring it. But, since the system is all apart, we replaced the control board as well correcting the maintenance tracking problem. It’s now all back to normal but it was a load of work. It’s not really that big a job except these highly integrated systems are super tough to work on. If it was a modular system I could have done the work in about 1/5 the time.
You asked about the weight. The motor is very heavy, the pump isn’t light either, the rest isn’t bad but in aggregate it nets out at 116 lbs so not light and easy to toss around.
Thanks James. Your components look very similar to mine. That weight is going to be an issue. I’ll have to come up with a creative solution like my generator lift that we traded e-mails on earlier this year. Maybe a “slide-out” solution. As I mentioned, it is mounted under the large exhaust tube from the STB engine so there is not access to remove components. Its control panel faces the center of the boat. which is nice for monitoring and there is a remote control panel at the helm. Unfortunately, right in front of the unit is the STB engine raw water intake and strainer so I will have to get it out over that without crushing everything in its path. Should be another fun project!
It does sound like lifting that one out of there will be a challenge. Good luck with the project.
Hi Jennifer and James, Great to see those wild Deere’s! I think the stunning wooden sailboat with the H-28 designation on the mainsail might be a classic 28 foot Herreshoff. Herreschoff was an American naval architect famous for designing fast and elegant steam and sailing yachts, including early 1900’s America’s Cup boats. There are a surprising number of H-28’s here in Melbourne – though not in that condition :-). Just a bit of trivia! Warmly, Kate
You do know your boats Kate. We do love the classic lines of the Herreshoff but I have to admit I’m even much more excited about the technology of newer sailboats. We’re looking forward to SailGP completing it’s season 2 in 2021 and the America’s cup.
hi any plans on visiting the following places
Geiranger
skarsvag
nordfjordeid
We visited Geiranger by car and we took the tender all the way to the end as well back in 2018 (https://mvdirona.com/maps/). We loved it but Norway is full of places where we have not yet been so we’ll probably not return. We probably will visit Nordfjordeid on this trip. The only Skarsvag, we found was way up North of Tromso and we don’t expect to get that far North.
ok thank you for the information
Could your water maker HP pump problem be an issue with the start capacitor? I thought start capacitors generally failed in a way that kept the motor from starting at all, but perhaps that’s a place to look?
Good suggestion. Not all single phase AC electrical motors use capacitors but many do and it’s worth checking if this one does. Thanks Alex.
From last weeks journey, stavanger to Kristiansund
https://youtu.be/oOZRUklxBZc
Nice boat and a great video. It looks like you had a good trip and we recognized some of the places you passed.
James; Did you secretly installed another couple of main engines? :) 14.62 kts for a displacement hull is very impressive :) :)
Yes, that is a bit out there. The tracking software screwed up and drew a straight line which we noticed and fixed by the stats were wrong too. We’ll fix it. Thanks,
Do you adjust your ‘time to charge the batteries’ voltage as the batteries age, or do you leave it the same for the life of the bank?
It’s an adaptive system. Generator start is triggered by the max voltage over the trailing 15 minutes. Generator stop is triggered by the average battery acceptance current dropping to less than X amps.
How do you select the max voltage you use? Is it based on the Lifeline technical manual specs or do you measure it?
We exploit the fact that SoC meters are quite accurate if you configure them to the correct capacity battery bank (you know what a bank capacity is when new), ensure the batteries are fully charged and then use the SoC meter on the first discharge to get voltage to SoC ratios. Another approach is the 20 hour voltage to SoC table in the Lifeline Technical manual that is pretty accurate as well.
Wow, thanks for sharing your life. I was looking at youtube and I saw this boat for sale. It was a Nordhavn. After abother few videos I came upon your vide ehere you prepared Dirona for the Atlantic crossing. I downloaded all your videos and saw what it takes ro run a boat your size. I specially liked the Day loo as I have looked for it on othe Nhs and found nothing. And I fell in love with that lifestile.
Thanks again for sharing
Yes, it has been and continues to be a great experience to see the world and essentially live for weeks or even months in different countries all over the world. Thanks for the feedback on the videos and the website.
hi I’m watching a webcam in bergen norway and the bow of dirona is just in view on the right side and if it’s ok with james/jennifer I would like to know the day and time dirona is leaving bergen as I would like to see dirona pass thank you
That’s great that you could see us on the webcam on our way into Bergen. We’ll be here until at least Monday morning Norwegian time but we may stay longer. We haven’t yet decided. We just fueled up this morning and will do grocery shopping today and tomorrow so we’re working through the provisioning work that we need having not taken on supplies since Stornoway Scotland.
Sorry we can’t be more precise on exit times. All we know at this point is we’ll be hear until at least Monday morning.
ok thank you for the information
We’re planning to leave tomorrow morning around 9am.
thank you for the update I only asked for the information so I could see dirona pass the bergen webcam on skylinewebcams.com
Just became a subscriber to your YouTube channel…WOW! Incredible channel!
P.S. Love the maintenance/repair segments:)
Cheers
Sean Evans
Thanks for the feedback on the videos Sean.
https://www.facebook.com/560776878/posts/10157162214851879/
Just leaving Stavanger to bring Fridtjofen to Kristiansund. Fetching Haugesund tonight. Perhaps will meet en route.
I hope the weather is better where you are. We’re seeing frequent gusts to over 50 kts all day in this fairly sheltered area and the highest we saw was 58 kts earlier today.
Hi guys!
This is the guy with a trawler in Litlebergen that spoke with you earlier on Youtube.
I´m very curious of the place you anchored up today 1 okt. I have never been in their because of the depth. So i would be very very happy if you posted some pictures from the place and tell me how it was to anchor there. Always wanted to go in there to hike the mountains. It´s a remain of a little farm up in the mountain side there. I would be very happy to see some pictures her or on youtube from the place. Best regards André
Great to hear from you again. Yes, this is a really interesting anchorage. Mountains towering over us on three sides, multiple water falls, and several hikes possible. Yesterday we hiked to the top of the southern face and we might do another hike today. The tracks we hiked will go up right away and we will post pictures of the area. We’re running 3 weeks behind our trip so it won’t happen right away but it will happen.
As you noticed, the anchorage is quite deep. We anchored in 97′ (30M) on 340′ (104M) of rode. And, as it happens, we’re seeing wind storms in the area right now. Over the last day, we’ve been seeing winds in the steady 20 to 30 kts range with gusts as high as 46 kts during that day yesterday. Last night, the winds were a bit stronger and we saw one gust to 58 kts. Given we’re in a fairly sheltered location, it’s surprising to see the winds so high. But, no complaints. This is an amazingly beautiful anchorage and we’ll certainly stay and enjoy it for at least another day.
Thank you guys! The last time i was in there was when i was a kid with my grandfather fishing in the early morning hours, and i remember i think it was a little spooky. Dark and high mountains. Its time for me to have a go at it then. Was not sure how the holding was, but again thanks. Nice to follow you. Yes the wind can be a nightmare in the fjords when you get the downfall from the mountains that easy reach 50kn. I´m hauling out des/jan and start my trip north in march/april. Spending a year scuba diving and skiing in the Lofoten together with an American sailyacht that i become friends with during my 6 year sail from 2003-2009. I met them by accident her in Litlebergen after we lost contact in 2010. This was in 2019. The world is not that big anymore! If you stil crusing Norway next year maybe i see you on the way! Take care!
It’s a really cool place to anchor. The only downsides are it’s deep (around 30m) and, under some conditions, the winds can really scream through there. For a calm day, it’s a really special anchorage.
Hi
Any thoughts yet on your winter plans?
We’re thinking of another 3 weeks here in Norway and then working our way south to Scotland. From there we will make the decision on the basis of the current world health situation and either head south to the Med or stay in the Scotland area. We do plan to cruise most of the winter this year.
Jennifer, James, I have been following your site for a while and am glad to hear that you are still considering Spain. I don’t know if you have many Spanish followers or contacts; if you need input please feel free to reach out. I live in Madrid but regularly sail in both the Atlantic (Galicia) and Med (eastern coast and Balearic Islands). Keep up the excellent site and travels!
Thanks, that’s very kind of you to offer to help us when we head south and spend some time in Spain. We’re looking forward to enjoying some time there and, as much as we love the natural beauty of northern latitudes, short days and cold weather will eventually chase us south :-).
Just watched the pto replacement video.
Nice presentation both video wise, audio, and narration. Makes for very interesting and educational video.
Thanks you guys!
Thanks for the feedback on the videos. Much appreciated.
I discovered your site recently, it is very interesting and informative. Would it be possible to make a video on the financial aspects. It is not a question of your personal information, but an order of magnitude on the purchase and maintenance of a boat of your size as well as the budget to plan for a circom. Thanks
It’s hard to cover the finances given the variability of use. In 10 years, our main engine has seen 11,000 hours and the generator 7,000. Most people use the systems less. Our main engine has only had injectors in all these hours. That’s unusually little. Our generator needed to have a cylinder head replaced and that’s more than I would expect in those hours on average. Some work needs to be done frequently and is easy to budget for and other work is only a once a decade sort of thing. It all conspires to make providing financial guidelines challenging.
But, with all those caveats, I think you are right that we could offer some thoughts on what to expect — we’ll give the problem more thought. Thanks for the suggestion.
Cool to see you got in the local news paper. Seems to be pretty accurate written, except for one thing. According to the journalist, your longest passage was an impressive “6000 mil,” which is 60.000 kilometer = 32.397NM. Nordhavn set a new world record in range :) Way to go, Dirona!
I couldn’t read the article but the layout was impressive. A really nice looking article.
Hi James
I just saw the post about your wrist or thumb injury but i think it was dated Aug 27.
How is it doing?
I recently retired from my specialty as a hand surgeon. There are a number of different fractures and ligament issues that can result at the base of the thumb and in the wrist from a fall like that. Proper radiographic imaging is very important and subspecialty consultation can be important. The required treatment varies widely depending on the specific injury and is largely focused on preserving future function and decreasing the arthritis risk going forward.
Please feel free to contact me privately at smartin@mcmaster.ca or 905-902-2686 if you wish to do so.
All the best
Stuart
MV Bluenose
Nordhavn 60
Thanks for the offer to help and offer the benefit of your expertise. Much appreciated. I’ll contact you.
Hi James
Could you point me to your post on adding the second bilge pump to your main sump please. I searched and could not find it. BTW while I was searching I came across a photo of your main DC interconnect featuring two Mastervolt 500 connectors and a Mastershunt. Love that stuff. I already have a Mastershunt in my system and I did not realize until today how useful those four-tap interconnect gadgets are, so I just ordered one and will likely get more once I see how they integrate into my system. I always thought they were just a piece of copper in a green box (i.e. a typical name brand money grab), so how much can you possibly communicate about that over the network? :) In reality they are a great way to get four fused taps in a very compact space with fuse blow monitoring. How cool is that?
Yes, exactly as you said, we use a Mastershunt to measure DC current and then we extend the Mastershunt DC bus using two Masterbus DC Distribution systems. That allows measuring up to 500A of flow into or out of the batteries and provides numerous DC taps.
The second bilge pump addition was covered here: https://mvdirona.com/2017/12/alarms-at-115am-follow-up/.
thank you, exactly what I was looking for. What are you using for a float switch to turn on the Rule 3700? I also need to replace my existing main bilge float as it gets stuck on once it triggers and will not turn off at low water. I’m going to replace that jabsco pump disaster at the same time with a whale like you did.
We use Ultra Safety Switches: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VZ49N4E/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1.
Click.
Only thing I don’t like about those Mastervolt devices is their choice of hardware. They use those awful allen head bolts. In all my kits of allens I cannot find one that seems to fit that socket correctly. Every other piece of electrical connection gear in this boat is a hex head bolt. So I replace all their hardware with hex heads which unfortunately have to be metric. It’s not that I am against metric, but I am definitely against having to carry multiple sizes of tools to do one single job. And they definitely did not anticipate anyone connecting 4-ought cable lugs to those things. They don’t fit. I don’t know what they were thinking but any cable on my boat that is part of a 500 amp rated circuit is definitely getting 4-ought. I have had to grind off the noses of the lugs and shave off the extraneous plastic molded ridges in front of the terminals on the mastervolt gear to fit the lugs on the terminals.
But I just received my DC interconnect and it looks great (other than the above caveats) and it is going to save soooooo much space in my DC fusing and distribution!
I actually don’t mind the hex head connections but agree that the system is too tight mechanically and I’ve had to trim the plastic covers to clear larger connections. Small is good but 20% bigger with more connection clearance would make sense. But, as you said, it does save space overall and produces a fairly organized solution when you are done.
Are you using the CZone version of the shunt and getting its data on N2K? Can Maretron see it? My first MasterShunt that I put on the house battery is not a czone; I didn’t understand enough about czone at the time and ordered the plain one, but now I’ve got two of the czone versions coming and it appears that czone is essentially N2K. Is that right? People really need to stop reinventing things and coming up with all these different flavors of things…
Our system was done back in 2010 and, back then, the CZone part was not an option so we used the standard Mastervolt shunt in the build. When I wanted to read amperage we installed a DCM100 to get programmatic access to the current flow. We essentially don’t use the Mastershunt at this point. Mastershunt with CZone can produce NMEA2000 so that’s a cleaner solution with less parts. Another option is to use the DCM100 and delete the Mastershunt.
I’ll go with the Maretron sensors if I have to, but I like the integrated battery SOC, etc, that I get from the MasterShunt. I have a MasterBus touch screen display on that network and it’s really nice, all my MV gear is there, one stop shopping. On the other hand the DCM100 coupled with N2KView does provide a nice SOC solution… I’ll let you know how it goes with czone and N2K when I get the new shunts installed. I’m using them initially on my bow thruster battery where I need a solution that will do 600+ amps. That takes two MasterShunts, which does not make it cheap!
Makes sense. I wouldn’t have bought the Maretron DCM100 if I had a NMEA 2000 producing Mastershunt. Your choice is less expensive and a cleaner choice.
A minor point on the SoC meters, I’ve tried Mastervolt, Xantrex, Maretron, etc. and they all count amps and so all suffer from the problems: 1) overall bank capacity is entered as a config parameter but it is actually falling from day one until you replace the battery bank rather than a fixed value. This means that 50% charge on your SoC meter is slowly going to actually be 40% charge after some time and it’ll go lower than that. And 2) if you count amps out, and count amps in and estimate the amount lost to battery inefficiencies (Peukert constant) which is what they all do, you get a slight error on every discharge cycle until fully charged again. This slight error is additive over time and will keep getting worse until the system is brought back to a 100% charge to get the error reset. The combined impact of these hard to predict error rates limits the accuracy of SoC meters. But, just as a broken clock is right twice a day, a SoC meter will never look wrong if you have no way to check it.
It doesn’t really seem to be that hard a problem so I’ve also written several SoC meters myself that don’t suffer from all of the problems above but they still weren’t awesome.
It’s a harder problem that it looks. In the end, I have quite a few SoC meters on Dirona and yet don’t use any of them and around 5 years back, I stopped even bothering to show SoC on any of hte displays on the boat.
HI James, interesting. I am presently looking at exactly this same scenario on my Sabre 42 Hardtop Express , where I installed a German brand SoC, and that shows the same weaknesses as you are describing. I came to exactly your conclusions as well, it seems that these influence factors of the real world are hard to overcome, so the SoC’s are not as good a tool as I would have expected. All the best, in (so far) quite healthy Norway!
Exactly! And, yes, it’s great to be Norway. Lots of natural beauty, very lightly populated with nice people and very little COVID-19. We’ll be leaving in a few weeks but we’ll plan to be back.
I totally agree. It is a truly vexing bit of engineering. I’ve worked in companies populated with teams of incredibly bright people and have seen first hand the results of the “how hard could this be” syndrome. They didn’t do very well at it either. I think it’s mainly entertaining eye candy at this point. If you keep a mental adjustment factor running to compensate the numbers over time, and you know what you’re doing, you can probably figure out where your batteries really are. You or I could do this, and some others, but not everyone.
Also, as I understand it, the Peukert coefficient is meant to put a curve on the discharge rate according to the actual amperage being drawn. The higher the demand, the less effective capacity you have. So the 200 AH batteries are only 200 AH at the 20 hour discharge rate, and not so much at the 10 or 5 hour discharge rate.
Some new monitors that I have looked at , like the MasterShunt, also introduce a separate coefficient called the “charge efficiency”. I don’t know what math they are doing with it exactly but I believe they are attempting to compensate what you pointed out as “a slight error on every discharge cycle”. But even with this, the documentation still tells you the thing needs to be reset to 100% every so often, just like you said.
Yes, I largely agree. And, as much effort that gets spent on reducing the “small error on every discharge cycle” an even bigger source of error is a 1200Ah battery will age to become a 1000 Ahr bank and 50% of 1200 is very different from 50% of 1000. After conditioning, a bank will regain some capacity. It’s changing all the time. I suspect that the reason why many people have SoC meters that they really like is they have no redundant data point telling them how for wrong it really is.
Well I put my CZone shunts in and connected them to my main N2K network. The devices automatically connect to either MasterBus or CZone/N2K according to which cable you plug in. They each come with an adapter cable with a N2K micro at one end and the RJ45 MasterBus at the other end.
It was a disappointing experiment. N2KAnalyzer sees nothing recognizable coming out of the shunts. They are on the network but are not producing standard PGNs. Only some proprietary (obviously CZone-specific) data messages. I would have thought that DC current and voltage would have appeared in standard format.
But they still work fine on Masterbus and now I have full voltage and current and temperature monitoring on my bow thruster battery bank within my Mastervolt network.
That kind of sucks that the industry still insists on using proprietary data formats even when using industry standard bus protocols like CANbus. I wanted to turn Mastervolt chargers off/on and so I hacked Masterbus sufficiently to be able to turn off/on and set amperage output but it really should be easier.
Given that’s it’s nicer to have everything on the NMEA2000 bus so you can set N2kview alarms etc., I would still be tempted to add a Maretron DCM100.
Researching this further I found another Mastervolt interface buried in the depths of their remarkably difficult to navigate website (although not as bad as Victron) which is specifically described as an N2K interface, not CZone.
https://www.mastervolt.com/products/masterbus-interfaces/masterbus-nmea2000-interface/
Searching the web for this thing I found a few posts talking/asking about it and few offering it for sale at extortion level prices. I found a used one on some random web site in the Netherlands. Can’t hurt to ask, so I emailed them about it. Only one place on line actually claims to have a new one available, in stock, ready to ship. $580. One place that lists it, but has no inventory, claims they will only sell it to NMEA or ABYC certified installers!
We have one of the Masterbus to NMEA2000 interfaces and I know of one other installed. They lock up every 2 to 6 months and need reboot. Just need to disconnect both the NMEA and Masterbus lines to force a restart. Otherwise they work but they are primitive. They feel like a prototype that just never got finished. Clumsy to configure but otherwise they do work. I think I paid around $100 for it but it’s been 10 years.
Sounds like my Simrad IS42 display. It locks up about once every two weeks! So I guess I can establish a new branch power circuit with a special switch on the instrument panel labeled “devices that lock up and need to be power cycled”!!
Oh well, I just took an expensive chance on the one in the Netherlands. Was def more than $100 but at least I didn’t have to pay VAT! Wish me luck that I receive it and it works!
What kind of arrangement do you need to configure the interface gadget?
The setup is clunky but not complex and it’s done using Masteradjust.
You may feel differently than I but my first rule with any of these small, fairly low cost electrical devices is I won’t deploy them without a spare in stock. My thinking is I don’t want to screw around trying to figure out the problem. If a Maretron or other small electrical device fails, I always have the firmware configuration backed up and so I can quickly just switch devices. Some would argue that I have a bunch of spares I may not use but wasting time on flakey and possibly faulty equipment.
Ok, I have the MasterAdjust software, so that should not be a problem. I normally agree with you on the spares thing, but this particular device is nearly impossible to find, and stupid expensive. I’m lucky to have found one. If it does what I want then great, but it’s not mission-critical. If it fails then I will more than likely take an entirely different approach to getting the data. I paid enough for this gadget that if it does fail I am certainly not throwing that kind of money down that hole again.
One thing is for sure: Victron is totally killing Mastervolt in their embracing of open protocols, ease of inter-protocol translation, etc. I plugged one cheap adapter into the VE bus and all my inverter data was on the N2K network. It cost under $100.
100% agree with this “One thing is for sure: Victron is totally killing Mastervolt in their embracing of open protocols, ease of inter-protocol translation, etc.” Both companies produce good products but this one point makes me favor Victron more and more each year.
Me too. If Mastervolt chargers weren’t so damn good I’d go Victron all the way. A Nordhavn friend of mine is in the design phase of all new AC/DC electrical system and I’ve given him everything I’ve learned from doing mine, and referenced all the stuff from Dirona, and he’s going with Victron inverter/chargers and all the jewelry. I think he’s going to be really happy with the system.
When we configured Dirona 10 years back, Victron chargers weren’t great. They have come a long way over the last 10 years and, if we were to commission a boat today, we would consider an all Victron electrical design.
Congrats on being featured on the back cover Nordhavn advertisement on the Oct 2020 issue of Power & Motoryacht!
We hadn’t heard. We’ll get a copy. Thanks for letting us know.
He’s waiting to get his picture on the cover of The Rolling Stone :)
That’ll do it!
Hi Dirona,
What sort of depths are you anchoring in, and what sort of scope do you typically use.
Thanks, Colin
We’re currently anchored in 50′ and the previous 4 were 70′, 84′ and 70′. Over the last month, we’ve done as low as 18′ and as deep as 100′ with 30′ to 50′ being fairly common. In less than 30′ we like 5:1 and seldom use less when in shallow water. In 50′ we’ll typically use around 4:1 and deeper than that 3:1 works great but we typically are closer to 4:1 and sometimes 5:1. We are unusual in liking more rode out than many but we’ve weather through winds as high as 60 knots at anchor and, in 21 years, have never felt the need to get out of bed and check the anchor or stand anchor watch.
The deepest we have anchored was in 146′ with 3.4:1 but it would have been comfortable with less rode.
Hello James,
Your “missing oil leak” photo reminded me of a conversation I had with a Marine Harrier pilot at an airshow years ago.
I had asked if a hydraulic leak on his aircraft was a problem. Without batting an eye and with a completely straight face his reply was “only if it stops”
Love it! I did check the oil level and it’s still got some :-).
Hi! Hope you’re having a great time in Norway! I’m still working on the model of the Nordhavn 52 and I could see on pictures that your funnel stack and the mountings for the radars and antennas are quite different compared to the drawings and pictures I have of other Nordhavn 52’s, I do recall you told me something about it being custom when I visited you, but what was the story of it? have there been several different versions? It looks to me in the pictures that yours is a bit more straight and I can see heavy duty hinges on it so I guess you could lower it in order to do maintenance to it yourselves?
Best Regards!
/Olle
Hi Olle. Great haring from you. Your model accurate matches the newest Nordhavn 52s. When the Nordhavn 52 was first drawn and built it came with the stack you see on Dirona. Later they moved to using the same stack used on the 55/60 series and that’s what you’ll see on all the more recent 52s. Your model accurately matches the most recent design.
The large hinge allows the stack to be lowered for reduced air clearance but we’ve never done it. Dropping the stack requires unbolting the exhaust pipe, needs a crane to ease it back, and there needs to be enough slack in the wires heading up the stack. It’s nice to have the capability if we ever really need it but it’s a big operation. When the boat was shipped to North American from China the stack was in the down position so it has been used once.
Thanks for the clarification! I have not been able to find a scale side view of your version (which I actually prefer the looks of to be hones, those big boomerang shaped radar mounts looks a bit weird. :) You don’t happen to have a scale side view of your version that shows the proportions? It doesn’t have to be detailed, just showing the proportions as it’s super hard to judge from pictures unless they are in perfect perspective from the side.
I do have profile drawings that I think will work for you. I sent one your way.
Hello,
while you are in the area a comfortable hiking or biking target can be recommended from Sunndal to Bondhusvatnet, please check: https://www.visitnorway.com/listings/hike-to-the-bondhus-glacier-bondhusdalen/5053/
Best regards
We have been giving thought to doing a hike up to the Glacier. Thanks for pointing out the hike.
Hello James,
It’s an old marker but this is what I found.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1_HGSD_1910_steinst%C3%B8tte_Gardsvik_Haraldst%C3%B8tta_bak_Haugesund_Norway_2020-06-06_09062.jpg
Yes, we found that as well. The picture definitely matches but the text is for this much large memorial: https://mvdirona.com/trips/norway2020/norway1.html?bleat=8%2F7%2F2020%3A+Haraldshaugen. It looks like a editing mistake on Wikimedia.org but thanks for taking a run at it.
Have you had any thoughts of heading north to Svalbard & or Iceland?
Yes! While we were in Tromso Norway, we flew up to Svalbard for a few days: https://mvdirona.com/2018/07/svalbard/. Really enjoyed it. We plan to take the northern route back to North America when we return which will include a stop in Iceland.
Thank you so much for your website, and welcome to Norway! I´m a huge fan of the Nordhavns, and I was so thrilled to find your site and YouTube Videos. Hope so see you proceed north in Norway, and welcome to my home town Kristiansund if you are on your way northbound. Looking forward to follow you!
Thanks for the welcome to Norway. We were here in 2018 and got as far north as Tromso (https://mvdirona.com/Trips/norway2018/norway4.html) so we passed you twice on that wonderful trip. We’re loving being back in Norway but probably won’t make as far north as Kristiansund on this trip.
Hello James & Jennifer
It has been awhile since I have posted but at the time I did is when you all had you keel cooler painted. I have been following along and have seen a couple positive posts from you about it but am wondering what your thoughts are about it now after a few years of real world testing. Thanks in advance :)
I don’t have good A/B tests with and without but the painted cooler seems to work very well. The logic is simple: a large amount of marine growth is better insulation than a coat of paint. So, logically, if you aren’t able to keep the cooler clean it’s better painted.
Hi Jennifer and James.
I noticed your vessel when at anchor at Sauaholmen just a couple of hours ago, and when i googled you this interesting blog came up!
Are you interested in an intervju at the local newspaper tomorrow before you leave?
I work at Årbakka Handelsstad and you are welcome over for a chat? I open the shop and museum at 11 am.
Thanks for the comment and for the interview suggestion. The weather looks nice today so we plan to head over to Rosendal to hike Melderskin so it looks like we are going to have a full day.
If you need refueling, Onarheim has the least expensive diesel in the area.
We still have 4,400 liters on board from our fueling in Stornoway Scotland so it’ll be a while before we need diesel but we always appreciate your local knowledge and suggestions. Today, for example, we’re planning to do the hike you recommended from Rosendal.
Perfect weather for hiking Melderskin. Have fun!
Wow, what an incredible view from the top of Melderskin. GREAT recommendation.
It’s just a bit beyond my limit for maximum hiking output in a single day but all the best views usually follow from exceeding my limits :-)
Good to hear you enjoyed the trip. Sometimes pushing the limits, is well worth it.
Your right, it is a taxing hike but, wow, what an amazing view. Even my hiking boats essentially failed where the sole on both boots have sections peeling away. I think they are down to their last hike or close to it.
Hi James & Jennifer,
My wife and I live in the US with our 7 year old son and two dogs. I am from South Africa, my wife is a US citizen, and our son is a dual US/South African citizen. We’re thinking of doing a Trans-Atlantic crossing onboard a Nordhavn from Florida to Cape Town within the next few years.
We are aware of your trip between Cape Town and the US, and would like to know what the seas were like near Cape Town when you traveled there. We have heard many reports of rough seas and large waves in that area, and would like to know when you traveled (start to finish dates), what the weather was like, and whether you witnessed any rogue waves (the Atlantic is large, and can be quite inhospitable at times) or had any issues with piracy anywhere en route during the long journey.
Any additional advice/information of importance would be greatly appreciated.
That sounds like a fun trip. Our expereince in the Capetown area is limited to two trips. The first from Richards Bay south, around the Cape and north to Capetown and the second from Cape Town to St. Helena and then on to Barbados.
On the first trip, conditions were mostly quite good and the trip south in the Agulhas Current was fast with the current running in the 4 to 6 knot range. But, just north of East London the winds suddenly built to 30 kts from the south. We’re used to seeing seas taking a couple of hours to build large in 30 kt winds but in the first 10 to 15 min we got hit with one of the largest green water waves we’ve experienced where it hit the pilot house windows so hard it sounded like an explosion. Loud enough that I ducked. It also tore the lid off the forward deck compartment which we haven’t seen before or since. In the Agulhas current waves develop very fast and can be large and quite powerful.
On the second trip we left Cape Town heading North towards Barbados. When we left, there was a 12′ swell running and some where surprised we decided to sail but it was on a 12 second frequency so there was lots of up and down but nothing sudden and the seas were fairly comfortable. The entire trip to Barbados ranged from smooth water to rough enough that it slows the boat down but it remained comfortable the entire trip. We never saw any unusually large waves and conditions where never a concern on that trip.
I would be very careful in the Agulhas current on the east coast. We didn’t see anything worrisome on the west coast. Of course, it is the southern ocean so go at the right time of year but, with those precautions, we saw nothing concerning.
On the trip south from Richards Bay we left on November 11 and took about a week to make the trip with a few days in East London (https://mvdirona.com/Trips/southafrica2015/SouthAfrica2.html). On the trip north from Capetown, we left December 23rd (https://mvdirona.com/Trips/atlanticocean2016/atlanticocean1.html) and arrived in St. Helena January 4th (https://mvdirona.com/cache/TravelDigests/Trips/atlanticocean2016/atlanticocean1_TravelDigest.html).
Thank you James, your reply is very helpful, informative and quite interesting. We’re planning on making Barbados and St Helena our two “stops” on the way to Cape Town, and from what I understand a good time to go would be during the US fall. We are very excited and value your feedback and any suggestions you may have in the future prior to our trip. It’s a long trip, but well worth making.
We’re proof that the St. Helena direct to Barbados routing works and the other direction will as well. But it is an unusual routing and it’s a long one so, if you are in a power boat, you’ll need far more fuel than most Atlantic crossing routes and, if it’s a small boat, you’ll be at sea for close to a month. We enjoyed the trip and we would likely chose the same routing again but I did want to point out that there are some downsides to that routing.
More data on the trip: https://mvdirona.com/2016/02/barbados-arrival/.
Oh, in addition to my other reply to your comment I’d like to add as a matter of interest that I spent quite a few years in Knysna during my high school years, and spent countless happy hours on the estuary and at the Knysna Heads. At least two superyachts have entered through the heads, and the SA Navy has done so many a time during the annual Knysna Oyster Festival. What a pity you guys did not experience the beauty of Knysna and the welcoming atmosphere at the Knysna Yacht club and Waterfront area! Maybe next time. ? Maybe we’ll see you on the water during our Trans-Atlantic passage in 2027.
When we were in South Africa, we anchored at the Robberg Nature Reserve which is very close to Knysna (https://mvdirona.com/Trips/southafrica2015/SouthAfrica2.html). Perhaps next time we’ll spend some time at the docks and explore more. Thanks for the recommendation.
Happy Birthday Spitfire!!
Spit thanks you. It was a great day with enough tuna for everyone!
My apologies for not thanking you for answering a question regarding licencing and US flag on a boat.
Thank you very much as you have clarified the issue. Also thank you for the very detailed/informative videos regarding diesel engine troubleshooting on YouTube.
Fair winds following seas,
Ioannis
Thanks, we appreciate the feedback.
Just realised, that with social isolating due to COVID-19, it must be ages since you last ate at a Pizzeria. Have you managed to get some therapy to cure this longing? (lol)
Your right, we haven’t been in a restaurant since March in Antwerp. But, we frequently have Pizza on board so we’re not suffering too badly.
Hope you like the crab
Thanks very much for dropping by and giving us some crab. That’ll be dinner this evening. It was good meeting you.
Thanks for the highly detailed content and walk-through videos you’ve put out lately! Also thanks for the openness and willingness to share.
We’re a couple of followers who noticed you’re docked in Haugesund at the moment. Can we come by this weekend to say hi?
Normally, we would love to welcome you aboard to look around and chat but that’ll have to wait for post pandemic. We’re only here for a single night but, if you are in the area, feel free to come by and say hi. It would be good to meet you.
Was there a Norwegian agency that you were in contact with which inform you that you were eligible for entrance into Norway? Our boat is in Ulstienvik and I would like to come over to work on it in Sept. Travel from the US is not encouraged, though here in Maine we have a very low case count. Any info would be helpful. You sent me pictures of our boat when you were in Inverness a few years ago.
Hey Blair, good to hear from you. We contacted the police (at post.sor-vest@politiet.no) and they told us we could enter if we traveled from and could prove that we have been residing in a “green area” for the past six months (“green areas” defined at https://www.fhi.no/en/op/novel-coronavirus-facts-advice/facts-and-general-advice/travel-advice-COVID19/)
Jennifer
Thanks Jennifer, I will give it a try in a few weeks but I am not overly optimistic. I would like to come over in Mid-Sept.
They do change the rules every week or two, but right now it doesn’t look great for US residents to enter. Certainly you would need to go into quarantine for 10 days on arrival if you are allowed in, but that’s probably ok if you stay on the boat and bring with you everything you need to work. You might be able to make a case because you have a boat that requires work, but in the past that wasn’t enough to allow someone in (but if you owned property like a holiday home you could enter).
Good luck with it and sorry you got stuck away from your boat,
Jennifer
At the moment US citizens are not allowed entry to Norway for vacation or visit. Norway considers USA as a single entity when it comes to Covid-19 infected. If you are considered a technical expert, and are traveling to do work for a client in Norway you may be allowed. As Jennifer says it changes all the time, and details are available here: https://www.udi.no/en/about-the-corona-situation/currently-not-in-norway-questions-and-answers-for-nationals-outside-eueea/#link-18278
So the ‘green countries’ are those whose new per cases are below 20 per 100,000 over the last two weeks. USA is currently 224 (close, huh?)….We have no chance at all unless one comes within an exception..
It’s true. Compared to most countries, the Covid-19 situation in the US is pretty seriously out of control.
Somewhere near you is the grave of Nils Fuglesang who was one of the 50 escapees shot by the Gestapo after The Great Escape. I’ve visited the graves of the other 49.
We didn’t know that. Thanks for the historical reference.
Hello James
Just been watching your issues with AC in pilot house etc. A long shot, and I would imagine you will have checked it, but on Mermaid Explorer we had a similar problem, high pressure shut off of both pilot house and I think the foward cabin. I finally diagnosed it to the sea water pump not being able to pump enough water througn the system to over come the loop up to the pilot house and down again. In the end I throttled down all the sea water outlets of all AC units. Still allowing a flow but probably half of what an outlet could give . After that had no further issues. I suspect in hind sight that the sea water pump may have lost some capacity due to wear?
Phil ex N52 Mermaid Explorer
It behaves just like that and it’s very suspicious that the faults all happened at roughly the same time after the boat was lifted out of the water for a week suggesting airlock but I don’t get an HPF fault. On closer investigation both units appear to have revsersing valves stuck in the middle. When you had your problem on Mermaid Explorer, did you get HPF faults from the failing units.
Since you have tracked your hose routing and ours is likely the same, could you give a quick run down on where the pump output splits into 5 separate lines and anything you know about the routing of those lines. Thanks Phil.
Hi James, in case this may help you, my ac water supply “manifold” (using the term rather generously) is located in the ER starboard side right opposite the main engine behind one of those hinged panels below the fuel tank. Barely fits, made out of a series of PVC tee pipes, no valves to shut off individual supplies. I’m in the process of designing a new one that will include individual shutoffs to make servicing easier.
Good find Chris. It is there on Dirona as well and, I agree there isn’t much clearance. Thanks!
Glad to help out! I also know that the guest cabin and master cabin lines run under the master cabin head, under the floor panel nearest the door. The guest cabin line runs under the forward stairs and then turns to port to make its way over to the unit under the forward berth.
The line for the starboard main salon unit should be the aft-most end of the manifold. it runs backwards and then up, presumably behind the fuel tank.
I’m guessing that the PH and galley (main salon port side unit) turn and run across the forward end of the ER and up the port side, possibly through the “mystery cabinet” at the port side aft end of the master cabin. Do you have that cabinet on your boat? On mine there is a nice finished cabinet door above the port side lower closet, outboard of the head of the bed. it’s basically an empty space between the galley and the MSR. Some hoses run through there, nothing else.
Thanks for the additional data on the hose routing. Yes, we have the same cabinet between the MSR and the Galley. We have it absolutely packed with spares and other seldom used gear.
Hello James
Yes I got HPF faults on both units that failed. I noticed the water was not flowing out of the skin fittings of the pilot house and foward stateroom unit. I too thought it was an airlock. I think I went through most of the checks you did re airlock and came up with nothing. That’s when I decided the pump seemed not to have he capacity to get water up to the pilot house, and then throttled all units to get enough to go through the pilot house loop. Re where the pump splits out to the five seperate lines I can’t help you. But thinking about the problem I had I wonderd if the pilot house and foward stateroom had a single feed i.e. up to the pilot house then on to the forward stateroom. It may all be academic as it seems your fault is different by the lack of HPF fault indication. Be very interested as to the cause when you finaly find the issue!!
OK, thanks for the additional data Phil. On our boat and likely on yours all 5 units feed off a single manifold to the stbd outside of the main engine. We have good flow out of all 5 skin fittings. Measuring at the reversing valve we see the valves are both stuck 1/2 way and the hot compressor outlet is routed directly back into the suction side. This will destroy the compressors so we need new compressors at least. The stuck reversing valves could be low pressure since they are pressure operated or the reversing valves may be faulty. Since we can’t be sure, we would replace both.
Given the units are 11 years old and have been in live aboard use, I don’t think it’s worth servicing them so we’ll replace both units.
The snake you met on the trail, looks like the only poisonous snake we have in Norway. It is easily recognized by the zig-zag pattern on the back. The snake can be either brown, like in your picture, or more black. You can walk faster than it crawls, and the snake usually tries to get away, instead of attacking as a last resort self defence. If bitten, you should visit a doctor as soon as possible. For people of good health, the poison is not lethal.
I came very close to stepping on that one before I saw it and backed up. Just a half step away. It appeared to be sleeping in the sun on the trail. We skirted around it and the snake didn’t move until we were nearly past. Glad we decided to give it some space.
Hi, I love your blogs about the wilderness in Norway- makes me envious being stuck here in Essex UK. Your snake was an adder and yes it is venomous but not seriously so. I would feel lucky to have spotted one and it is doing just what I would expect it to do- fleeing away from you- James is bigger than it and it will avoid you if it possibly can; mice and other small rodents are what it will choose to bite. They are harmless unless you are unlucky enough to mistakenly sit or tread on one. If bitten you should seek medical help but it is very unlikely and they are nowhere near as serious as the critters you have in the States such as rattlers and cottonmouths.
Good that we gave him space then. Thanks for the identification.
Your report on your first hike prompted me to ask — do you have a fitness regime or is boat maintenance sufficient to keep you in shape? I am asking as we try to get creative in this time of gym and studio closures.
Hi Karen. Hope you and Gord are both doing well. The boat maintenance sometimes does feel like a workout, but it doesn’t really keep us in shape. This was one of the few aspects of our cruising lifestyle that we hadn’t found a good solution for. So a couple of years back we started doing bodyweight exercises, following Marc Lauren’s program in You Are Your Own Gym. We’ve been rather sporadic about it, but definitely are much stronger than when we started. That gives us strength and some flexibility and balance, and what cardio we get is from walking, biking and hiking (great to be back in Norway for that).
We like Lauren’s program because it doesn’t take much time and we can do it on the boat mostly with the furniture and limited space we have. We eventually did buy a resistance trainer (by Ultimate Body Press) to help with a few exercises. First we read the book, and then use the app for actually doing the exercises–it’s pretty good. The exercises are based on short bursts with a rest period, and that works very well for the two of us to exercise together–one exercises during the other’s rest period. Note if you do try–the exercises are deceptively challenging. We tried it for the first time on a return trip to Seattle one weekend. James took them on with his usual gusto and on Monday emailed me saying he couldn’t lift his phone. :)
Jennifer
Sounds like you have a pretty good handle on you AC issues and given you will probably replace them this may not be applicable, however, there is a very good Facebook group dedicated to marine air systems. I have found them to be friendly, responsive and very helpful when I have had questions about my 2003-era Marine Airrr systems. Can be found by searching: “Marine AC/Heating And Refrigeration Maintenance And Repair Discussion Group”.
Good luck!
We appreciate the pointer. Thanks Tim.
Hi Jennifer, your photos from Norway are so beautiful. I love boardwalks too! When you do your next lap of the Pacific, I must take you to the Royal National Park just south of Sydney. There is a track that I know you would enjoy. Here is a link to the boardwalk. https://www.ttms.com.au/royal-np-frp Stay safe and have a wonderful time. Kate :-)
Great to hear from you Kate. I was just yesterday looking at the write-up of our Falmouth O-ring adventure (https://mvdirona.com/2018/04/engine-work-for-christmas/). Thanks again for your help with that.
We’re loving being back in Norway–it’s the perfect place to be right now. Royal NP looks like a fabulous walk–I’ll definitely take you up on that offer if we’re back in the area. Hope to meet up with you in your Nordhavn 41 someday!
Jennifer
Hello James,
Looking at that “anchoring” picture got me wondering.
I’m familiar with non-skid deck coatings used in the military which is basically like walking on coarse sand paper. Even that can get slick under the right conditions.
I always assumed the texture on the deck of Nordhavn’s was simply molded into the fiberglass. With those rubber boots, or really any type of shoe with a dense sole do you find any difficulty on a wet deck finding traction?
I think I remember a post about getting boots at a marine store, do the boots have a sole designed for that type of thing?
Hey Steve. Yes, you are right and the early Nordhavn diamond anti-skid (molded into the decks) was very sharp. I’ve been on Nordhavns where bare feet isn’t that comfortable. For sure this is a sticky surface where a fall is unlikely. In all Nordhavn’s delivered in the last 12 to 15 years, they have moved to a less aggressive diamond anti-skid design that is comfortable with bare feet but probably less slip resistant. But, even though the anti-slip surface on our decks isn’t as aggressive as it could be, we’ve never found it slippery when wet. It seems possible to get a finish that is comfortable in bare feet but still safe.
The boots we use are sold to commercial fisherman but there is nothing about them special other than heavy construction. The sole is just an aggressive sole like you might see on a hiking boot. They feel safe but so do track shoes. A common choice is a special boat shoe or boot that has a very fine tread with alternator 1/8″ gaps and 1/8″ sole lines in zig-zag pattern. These also seem to work well but cost more and don’t last as long than the heavier build commercial boots we use.
Really enjoyed Generator part 2 video. Jennifer continues to read my mind and ask the right questions and I like James’ commentary about checking things twice.
PS – my son started a new job with Amazon this week. I believe the title level II Area Manager at an Orlando area fulfillment center. He is really excited.
Jennifer does an amazing job of that and it’s fortunate she does. I get focused on the job and forget to cover a lot of important details.
Glad to hear your son is joining Amazon. I’ve been there 11 years now and I’m still enjoying it as much as the first day. Really challenging and really enjoyable.
Hi just watched your installation of the cylinder head and was very impressed as i am a mechanic and I thought a very good one but you are much more than that you must be a Specialst in the the field. Well done from an admirer of your skill. Regards Pete
Thanks for the feedback Pete. Much appreciated.
Nice to see that you are back in Norway and have chosen to explore all the islands and fjords in Ryfylke. I have a cabin on Foldøy, an island near Nedstrand. Hope to see your ship when you pass by after leaving Ilsvåg / Sandeid. Stay safe and I hope you have a great time exploring Norway!
You are quite near. We will probably pass quite near your cabin on the way back out. Thanks for the welcome back to Norway. We’ve really been looking forward to it.
Regarding your “satellite roaming from a cellular plan”, is it possible you were picking up some sort of hot spots that have been setup on some of the oil rigs in the North Sea? Still clearly presents a pretty big price shock concern, but those prices are directionally aligned with what some US providers charge on cruise ships[1].
[1] https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=1752
Yes, your suggestion that we were likely picking up a marine cellular base with satellite back haul makes perfect sense. It could have been a cruise ship or oil rig. Given where we were, mostly likely an oil rig.
You mentioned you have 200+ amps of 24v battery charging, spread across two chargers. Do you power those chargers at 120v or 240v?
The reason I ask is that of the 240v battery charges I’ve seen, they are all single phase (ie, 1 hot and 1 neutral). But I’m curious if you have chargers that you are able to power off of your 240v split phase generator? And if your chargers are 120v, how the load shedding of a single charger affects the full capacity of your generator (since that might lead to uneven loading of L1 vs L2).
Our boat is not wired as more North American houses are with a 240V split phase feed driving all 240V appliances and two phases of 120V. Instead we have a single phase 240V generator that drives 240V appliances and then is stepped down to 120V to feed 120V loads. In many ways, this is a very nice design in that it entirely avoids phase impballance but the downside is all 120V loads are passing through a 2:1 transformer with some efficiency loss.
Our chargers are all 240V input and 24V output. The design we are using avoids phase imbalance issues but, for those with a split phase system, the best approach is to load shed on each phase independently.
Ahhh that was my incorrect assumption that you had a split phase generator. That makes sense (and dashes my hopes that there are 240v split phase battery chargers out there that I had missed). In practice your setup with everything going through the inverters probably avoids the step down issues unless you have the inverters offline for some reason, right?
Alex asked “In practice your setup with everything going through the inverters probably avoids the step down issues unless you have the inverters offline for some reason, right?” Most of the time but when the generator is running we always power the 120V inverter since it’s a 100A@24V charger. With the generator running we are using the 240V to 120V step down transformer. And, under some circumstances, when we are plugged into 240V@60hz shore power, we’ll run the 120V system off of the shore power which is through the 2:1 transformer.
Hello James,
You already know the problem with your HVAC units. Just coming out of the yards, and the units effected changing pretty much seals it IMHO.
Air inside a water source heat pump can be extremely hard to get out if there is no place for it to escape when it hits a high spot esp. if the return/discharge over board piping goes back down from a high spot.
if you look at how that condenser is designed the inlet comes in at the bottom and out the top so any air will eventually move to the top at that point on every unit.
It is a misconception that if you pump water into a pipe with high level traps it will blow any air pockets out of a Hydronic system. It will move it but only in very small amounts and given enough time will eventually work it all out but most people don’t have the time or desire to wait that long. Especially if they are needing use of the equipment at the time it’s discovered.
I am assuming you have a common raw water suction which goes to the pump, then to the unit then, each unit has it’s own overboard discharge?
The fastest way to get that air out is to do what you did on the pilot house to each unit. Unhook the discharge from the condenser and bleed it at that point.
Once the condenser is full of water the air will still remain at the top of the trap where the outlet makes it’s downward loop but it will begin to take small parts of the bubble out with it as the water goes over the top and most importantly you’ll have a condenser full of water and flow.
Imagine that condenser as a pipe within a pipe where the water is on the outside and the refrigerant is on the inside pipe. You may have flow but if the condenser part is only half full due to an air pocket which prevents the refrigerant pipe from being completely encased in water, the heat transfer is greatly reduced.
Once the entire system is completely bled, you’ll not have any issue until the next time Dirona is out of the water or you open a line for some reason. Which that doesn’t seem to happen that often.
If it was me however, about the second time it happened I’d install a tee with a valve so I could hook up a garden hose and throw it overboard and really bleed the line.
They do make automatic vents but they fail then leak water and if you haven’t piped the discharge to a “safe” place you have a mess.
Steve, you are amazing. The system is as you guessed: “a common raw water suction which goes to the pump, then to the unit then, each unit has it’s own overboard discharge.” I’ve never had the system not immediately return to service after a yard ship but this trip was up a relatively steep rail lift so the boat was both out of the water but also on 4.2 degree bow up angle. From what you are saying, it sounds like entrapped air is the likely issue. We’ll go after that potential problem and let you know what we learn.
It’s great have a professional HVAC engineer aboard. Thanks!
I’m sure the angle this time had a lot to do with it. Additionally there is should be a check valve “probably” on the discharge of the pump to prevent water in the system from draining when the pump is off or the boat is out of the water. Depending on how it’s installed relative to the angle if it is a “swing check”, it could have allowed it to remain open or it simply could be stuck partially open which would have made this haul out different.
I can’t find a valve in the installation instructions but I’ll look for one on the boat. I should at least find the manifold that goes from the single pump output to 5 HVAC unit cooling hoses. I tried draining air out of the top of the MSR unit but their didn’t seem to be any and that didn’t help. Works super busy right now so I’ll not properly investigate for a week but thanks for the ideas to chase down.#
From the original post, considering everything going on air would have been something I would have bet money on but unfortunately it’s rather like troubleshooting someone’s car over the phone.
If you have bled the system and either got no air, or bled all there initially was , had good flow, and have cycled power to the unit:
the system should have started and ran fine or, started and ran for a short time tripping out again due to a high pressure fault.
I am not familiar with Dometic so all I know from the picture is it is a 18000 BTU unit which is not it seems enough to get a decent manual. However, every water source heat pump I have ever seen will flash a code on the control board indicating what the fault is and from that you can generally move to possible causes.
If it is a high pressure fault, I am still going to put money on air in the system. As I said air can be extremely hard to get out of high level traps and you could have one before the unit effecting the GPM flow.
“Eye balling” the possible height of your PH unit to the water line, I do not see how the system could get by without a check valve but if your drawings don’t show one don’t worry to much about it as at this point unless it is stuck shut which would effect flow it’s not the issue as only the PH would be effected Now that you are back in the water. How you could have done other haul outs without one will just have to remain a mystery to me.
After you’ve bled it and recycled power to reset any codes, if the unit does not start and run for at least a short time we are on the wrong track.
Today I went after the problem more seriously and made no progress. These systems are all Dometic Marine Air units of around 12 years old and the model number of one of the faulty systems is VTD10KZ-HV. It’s a 12k BTU unit. The system I’m comparing it to below is a 16K BTU unit (probably VTD16KZ-HV).
I checked for flow at all cooling water outlets and there is water flow at each outlet. One of the units is below the waterline but only by about a foot. I took the water cooling line off and quickly put a clear plastic line on and then put a wet dry vacuum on the line. I did get a lot of air out of the system. I re-attached the hose and it still didn’t work. Since the guest stateroom is both above the water and in a easier place to access, I did the same thing on it. Again, quite a bit of air came out. I put the hose back on for testing and it still didn’t work. I repeated but just left the vacuum on pulling water but not air but that didn’t help either.
I don’t have gauges and they don’t provide gauge ports so I decided to measure temperature as a proxy for pressure. On a unit that is operating well, I measured high side/low side temperature when heating at 190F/45F. The inlet air was 73F and the outlet air was 120F. On a faulty system I measured high side/low side temps at 168F/148F and air inlet/outlet temps at 68F/69F.
Repeating the same test cooling, on a good unit I got high side/low side temps of 161F/29F and air inlet/outlet temps of 70F/45F. It’s working very well. On the sick system we got high side/low side of 166F/145F and air inlet/outlet temps of 69F/69F.
The cooling water inlet and outlet temperatures are pretty much the same on the functioning systems and the faulty systems presumably because they are moving more water than needed to operate the system so there deltaT is very low. My amateur working theory from reading the above, is I don’t have large enough pressure differentials between the high side and low side or the expansion valve is stuck/inoperative so not correctly maintaining adequate pressure deltas. Basically, the compressor is running and cycling gas but it’s all close to the same temperature. Another explanation that seems possible is the system still isn’t properly cooling and that’s the cause of the pressure differential but since it is flowing water and the water is not warming up, it doesn’t seem that likely. However, two independent units failed at the same time and cooling water is the only common element.
If you have any ideas Steve, I would appreciate it but I know that remote diagnosis is painful so, if nothing jumps out for you, don’t invest too much time in it.
I forgot to add that these systems will reliably produce a HPF code on poor water flow and it’s not happening. My money is both units have a problem. There is no signs of oil or leaks around either of them.
If your compressors are running it looks to me that the loading plates could be open and in bypass.
I’ll do some research on those Panasonic scrolls when I get home but I seriously doubt they have the “core sense” technology found on larger equipment.
However, since they all use a bi-metallic plate to load and unload I would suggest you remove power to the unit for at least 8 hours or until the compressor shell reaches ambient temp if I don’t get back to you before then.
Either way that will allow everything time to cool down and reset.
Those units aren’t correctly pumping, whether it’s due to open plates, expansion device or low refrigerant charge I do not know at this point. Turn them off and eliminate the plates first by letting everything cool down.
We really appreciate you passing on suggestions to us Steve. Thanks very much.
Hi James and Jennifer!
It must feel good to be back cruising after your long time at anchor. But with all the work you’ve done, you must feel good about the shape Dirona is in-
I was curious how your adjustments to the PSS turned out? I’m contemplating upgrading to one this winter to replace my old school conventional packing gland. I’d like to have a dry bilge…
Also, we’ve started tackling the job of polishing and waxing the boat. Do you have products – polish, wax, pads, etc that you can recommend? Any technique advice? What we’ve done so far isn’t quite as uniform as I’d like – I’m thinking I need to use a coarser compound. I’ve been using a wool pad – do you use that or foam?
Thank you!
Yes, Dirona is in pretty good shape. The only known major issue right now is the leaking rear main oil seal on the generator. For some reason it’s leaking a lot less now with the new cylinder head but we still will need to change it but it’s less urgent. We also have a valve adjustment coming do on the wing engine and the generator (scheduled 50 hours after replacing the cylinder head). Overall, you are reight, the boat is in excellent operating condition right now.
The PSS seal is still leaking but I may continue my experiment. We currently are on the light side of the recommended bellows tightness. Since it’s leaking somewhat less since we adjusted it, we plan to try tightening it further. They recommend 1.25″ on this sized system and, since that seemed very tight, I set it to about 1.1″. They recommend using 0.25″ more compression if leaking so we’ll give just 1.4″ to 1.5″ of compression a try. I’ve never had any issues with PSS leaking in the past — this is only caused by a less than true propeller shaft.
Hey Greg. We use 3M wax products as they are good quality and good value. For most standard waxing we use 3M Marine Cleaner and Wax (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0014438D2) and, on heavily oxidized areas we use 3M Marine Fiberglass Restorer and Wax (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002IVCP3Y). We use a Makita polisher (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OKEDW0M) with wool polishing pads.
Thanks for the recommendation on polishing products. We’ve started the process using a 3 M two step compound and polish (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000AZ9J0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_CzhfFbZBFMEF3) followed by 3M wax but really like the idea of a single step product. We have a few areas that are pretty oxidized and I’ve been a little disappointed in the finished results. I’ve ordered the products you recommended and look forward to trying them!
8 looked at YouTube videos on the PSS seal – it seems like the flex in the boot should take care of a small amount of shaft runout? I’m assuming you’ve tried to clean the sealing surface – one video used 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper. Seems like that might not be for the faint of heart… I guess I should look at my shaft runout before I go to far down this path. Is yours the standard type A or the Pro version? I take it you’ve only vented it and don’t have cooling water plumbed to it?
Thanks again!
Greg
The bellows should take up any small deviations in the shaft and normally do. In this situation, the shaft is touching the carbon where the carbon block is designed to allow the shaft to “float” inside it. When touching shaft due to out of alignment installation, the carbon rub surface vibrates which causes it to leak small drips. It was also too loose. I’ve rectified both and it’s still leaking slightly. The PSS install says add another 1/4″ if still allowing some water passage.
The surfaces were showing some damage so it might easily help to sand the surface but I don’t see a way to do that safely while we are in the water.
Good luck on your wax job.
I see – it does sound like it may have enough damage that it won’t seal.
This video: https://youtu.be/kXKA120ssOs seems to show a pretty simple way to clean sealing surfaces that leak that could be done in the water I believe. It may not actually dress the surfaces as much as it is intended to clean up particulate matter that contaminated the surfaces. But maybe worth a try?
Yes, that looks worth doing. Thanks for finding that and sending it our way Greg.
Love the picture of Cape Wrath thank you for posting it. We rounded Cape Wrath for Norway in the 80’s. It was also calm, but by looking at the landscape you can’t help but imagine how intimidating it might be in a full gale.
Good to hear from you again Jamie. When we rounded Cape Wrath this time we were heading back to the Orkney Island group. But, that morning Norway opened up sufficiently to let us in and the North Sea weather was looking good, so we changed plans and set sail for Stavanger Norway.
Welcome back to Norway! Good to see it finally worked out.
It’s GREAT to be back. Thanks for all your help with all things related to Norway Trond.
Disregard previous query. I see your follow up on the hydraulics heat/impeller pump failure issue now. What other functions on your vessel are operated by hydraulics? I’m assuming steering is hydraulic.
Yup, as you said. The problem was just a worn out cooling pump impeller. Easy to correct as long as you can find all the missing blades. They typically migrate to the heat exchanger. I managed to get them out using a wet dry vacuum so it ended up being a quick and easy job.
The hydrauic system powers the active stabilizers, front and rear thrusters, emergency bilge pump, and anchor windlass. Your are right, the Steering is hydraulic but it’s a different hydraulic system with manual pumps on each of two helms and redundant autopilot pumps for the autopilot and follow-up lever system. The crane for the tender is also hydarulic but it too is on an independent system powered by a 24v electric pump.
I am a hydraulics enthusiast. What did you learn about the hydraulics heating issue the other day? I love your RPM labeling BTW on the coupling cover between the hydraulic motor and the impeller pump.
The problem was just a worn out cooling pump impeller. Easy to correct as long as you can find all the missing blades. They typically migrate to the heat exchanger. I managed to get them out using a wet dry vacuum so it ended up being a quick and easy job.
velcome to norway again.very interesting blogg you have. and nordhavn 52 is a very nice boat. have a great travel in norway.
Thanks very much for the welcome to Norway. We have been looking forward to returning since we were last here two years back. We just loved it and we’re looking forward to more exploring, hiking, and enjoying nature.
Hi James. Steve from MAverick. We crossed paths at the Vasa Marina two years ago. I am curious about how you got into Norway. Our boat is in Norway but we have been unable to enter from USA. We wondered if we went to another country for two weeks whether we could then get in but Norway says they base it on residence. what are the technicalities with you? Where are you considered resident? Steve McInnis (jealous)
Hi again Steve. Sorry your boat got trapped in Norway. The current restrictions on entry require that you can prove you have been residing in a “green country” for the last 6 months. Hopefully things will open up again soon but the US isn’t doing an awesome job of restricting spread and, until that is under control, I think all of Europe is going to be cautious.
Could I encourage you to use ISO-8601 date format for your non-American followers please?
Hey Paul, you’ll be pleased to know that I personally did adopt the year-month-day format of ISO-8601 decades ago. My argument was, if everyone is going to do it differently, I might as well adopt some standard even if ISO doesn’t swing a great deal of weight where I was living at the time. However, Jennifer has been less excited about that change and I’ve more or less shrugged and not worried about it. In the end, the world won’t all put the navigation bouys on the same side of the channel, they won’t put the all the cars on the same side of road, they won’t use the same measurement system, won’t all write 1pm the same way, and seem resistant to all use the same language, so we just put up with it and do our best. Since you have a UK email address, I would point out that it would be slightly more convenient for us if you changed the side of the road you drive on :-). Oh, and that Whitworth thread system hasn’t always made me happy either.
–James Hamilton, 2020-07-15
I’m sure there is a water pump to cool my fin hydraulics but for the life of me I don’t know where it is. Maybe it only has the one hydraulically driven water pump, but I don’t know where that is either.
On a related note, I would really like to know why there is what appears to be a hydraulic hose attached to a big fitting sticking straight up out of the hull below the floorboard in the MSR right at the engine room door. It’s like this big shiny steel post sticking up out of the fiberglass with a hydraulic hose screwed on the top of it. Is there another keel cooler for the hydraulics on the starboard side? News to me, if there is.
Stabilizers require little power, run at lower pressure, and produce little heat load so, on boats equipped only with stabilizers, they only have a small keel cooler on the stbd side and don’t have a hydraulic heat exchanger and the pump water plumbing to cool it.
The hydraulic fitting you are can see in the hull at the MSR to ER door is the keel cooler connection. The hydraulic fluid is run through a small heat exchanger in a pocket in the right side of the hull too cool it.
I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your blog! You are skilled beyond the scope of my own experience in both blogging and in your mechanic abilities. Please keep up the good work!
-Spence
Thanks. Both Jennifer and I appreciate the feedback on the blog.
Thank you so much for your videos and this blog. I’m a novelist. Most of my scenes take place in settings I know well, but I’m writing an Atlantic/Mediterranean crossing in a boat about the size of yours with no experience whatsoever. None of my other research compares to the quality of your explanations or the pleasure of listening to the two of you and imagining your travels.
That’s great feedback. Much appreciated. Jennifer read a portion of your book, “One More Angus Mohr” and enjoyed it. If you have any questions we can help with, feel free to send them our way.
Our Girl, Lady Di 4 is on the hard as well her in St Petersburg, FL. They won’t let me work on her in the yard though as I see you are doing there. That said, the yard is great. Have used them for several years.
Always fun (or scary? :>) ) to see what is going on under the waterline as they pull her out. So far just normal stuff plus replacing a couple older thru-hull valves that have become difficult to move or are no longer sealing all the way after 17 years of service.
I installed PPS’s last time she was out (2.5 yr ago) and they have worked great. I added the “slip collar” immediately after install as a sort of belt and suspender seal. Yard said no adjustments necessary this year so happy.
Have fun!
Glad to hear your yard work is also going well. We took our last coat of paint today and I just installed all the zincs. We’ll do a few paint touch ups tomorrow and then lower it back down the slipway Our job was also a simple one with just bottom paint, zincs, and a 10 year insurance survey.
My experience with PSS seals is once properly installed, you just need to check that the set screws never back off. Again, if they are properly installed with new set screws that shouldn’t happen either. Once on they are good for 10 years without needing anything although I think the manufacturer recommends 6 year replacement.
Hope neither job brings us any surprises before being put back in the water.
I’m with you on the “No surprises”. The only possible one left is the invoice. Quotes around here are usually “Well, it will be around…” which rarely resembles the final number. Spoke with the owner the other day and suggested he apply the 50% discount book to the calculations. He said he was laughing hysterically behind his mask. :>)
Hope the pricing of brings no surprises either. For us, this is the fastest we’ve ever done a yard trip where we lifted out Monday morning and went back in Friday morning.
Looked like the props/shafts have not been painted. Do you leave those bare because you cruise in colder waters? Here is FL bare metal is covered in barnacles in 10 days with the current water temps. I’m trying my third different coating. Tried propspeed first. Great while it lasted but in our shallow, sandy bottom waters it did not last long as it gets sandblasted; then went with Pettit high zinc content prop coat spray which was highly touted and worked for a while but we did not get a year out of it so now we are trying Velox, another highly touted running gear coating by our mutual shaft seal company PYI. Expensive but so is having a diver come out every ten days once the material wears off. PYI states with Veloix we can recoat after a year without media blast and reprime…so in theory a relatively quick in-and-out at the yard. That would be good for us as we get more than two years out of bottom paint.
Hoping to have her back in the water this week.
Safe cruising!
Tim
We’ve had excellent success with Propspeed and normally use it but didn’t on this trip mostly because it was a last minute decision to do the bottom paint and survey in Stornoway. We’ll see how we do without additional protection — our take was, with the bottom not painted in 2 1/2 years, we needed to do that at least so we took the opportunity.
Hello James,
I was just wondering how hard it is to change the PSS once the boat Is back in the water? I would assume you could disconnect the shaft from the engine and work from that way IF you thought you could keep up with the water that is?
Bearing in mind until I saw your picture I had never had any interest in a PSS and what I’ve found on the internet is not as “technical” as I wanted however, other than the carbon stator mating with stainless steel rather than carbon against ceramic, it’s really the same thing as a mechanical pump seal something I see quite frequently.
From the pictures if that was a mechanical pump seal, I’d be surprised if alignment would help at this stage.
That’s a good point. The sealing system is a lot like that on a large water pump. It’s a pretty good design that we have used for more than 20 years across two boats. The only flaw we have seen over the years, and it’s reported by many others, is the rotor which is held in place by set screws can loosen off in use and move back allowing it to leak water fairly dangerously. To avoid that risk, we install a collar about 1″ further up shaft so, if the rotor loosens off, it’ll move up to leak so it’ll be detected but won’t leak so much that there is any risk. We’ve also found that if new set screws are used and lock set screws are installed on top, this failure mode doesn’t seem to happen. I suspect that it’s common to reuse set screws and this can lead to not properly holding the rotor in place.
The most recent failure mode is a shaft that is out of true is causing the PSS to leak. In this case, the shaft is only barely out of ABYC specs. Technically it’s not as straight as it should be but it’s not bad enough that we can feel vibration. If it didn’t cause the PSS seal to leak, we really wouldn’t care. But, it throws a drip every 5 seconds or so. Not a big deal but still annoying. I put a small container underneath to catch the bulk of it and a towel in front of it to catch the rest so the water is under control and the bilge is dry but I need to vacuume out the container and change the towel every 4 hours when I do an engine room check.
In thinking this through, the PSS should be able to cope far better with slight out of true on the shaft so I’ve been investigating the installation with care and found two issues:
1) The shaft is supposed to rotate within the carbon seal with the bellows flexing as needed to follow the shaft and maintain a solid seal between the carbon stator and the stainless rotator. In this case, it’s misalligned so the seal is riding on the shaft at the top rather than allowing the shaft to seal. This causes the carbon seal to be bumped by the shaft as it rotates with around 0.008″ runout. My theory on this one is if the shaft floated inside the carbon stator, the seal would be maintained and the shaft runout wouldn’t touch the stator. This angle is dificult and a bit unsafe to adjust while in the water.
2) The shaft seal tightness spec from the manufacturer is 1.25″ of compression. It’s easiest to check this out of the water but, now that we have checked it, we have found that it’s not close to as tight as the manufacturer recommends. This compression setting can be changed while in the water and we have tried both tighter and looser and none have worked but, now that it’s out of the water and we can measure the exact compression amount, it’s never been close to 1.25″ since installed 2 years ago.
Our theory is a correct aligned installed combined with proper compression has a chance of eliminating the leak. There will be some maximum amount of shaft runnout that the PSS system can deal with without leaking but, whatever that is, near perfect alignment and compression should help. Having seen how seriously misaligned and under compressed the system was, we think we have a chance of making a big difference on this problem.
You are most likely correct, from installation videos I found on the internet nobody seems worried about touching either the carbon stator or the face of the stainless rotor with their bare hands.
Do that with a pump seal and you’ll be back in a year or less replacing it again so they are not the same type of carbon material.
Unless the spring breaks pre-load never changes on a pump so once they start leaking, it due to the rubber seal on the stator failing unless the carbon has failed due to damage from installation, soaking up oil from your bare hands creating uneven wear points or running the pump dry.
My thought from the picture was from the discoloration of the carbon and what I could see of the rotor that the flat, smooth surface needed on both was no longer there.
However I have no experience with a PSS and probably would have wasted money replacing it while out of the water.
It would be better to replace the seal so your intuition is correct. But it’s a big job requiring that the prop come off, the coupling be unbolted from the transmission flange, the coupling removed from it’s press fit on the shaft with set screws and lock wire, then slide the shaft back to allow the seal to be changed. It’s also uncertain if a new seal would help given the prop shaft runout.
If we find the PSS continues to leak, we’ll change the prop shaft, coupling, and seal on the next lift. If alignment does work, we’ll probably not take any further action on the prop shaft runout since it’s only 0.008″. That is more than this shaft should have but I’m curious if the PSS will seal up with correct installation even with the excessive prop shaft runout.
The PSS cleaned up much better than I thought it would. I didn’t think about asking and the job was probably already done anyway but, did you happen to take pictures of the face of the carbon and stainless?
Just interested.
I don’t think I got a picture of the sealing surfaces but they are in rough shape. It looks like it’s been chattering probably due to rubbing the vibrating shaft so the surface is rough. Making it all slightly worse, there is a small section of crevice corrosion in the stainless rotor. The chattering has been causing accelerated wear on the carbon seal so it may be the case that even setup properly, it’ll no longer be able to seal. Overall seal condition is fine from a safety perspective, the bellows are only 2 years old but the sealing surface may drip due to the many imperfections caused by the out-of-true shaft and seal installation errors.
I’ll see how this work does and then, on the basis of those results, figure what work needs to be done in the next lift out of the water.
Love your videos, I am a big fan of Nordhavn. I am a decent amateur mechanic but clearly not in your league. Question, couldn’t help but notice the valve issue is 3rd problem near rear of this engine counting starter and main seal as others. Are they related, one caused the others? Is there a fourth perhaps cooling related?
I generally agree with you that problems that happen at the same time are highly likely to be related to each other and, on that belief, I’ve given this considerable thought. The starter looks too be indepdenent to me on the logic that the engine cranked slowly prior to change and, once changed, cranked at full normal speed. That one appears to have been an independent failure. And it actually had happened more than a 100 engine hours earlier so it being an independent fault seems reasonable.
But, the oil leak happened right before the valve seat problem and, since it took me some time to understand the valve seat problem, the oil leak probably came at exactly the same time. This pair looks highly likely to be related but by what?
All I have come up with is only a loose a connection but an interesting possibility. When I took off the head, the valves were in rough shape with one very bad seat and all valves looking like they have been leaking. If the intake valves where leaking there would be pressure spikes in the intake manifold. The crankcase ventilation valve connects the intake to the crankcase and, if there are are pressure spikes in the intake, the vent valve could be forced open putting pressure loads on the crankcase since this is the only vent. If that happens, the engine will leak. Significant positive presure in the crankcase will cause oil leaks.
This is a credible but complex connection so it’s possible but far from understood or assured to be true. But it’s just possible enough that I’m interested in learning more so, rather than change the rear main oil seal, I’m leaving it unchanged to see if it leaks just as badly as before signaling that the issues are unrelated or if the leak is reduced in which case there is a high probability that the issues were connected. I’m going to hold off changing the rear main oil seal and put up with the oil spraying around for another 20 to 50 hours to get a read on whether or not these issues are related. It’s an interesting puzzle and I’m curious what we will learn.
Hi,
What is the contractor you use as the automatic transfer switch in your setup? I recall it was a Schneider Electric unit but I can’t recall the specific model number. Thanks!
We’re using a Schneider LC1D80008U7 and, in the configuration we’re using, it never switches hot to hot. If generator not running, shore power hot closes the relay after a short delay. Generator running opens the relay prior to the generator taking the load. We’ve tested it in hot-to-hot transfer and it works well but it doesn’t run that way in our configuration.
Hello Jennifer and James.
Thx so much for the info you both post for us.
A wealth of knowledge.
I also have JD’s and would like to know how you manage the balance between the range you sometimes need, or the inland passages you make, and maintaining the proper load on your engines so as not to get the dreaded ‘glaze’.
I’ve been told by JD that I should be running at around 80% to get the potential longevity from my engines.
Also how do you know what load you are running your genny at, at any given time.
Is it just a matter of calculating what appliances etc you are running?
(I to have just had to replace the engine to my genny due to water intake)
My wife and I are gradually making the trip from UK back to Aus over a couple of years.
How have you managed the watch on Long voyages. Particularly at night?
Do you use matchsticks under your eyelids, or are there times you trust your instraments?
In answer, please keep in mind that I have many talents, but technology and electrical do not show on my radar.
Alan
Sounds like fun plans and it’s sounds like you are taking the right approach and not setting a firm schedule. That’ll be much more fun and safer as well.
The Deere team is wonderful but the recommendation to maintain 80% load on a propulsion engine is a bit of an outlier. That’s just impractical for the vast majority of boat users. You will spend time in marina going slowly, you will pass through restricted speed areas, you will sometimes operate in water too rough for speed, you won’t be inclined to speed in picturesque areas. 80% is just impossible to achieve in a marine propulsion engine for anything other a small number of commercial boats.
In a steady state generator applicaitons, 80% load is practical but it’s hard to achieve in propolsion. Most operators will want the power to achieve hull speed but won’t want to operate at that speed most of the time. In our boat, we want to achieve 9.5 kts and we do use occasionally. At times we use it for longer periods where we ran at 230 hp for days on end working up the coast from Melborn Australia to the Gold Coast but that rare. Sometimes we push harder because weather is comming. Other times we push harder to nightfall is near and we prefer to arrive in new locations during daylight. We wouldn’t want to give that up. But, we use 9 kts only about 2 or 3% of the time. When crossing oceans, we’ll be down in the low 7kt range and producing closer to 80 hps than 266. We’ve run like that for hundreds of hours in a row. And, we wouldn’t be willing to give that up either.
Their are two computations of load on a main engine: one is the load with respect to the full engine output and the other is the load with respect to full engine output at that RPM. You can compute the former by looking up on your Powerview display the number of gallons that the engine has consumed since new and total hours. Take total gallsons, divide by total hours to get average gallons per hour over the life of the engine. Then you can look up gallons per hour at full rated RPM for your engine which is in the engine manufacturers spec sheet. Take this max GPH and devide your average gallons per hour and that will yield your average load with respect to full engine output. I’ve not computed this over the last year or so but the last I checked it was around 46% for Dirona and we’re happy with that number.
The other load reading is percent of the engines output at the current RPM. The engine reports this data in real time in the Powerview display. If you engine is properly propped you will be able to achieve 25 to 50 RPM above max rated output. On Dirona, we have a 6068AFM75 M2 which is rated at 266HP at 2400 RPM and at full throttle we can achieve 2425 RPM which means we are propped correctly. We consume 99% to 100% of the engines capability at full throttle. Because the prop curve is not purely linear, as you reduce RPM and settle down on your preferred cruising speed, you will be drawing something less than 100% from your engine. On Dirona, it’s often in the 61% to 65% range. Some chose to prop their boats more aggressively and will run higher loads at lower RPMs but doing this puts them at risk of being over-propped at higher RPMs. This can be very damaging to an so I recommend against it. Variable pitch props allow full load or close to it at all operating RPMs. I like these variable pitch systems but they are very expensive so we run a fixed prop. And as as consequence of that, we run lower loads at lower RPMs and 60% to 65% is very common operating point.
The final couple of things I’ll say about main engine operation and what to worry about is this: 1) these engines are installed for our use and enjoyment so the first priority is to have them take us where you want to go at the speed we want to go. It’ll be far less than 80% and that is fine. It won’t last as well as a constant output gen, but that is fine — it’s very rare for a recreational main engine application to wear our. You’ll likely use yours less than ours and I’m not even sure we’ll manage to wear out our main engine, and 2) we have a 11,000 hours on our engine and it has exactly the same power as ever, consumes no oil, doesn’t smoke, starts well, and the only major parts it’s needed are fuel injectors. These Deer’s are pretty good engines and I wouldn’t worry about them. When installed in tractors they often run at load load running a PTO (power take off) or idling and they do famously well.
My recommendation is in the early couple of hundred hours run many different loads and change frequently. Make sure this includes upwards of 20% of the time at higher loads. Don’t leave it idling for long periods. Generally run it hard when new. After a few oil changes, ensure you are propped correctly but otherwise don’t worry much about load and just enjoy your boat. We never give it a moments thoughts and have enjoyed 11,000 hours where the Deere has served us well, we’ll done proper service, but we don’t change load for the Deere. It’ll do fine.
On the generator, we compute load by measuring amperage output. We know the max output the generator could produce into our load when new just before the engine starts to loose RPM to a stall. That’s 100%. This is often a bit below the generator manufacturer rating due to them rating it at 1.0 load factor and perhaps also being a bit optimistic. To compute your current load device current amperage output from 100% amperage output. On Dirona, we run 90 to 95% load for the first 20 minutes of charge and then it slowly backs off due to reduced battery acceptance rate and, at the end of the charge cycle our generator will be running around 20 to 25% load. Usually towards the high side of that range depending upon house loads. The engine averages in the high 40% load range which is unusually high for generators that are used to charge batteries when needed. Most achieve less load and some operators have purchased very high output generators to ensure that they can carry the boats maximum peak loads. These engines often have average loads in the 10 to 20% range. That’s not ideal. Our 45 to 50% (right around 48% the last I looked) is pretty good but not nearly as good as a continuous load generator application. We don’t worry about it and the gen went 6700 hours before needing valve work. The valve service doesn’t appear to be related to low engine operation.
I’ll answer your shift question in a subsequent answer.
Alan Madder asked: “My wife and I are gradually making the trip from UK back to Aus over a couple of years. How have you managed the watch on Long voyages. Particularly at night? Do you use matchsticks under your eyelids, or are there times you trust your instruments?”
That’s a good question and there are many different styles, approaches, and opinions on it. Some run strict shifts, some go with expanded crews for crossings, some just “trust the instruments” or there deity of choice. You’ll hear all sorts of answers. The first decision point is do you have someone always at the helm. We chose to do this but others chose not to and argue that it only puts them at risk so it’s their choice to accept the additional risk. We respect there decision but argue they do put others at risk and many of the people that they do place at risk wouldn’t themselves be comfortable making that decision. We think it’s responsible to have someone at the helm, insurance companies want this, and the rules of the road require it. Nonetheless, many do chose to operate without someone on the helm and most report they haven’t had collisions or close calls.
We always have someone at the helm but still know that falling to sleep or just getting distracted reading something or looking at the RADAR or any other distraction is the biggest risk so we have a product called a Watch Commander. There are many different approaches to a this system but, on them all, they expect the helmsman to touch a button periodically to prove they are still awake. Many suppliers make these systems including it being a feature on Maretron N2kView. Many navigation system support some form of Bridge Navigation Watch Alarm System (BNWAS) and they all work basically the same way with different features: you must press a button every N minutes to avoid a very loud alarm. Ours puts up a yellow indicator in 8 min, a red indicator in 9 min. a small beep 45 seconds later, a low alarm 15 seconds later, and a very loud alarm 60 seconds after that. I’ve never fallen asleep and been caught by it but I have gotten distracted and had it warn me to pay more attention. These are good systems in my view.
On shift, we used to run the often referenced 4 hours on 4 hours off. It’s a common choice and it works but we found it annoying in that we would never get meals together and we would arrive dead tired. It seems crazye to arrive somewhere new and first have to take a day or two to recover. Overtime, we have evolved our watch standing schedule to a weird system where Jennifer takes the really hard shift from 10pm to 5am. She sleeps in two cycles one just before her shift and one right after. We get lunch and dinner and a good part of the day together. Over the course of 24 hours, I get lots of time to get work done and, if the boat needs attention, it’s easy to fit that in as well. We arrive well slept and comfortable. Our longest run was 28 days at sea (3650 nautical miles) and we arrived in Barbados relaxed and comfortable, tied off, plugged in, checked in, and walked to town to explore and shop. Its’a comfortable operating mode for us.
By far the most common approach is to add crew for ocean crossings and use some form of fixed shifts with each person getting 2 or rarely even 3 shifts off for every shift on. It’s not what we do but it’s the most common solution and it is reported to work very well.
I just thought I would share a photo. You two share so many with us. Big Island Pond Atkinson NH US
https://photos.app.goo.gl/dM5JcxZBNvYKX1uC7
Nice location! Really nice picture of what looks to be an great place to relax.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/sTnSzRvEwcubGXNEA
Spit fire is looking great! Here’s a photo of Scootah no R as we’re from Boston MA
Can’t wait for the haul out video.
Regards,Ken
It looks like the haul out is going to be tomorrow and we will attempt to get the video running if we don’t need both of us handling the boat during the lift operation. This video is from the second last haul out we did in Florida: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzZhcdy_qDw. Hopefully this haul out will go as well.
Thank you both for this wonderful blog.
Kind regards,
Martijn de Ru
Alkmaar The Netherlands
Thanks for the feedback on the blog.
James Is straightening/re-aligning the prop shaft on the project list during your upcoming haul out?
This is going to only be a quick lift for zincs and bottom paint (since it’s been nearly 2 1/2 years) and an insurance survey (since it’s been 10 years) unless we find some surprise. We don’t plan to pull the shaft and straighten or replace it. I do intend to correctly align and install the Packless Shaft Seal assembly since it’s obviously out of alignment. Technically this might have been possible to fix in the water but I haven’t courage since a mistake could sink the boat.
On the shaft runout, we can’t actually feel it so the only two problems are 1) we brought a new shaft and it should have been installed with no more runout than the previous shaft, and 2) the PSS seal throws drips due to the excess runout. I’m hopefully if the PSS is properly aligned with the shaft, it may be possible to eliminate the drips making it past the seal. Normally these PSS seals can deal with some minor runout so it might help but that’s all that is planned.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/sTnSzRvEwcubGXNEA
Spit fire is looking great! Here’s a photo of Scootah no R as we’re from Boston MA
Can’t wait for the haul out video.
Regards,Ken
Scotah looks like a great member of the team!
Hi James
Ted and Jenny on SouthStar.
I am researching bladder tanks on deck. Could you tell me what model, manufacturer you used on Dirona?
Thinking of placing on Portuguese deck.
n4718
Hello Ted. The forward tank is a custom design for us and the aft two are a standard ATL configuration. David Dack, Executive VP at ATL, has sold several sets of these so he’ll have all the specs you need. You can contact David at ddack@atlinc.com. You’ll find David super helpful. One option worth considering is the just the forward tank which holds 360 gallons and would get you out to a comfortable 3,000 nautical mile range. Our range fully loaded in real sea conditions is up over 4,000 nautical miles.
If you have any troubles at all, feel free to contact us.
That cooling fan reminded me of something that happened years ago.
I was over at a buddy’s house and we wanted to look something up on the internet so he fired up his desktop computer and the cooling fan was hitting on something, would slow to a stop then wind up again.
He pulled the power supply opened the top, hollered, and threw it straight up in the air. He did recover quick, caught it and showed me what the fan was hitting on.
A juvenile black rat snake had decided to crawl in on shut down thinking it was a nice warm place to be. Evidently once the computer started, he didn’t like the results and had been trying to force his way back out through the running fan.
Neither one of us have any real fear of snakes but it’s not something you expect to encounter working on a computer.
The snake survived and found a new home outside.
Yikes. That would definitely catch my attention.
Hello James and Jennifer. I really enjoy your blog and videos. I just came across a video you may enjoy. Thanks for ask you do, Ken
https://youtu.be/1FfF332aSpk
We do like the Integral Solutions work. Nigel Calder introduced us to the company principals at METS in Amsterdam and we really enjoyed learning more about their system, meeting the lead engineer, and going through the details on a running system in a boat. It’s excellent engineering and quite an innovative solution.
My name is Thad Bench and I just wanted to thank you for your highly educational videos/content. Really exceptional and of great value to any yachtsman wanting to get a better technical understanding of shipboard systems. Please keep up the good work!!
We appreciate the feedback.
I noticed you did the oil changes on your tender outboard while you were at anchor. Did you use an oil pump for the crank case oil removal? How do you change the lower unit oil while at anchor? Are you able to get the boat high enough on the boat deck to get under it, or do you have another trick?
I usually change the oil in the water since when the boat is up on the boat deck, the engine needs to be up. I also like the oil warm before changing and to be able run the engine after the change is complete. So, my normal approach is in the water with a oil suction pump for oil and filter changes.
For lower end oil changes, I lift the boat out of the water with the engine left down and leave it hanging from the crane above deck, put a bucket underneath the leg and drain out the old lower unit oil and refill it.
James: 1.Will UPS refund some of their charges because of shipping delays?
2. Will you repair the main seal of the generator at the same time as the head?
3 Will you have the old head rebuilt and then sell it or hide it in the bilge for the next ten years? :)
4; Looking forward to the next video in the Generator Maintenance series :)
“Will UPS refund some of their nearly $1,300 in shipping fees since it’s been a week since the parts arrived into the UK?” Well, that’s a good question. I’m pretty certain they will not refund anything and I’m still not even confident they are going to deliver the parcel as planned tomorrow morning. They say they are very sure it’ll be here but I’ll believe that when the parcel is in my hand. Hope it’s not damaged. No, I’ll not do the rear main oil seal at the same time. The two jobs have very little overlap so I’ll first do the cylinder head and make sure it’s running well before investing in splitting off the generator section to remove the flywheel and replace the rear main seal.
You asked “Will we have the head rebuilt?” I’ll wait and see what condition it is in but probably not. These heads have use integral valve seats (not replaceable) so, if the seat is badly eroded, the head is done. Let’s wait and see what’s revealed when the old head is lifted off the block.
Thanks for the feedback Rod.
I always found UPS to be very arrogant. I once sent a 20-30 kg box of ships spares from the UK to Houston and UPS lost it in Louisville. When I queried them about it I was told “Do you know how many parcels we handle everyday”. It never did get found, and I never used them again. The other problem is that all Courier companies hate delivering anything north of Glasgow, and usually that’s where the delay is compounded. And 1300 bucks…Wow…I presume it’s fairly heavy. In the words of Forrest Gump….FedEx!!!
It is a heavy box including the cylinder head and a bunch of other stuff I need from the US including a new PTO clutch for the wing engine. The good news? It arrived last night at 9:30pm!!!!!!!! It’s wonderful to have it hear and it looks great.
Wow,
You’ve got almost as much in shipping alone as the last set of new heads that went on my brother’s super-gas. Am I mistaken or isn’t your generator also a marinized John Deere?
Was it simply unavailable in the UK or are there special considerations for the application that made it necessary to bring in from the U.S.?
Northern Lights does marinize Deere engines for their larger generators but the small ones are Shibaura. The Northern Lights small generators and our wing engine as well are all built on this same power plant and Northern Lights customers commonly report 15,000 to 20,000 hours and 30,000 isn’t rare so they seem to be able to deliver the longevity.
I could have got the parts from the UK and the dealer here is very responsive and helpful but I ordered from US since, whether from the UK or the US, the parts need to first be shipped from the US and we’re paying shipping either way. In this case I also have some other spares that I need to ship from the US that can travel in the same box. In this case, the box included a new PTO clutch for the wing engine. I’ve also been buying from the same suppliers like Fisheries Supply and Emerald Harbor Marine for 20 years and they take very good care of us so, if it’s no more expensive to buy from them, we do it.
Makes perfect sense to me. I like buying from companies I’ve had a long term relationship with for multiple reasons.
In many cases I’m even willing to pay more based on service history.
Exactly. The parts arrived and yesterday we removed the cylinder head and installed the new one. The old valve seat is in very rough shape. The valve is deeply recessed into the head. We haven’t quite finished that job. We still need to adjust the valves, fill the coolant, and bleed the fuel lines but it’s pretty close to ready for testing.
Continue to enjoy following along. Was wondering what the “human waste” disposal capabilities are on Dirona and associated requirements in the areas you are currently cruising. Our 2003 Novatec vessel has two Lectra San head units that we are able to use in most of our Florida area cruising destinations unless designated as “no discharge areas” (predominately the Florida Keys). We also have holding tanks and macerators as a back-up.
I was servicing one of them recently and it got me thinking about your blog where you were changing out level sensors in various tanks which lead to “I wonder what they do when anchored for so long and can’t get a pump-out”. I know, weird chain of thoughts…:>)
Nordhavn helps with massive tanks. After that, the only options are 3 miles off shore or a pump out.
10-4
Hi J & J. Yes at Raasay there was an iron ore mine, but from WWI times. Interesting article attached, as the mine caused controversy by using German POWs as a labour source. https://whitehall1212.blogspot.com/2017/03/memories-of-raasays-wwi-german-pows.html
Thanks for the background on that one Douglas. We’ll make that change.
Hi James & Jennifer,
We have Broan 12 inch trash compactor.
We now use it only as a dustbin without the compression function as garbage bags are pulled short.
What am I not doing right?
Thanks.
Cheers,
Rob
Well, first of all, since they are out of production, if you don’t want yours, we’ll but it :-). We use ours in two ways: 1) when in marinas we operate it as you do as a trash holder rather than compactor, and 2) when somewhere where trash disposal is not available, we run operate it as designed and love it. We were just away from land for 79 days and, without the compactor, we would have been drowning in garbage.
For usage, you need to use specially designed garbage bags that are heavily constructed with fitting holes. They are dropped into the opening and clipped off all the way around so the bag won’t get pushed down. In this picture you can see Jen clipping the heavily constructed bag from the edges of the compactor: https://dironanav/mvdironaroot/trips/med2020/images/IMG_3964.web.jpg.
Using the correct bags is important. The bags we use are GE #WC60X5015 available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/General-Electric-WC60X5015-Compactor-Bags/dp/B00LQKZPTY. We don’t put glass in or, if we do, near the center to avoid ripping the bag. Jennifer usually throws an old magazine or cardboard piece in the bottom of the bag when starting a new one and we don’t put anything in it that will smell since it takes us 3 weeks to fill a bag.
Hi James, Thank you for your extensive response! Sorry, I want to use this device optimally :-) I’m going to hunt for these garbage bags. Cheers, Rob
Yes, the bags are what you need and Amazon will deliver them to your door.
We just deep-sixed ours b/c I don’t want to start a new career fixing it every time it locks up. Thank heavens someone documented the need to revise the fasteners so it can be removed when it gets stuck in the down position – which it did within a month of our heeding that advice!! Rob, you do know how to do that, right? b/c if you don’t, you’d better have a sawzall handy!
And James, so sorry you missed out – I would have been more than happy to air freight the thing over to you, at your expense of course! :)
I would have loved to strip parts from your garbage compactor. We do have a Sawzall always handy but don’t want to need it on the garbage compactor. We really like the compactor when away from civilization for weeks at a time. 3 weeks only produces a cube of garbage so we can go 6 to 7 weeks on two small cubes. What’s the fastener trick Chris?
Maybe they did this better by the time the 52s were being built but on my vintage N47 the compactors are installed with screws that can only be accessed when the pullout part that holds the bag is removed. I’ve already found way too many construction examples on my boat where the boat was built around something, making disassembly or repair difficult, but this is the top-end most glaring example. If the compactor fails while the ram is extended it is quite impossible to remove the thing without cutting it out of the galley.
By revising the fasteners so that you use just a couple along the top or bottom edges which you can get to while the thing is closed, you eliminate this risk. It’s plenty to hold it in the space, and you could build a fiddle bar to put across the face of it if you were really concerned about it coming loose in high seas.
I took ours part way apart and it’s not super clear how it is mounted but it appears there something at the top of the unit. I think you are right in predicting a sawzall would be required when it does it gets stuck mid-stroke. I did take the opportunity to thoroughly lubricate the jack screw. The nasty thing about the trash compactor is it looks impossible to save and yet it’s not even possible to buy another one. 12″ compactors are no longer made.
On our 10 year old boat, the refrigerator and the trash compactor are both out of production which isn’t that rare but what really sucks is no company makes that form factor any more. Both have served us well and I hope they both continue to do so. Replacement won’t be fun.
I know, it’s tragic. I can live without the compactor but if that subzero fridge ever dies, I’m buying a new boat.
The fridge if vital. We’ll probably rebuild ours when it fails since I don’t see an direct replacement available.
In the UK at least, you can still buy 300mm wide compactors from commercial catering suppliers. I looked into it when I thought the Broan on our N40 was on the way out.
https://www.catering-appliance.com/imc-mini-waste-compactor-156ltr
Good find. In fact excellent find. Thanks for posting that. I would need to switch that circuit over to 240V but that would certainly be worth doing in this case. Thanks for pointing that out.
I just saw your post and photos mentioning this problem – thanks for the crime stopper tip credit! I’ve got some photos here and I’m searching for the original info we had that explained how to fix this in advance. I’ll send it all to your personal email and you can use/post as you see fit.
Thanks Chris!
Saw the post on annual service to Honda emergency pump. Could you please describe how you have fit out this pump (hoses, connections, storage) and how much trouble it would be to deploy in a hurry if ever needed. Thanks for the vast amount of useful info you two provide.
The Honda is the last line of defense after 1) Whale Gulper 320 2) Rule 3700, 3) Rule 3700, 4) Pacer high volume hydraulic bilge pump, and then finally 5) the Honda. We won’t start the Honda unless all of those are failing to keep up and the Pacer is able to fill a 2″ hose and spray it out 15′. It’ll take the bilge levels down from a couple of feet in the boat to zero in 20 or 30 seconds. It’s really amazing. I’ve made some changes since but here is a run down on our bilge pump strategies: https://mvdirona.com/2017/04/fighting-water-ingress/.
The Honda is in the laz and if it needs to be deployed, I take a bungee off of a storage box, and slide it forward, unclip the Honda and lift it out. Behind the Honda there is coil of suction hose and the folded up outlet hose. Take those out as well. Screw on the two hoses and put the suction line in the bilge and throw the other over the side (or leave in the laz since there is lots of drainage). Switch the fuel on, the choke on, pull to start, and adjdust the choke down. I purposely leave it set to “on” and ready to go so that step which might be forgotten isn’t needed.
Hi Jennifer and James,
I’m having a moment of nostalgia as I flew straight to Kinloch after our exciting O ring adventures in Cornwall! It’s lovely to see you in that part of the world. I will send you photos. Do go to Talisker if the opportunity arises.
Hope to catch up soon,
Kate
Hey Kate! Super good to hear from you. We have been enjoying Kinloch and it’s kind of cool you have been there as well. Thanks again for the help with the engine work we were doing on our John Deere.
When do you expect your new boat get delivered?
I should be thanking you James. My visit and road trip with you and Jennifer was the highlight of that UK trip.
My hull is #4110 and I have been told completion in Turkey is currently likely to be May 2021. I will need to decide whether to take delivery in Turkey, North America or Australia. I’m not sure any of us can predict what the world will look like in 11 months time, but my preference would be to commission in Dana Point and then jump across the puddle! I’ve been studying your Pacific route.
We had a great time with you as well and look forward to our next collective adventure.
Wow, they have already sold up to hull number 10 in the 41 series. Amazingly successful already. Nice to see. We’re looking forward to where you end up taking delivery. As you said, it’s particularly challenging to predict the state of the world even a couple of months out. If you do elect to do a big trip at the beginning of our ownership, we recommend that you make sure you have time for a month or so getting to know the boat and ensuring the systems are all the way you want them before leaving. All the best and please stay in touch.
I won’t be leaving the dock without consulting you two first. And Spitfire :-).
By the way, Nordhavn is holding deposits for the 41 up to hull #20. Amazing!
See you soon. Kate
Wow, that’s great. It must be the most successful boat Nordhavn has ever done by a significant margin. Very cool. I’m looking forward to seeing yours. Our 47/52 series continues to do well with 5280 just signed for.
I need those lights for the ER. I am so sick of those flickering flourescent things, taking up space, hitting my head on them, and I haven’t even had to go into the top of the generator yet. I’ve been looking for replacement fixtures and coming with zip. Those look like they will do really well.
Part number / source please? Thanks!
Chris
We used these LED lights mostly because we have them in use for many other applications so they are already all over the boat and we have lots of spares on board. But, the more time we have with them installed in the ER, the more we like them. You have to be careful to aim them down since they are bright and if they are on an angle that can shine in your eyes, you won’t like it. But with careful location selection, they really work well. The after end of our engine room is now much brighter and whiter. Almost enough to convince us to take out more of the flourescent fixtures even though the others aren’t in our way.
These lights are super cheap at $16 and only draw 10W Available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Waterpoof-Outdoor-Security-Floodlight-Equivalent/dp/B006STWHE4/ref=sr_1_44.
Thanks, just put them on my list. Bummed out that I’m leaving my present location before Amazon could deliver a set of these if ordered today! Get them at my next stop for sure.
We ended up here longer than expected due to some weather that just will not let up. So I ordered a bunch of those lights and just installed the first one. Love it!! Did you do yours on a single screw so you can swivel them? I’m trying this initially although I’ve got to keep an eye on it to be sure vibration doesn’t work it loose.
We spent quite a while finding locations we liked that gave good light coverage in the generator area where we had removed the fluorescent fixture and then locked them down with two screws so they don’t shift.
Well you missed out on my trash compactor; do you want my fluorescent fixtures and giant pile of tubes? :) They’re all going to be stored in Davey Jones’ Locker pretty soon. If not, then maybe someone on the NOG will want them.
I’ll probably lock them in with two screws after I get several of them installed and see where I need to aim them. First one I did was over the forward end of the main engine. That’s the one that leaves dents in my head. Next I’ll do the starboard middle of the ME.
Sounds like a good plan Chris.
Hello, from the house on the shore below Kinloch Lodge. We were wondering who you were. Eventually the wind turned a bit and we could read the boat’s name. Good luck on your travels. At least the sun is shining today. Yesterday was grim.
Hello from Dirona! Thanks for saying hi. You have a wonderful spot here and, even when it’s blowing, the North protection is good and it’s a very nice anchorage. All the best.
Hi James,
May I ask for your honest opinion and criticism on a few things.
Firstly, how do you find the N52 as a live aboard and would you consider upgrading/downgrading.
I am interested in the N63, but wonder what you think of not having a fly deck, or whether something smaller would be better?
I do appreciate that this is all up to personal preferences, but it would be interesting to hear your comments.
Yours,
Tony
We think the 62 is the best looking boat in the Nordhavn fleet and the 63 has the most similar styling of the modern fleet. It’s a great looking boat. If we were to buy another boat, we would probably buy a 60 not because we need the extra space but we really like the layout on the N60. But the 52 is quite a bit less expensive, cheaper to insure, and easier to find dock space for it. We like our 52 and it’s proven to be “big enough” to live on year around for 11 years now. We’ve wound up 11,000 main engine hours and continue to really like the boat. If we needed to replace it, we would likely go with a N60 not because we need more space but because we really like the layout on the N60. But we don’t feel like we need a bigger boat and don’t have any regrets about getting the 52. It’s served us really well.
We do like having a fly bridge but don’t use it that much. We often have dinner up there when the weather is good. It’s a great place to whale watch or site see when in a particularly beautiful area but not having it wouldn’t kill us. We like it but don’t view it as essential and don’t use it that frequently.
Bigger boats are faster and that’s a big upside. Bigger boats are MUCH easier to work upon. Big boats have room for twin engines. Lots of advantages but not regrets on our N52.
Hi James,
Thank you for your insight and honest opinion.
I do wish the 59CP was available as a full displacement boat, as I really like the layout.
Oh well! Maybe, when the time comes, there will be something that fits my requirements perfectly.
A crossover between the 59CP and the 63.
Here’s hoping.
You and Diana please keep well and enjoy Scotland.
Yours,
Tony
What about the N60? It’s a very nice layout on a boat that is considerably larger than our N52. Here’s the data on the N60: https://nordhavn.com/models/n60/.
Hi James,
The N60 is also under consideration, as I like what they have done with Last Samurai.
So many choices – Sigh!
Keep well.
Tony
Choice is good! Good luck with yours.
Hi James and Jennifer: sorry to learn about your difficulties with the genset. Ours is also having issues but we will,deal with it when we return home,
We have been reviewing “Cruising the Secret Coast and you will no doubt be happy to know that we will be going into Seymour and Belize Inlets beginning tomorrow. It’s been on the “to do” List the past few years and we will pass through Nakwakto tomorrow at The very last of the flood before high slack. Out prawn pots are at the ready.
Many thanks for your work on these chapters.
Hopefully your generator issues will be small ones and easier to correct than ours. We’re doing great running our our 9kw backup generator (the main engine). It’s a bit louder and less efficient but it’s doing fine and the trip goes on without interruption.
Thanks for the positive feedback on The Secret Coast. Canada’s BC Coast is a world class cruising destination and you’ll love Seymour Inlet.
Unidentified “naval” ship looks to be the MPV Minna of Marine Scotland, an inshore fisheries patrol vessel.
That does look right. Thanks for figuring that out. We’ll update the note online.
Islay is certainly worth a visit if you are whisky lovers. We had planned a visit last year by road and ferry but illness precluded it. Bunnahabhain was on my list to visit as it distills a peat free malt, unlike most distilleries on the island which are known for very peaty whiskies. Islay was the base for the Lords of the Isles in their heyday and later has been the home of some colourful characters. If either its whiskies or its history are of interest I recommend a book by Andrew Jefford, called Peat Smoke and Spirit. It is a cracking read.
Dave: FYI – James and Jennifer are avid beer connoisseurs and are doing the world’s longest pub crawl (time and distance) – this may explain their passing up visiting all of those distilleries!!! :)
Love it! Of course, we’re not adverse to visiting distilleries as well. I think the last one was on St. Helena in the South Atlantic. But Scotland remains in lockdown so we have to view from afar for the time being.
Jennifer: I assume that you and Spitfire have regained full confidence (not that it was ever really lost!?) in the very capable in-house mechanic, following the discovery of valve problems were the cause of the tight valves in the generator :) :)
Hope you get to move Dirona soon. Stay safe
Hey Rod. This is a rare case of Jennifer and I both wishing I had screwed up. We were hoping I did since that would be a correctable problem but, unfortunately, it has repeated 3 times and each time in fewer hours. We have a valve seat or valve failure.
The generator is ready to run right now and will take the load and run fine if needed but in another 20 hours or so, it’ll be back to operating and 1/2 to 2/3 power. Unfortunately, it’s going to need a rebuilt cylinder head to be back to long term full load operation.
Have you gotten any updates as to when your quarantine will end? Are you still hopefull of getting to the Med?
The date for the end of the Scottish lockdown hasn’t yet been announced but it will be a phased plan and we entered the second phase this week. We’ve pretty much given up on our plans to visit the med over this summer. We might go later but we’re waiting to see how the situation evolves.
Hi James and Jennifer,
I think you have roll stabilizers on Dirona that you can deploy at anchor, but I don’t find anything about them here on the blog. Is there a write-up that I’m not finding?
Thx,
Brian
Hey Brian. Yes, we do have active hydraulic roll stabilization from ABT-TRAC (https://abttrac.com/). They do offer STAR, Stabilization at at Rest, but we don’t have it so our roll active roll stabilization is only active when underway. We also have a simple but effective Forespar passive roll stabilization (Flopper Stopper) that we sometimes use when at anchor. It’s pretty effective and fairly simple to deploy. Here’s a short video of it in use: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9cCl_ohwjU.
We only rarely use the flopper stopper (once or twice a year on average) since our boat is fairly heavy and has a nice lazy roll that seems to take a low of swell to push hard enough to get uncomfortable. But, when we do use it, we’re happy we have it.
James, I have a similar main engine setup to yours (ZF transmission and Deere 6068 engine) and have a couple oddities I am curious for your thoughts on:
1. Engine operating temperature. No matter how hard I push the engine (even WOT for 20 minutes; it’s M1 rated so it tops out at about 2300 RPM) I cannot get the temperature to even the bottom of the normal operating range (178-203). topping out at about 170 degrees Fahrenheit, but when I operate it at 1500 RPM it is only at 162 degrees. Any suggestions for where to look for the issue. Perhaps they have the wrong thermostats installed and I should test them? One thing I noticed in the manual is that the 4045 engine has a much lower operating range (160-182) so I wonder if somebody just installed the wrong thermostats by mistake.
2. ZF electric control solenoid temperature. While underway the ‘ahead’ solenoid is consistently about 150-ish degrees Fahrenheit. The rest of the transmission is under 100 degrees. Is this normal or something to be concerned about?
Thanks!
J and J;
If my my memory serves me well this is the second time in 10 years you have no spares on board. Once O-rings for the main and now rear main seal on generator. Congratulations!
Given your seeming never failing and substantial spare part inventory I would not be surprised if there was a spare crankshaft hiding in the bilge!:):)
There is a lot of spares on Dirona and we work hard to find work arounds and alternatives to stay operational when we don’t have the right part. In this case, we may actually have done it. The oil seal is still bad but we’ve been experimenting with different approaches and the last one (not yet posted) seems to be working very well. I think we’re going to find a way to stay operational on this one :-).
J and J, is your floor cherry? I noticed you have the white slat in between the planks (not sure what this is called), I was told by Nordhavn this is a bad idea and can lead to cracking but I like the way it looks. Curious your results?
Our floors are the classic Teak and Holly configuration that Nordhavn South Coast uses when customers don’t request something else. We think it looks pretty good and it doesn’t appear to be prone to cracking or other issues and is doing fairly well after 10 years of hard use.
Hello your voyages are inspiring . Do you sail the boat under OUPV to Master 100 GT Near Coastal in Europe?
Both the license you reference are commercial licenses used in the US. Certainly they can be used by recreational operators but neither is required for non-commercial boats. US flagged vessels operating in foreign waters operate using flag state regulations.
I am not sure I understand the answer. Does that mean that a US-flagged recreational vessel in Holand you do not need a licence to sail it? So if I sail a 62 FT boat in Europe ( Amsterdam) under US flag there is no licencing requirement or credential?
That’s correct.
For a vessel longer than 15M (49.21′) on the inland EU water ways you need an ICC and a Cevni notation. But the US is not a signatory to that regulation.
The Non-EU boaters who come for a longer period to the EU and are not on a US flagged vessel, ( The people living/ cruising on a Dutch barge ) usually get an ICC by doing this with a RYA course.
Also a VHF equipment used on the inland waters uses an ATIS number, provided by the country of registration when you apply for a radio license. The ATIS number is used as identification with any transmission to area control , bridge/lock keepers. (kind of like a precursor to AIS)
I’m thoroughly enjoying your posts. Seems like you got to the bottom of the generator issues. Very interesting. You’ve had plenty of time to keep on top of the maintenance whilst being ‘locked down’. Maybe you could visit my area. I live in a coastal town a couple of miles east of the Forth Bridge. Bit of a trek from your current position though. Best wishes.
Thanks for the blog feedback. Yes, we do have time and are getting pretty close to caught up. Thanks for the blog feedback. Until the lockdown lifts, we can’t visit anywhere but that day will come. We’re looking forward to returning to cruising.
James:
A couple of thoughts on recent posts:
1 Steering Cable Lubricant: While not exposed to as much sea water as an outboard, we used heavy white lithium grease on stern drive steering cables. The grease lasted several years of use and 6 month lay ups due to Ontario winters before needing regreasing
2. On checking bearings in the inspecting John Deere belt etc. Why not drill access holes in the guards such that a stethoscope listening probe could be used to listen to the bearings when the engine is running? Care would need to exercised of course – just a thought.
Yes, any high quality grease should do very well when used on the tender steering cable. White spray lube a lighter grease that is easy to work in and can be directed exactly where you wanted. I have it and like it. The other grease we use on Dirona is trailer wheel bearing grease. This is a very heavy grease that does well when exposed to water. We use it on the high load applications like windlass, outboard motor, and steering bearing.
Whatever grease was used when assembling the outboard motor and boat was not a good enough quality grease and when exposed to water and age, hardens up into a black hardened coating with poor lubricating properties and very difficult to remove. It was a poor choice.
James: Another suggestion for steering cable grease is constant velocity grease.
See https://www.crcindustries.com/products/constant-velocity-cv-joint-grease-4-wt-oz-SL3174.html
A special lithium base grease fortified with molybdenum disulfide and polymers – nice and ‘slippery’ with the MoS2 additive
Yes, CV grease is a great choice. Its a very high load application with moisture and expectations of long operation without service. Good suggestion.
I forgot your question on the stethoscope. That’s an excellent point. I do have a mechanics stethoscope and I think you are right it would be quite effective in this application. The belt covers are a grill at the front so no modifications would be required. Good suggestion.
Love all your videos. Just watched the generator oil change video. Two questions: 1: Have you considered taking the generator to operating temperature before changing the oil ? And 2: how often do you do oil sampling analysis ?
Thx,
Yes, the generator is at full operating temperature before we change the oil. I should have said that. We’re currently at anchor so the generator is running every 4 to 6 hours. I normally do any work right after a run to ensure there is lots of time prior to needing the generator again do to low batteries (just in case something delays the work I’m doing).
On your second question, we don’t use oil analysis. My reasoning behind not doing oil analysis is here: https://mvdirona.com/2016/08/oil-analysis/. The short version is I used to prepare race cars and with Quaker State as a sponsor, we did oil analysis after every race. These engines are pushed hard and so it’s a good test case. We had times when oil analysis caused us to open an engine up and find nothing wrong. And we had times when nothing was indicated and the engine failed. It didn’t seem to save engines and the false positives led to more work.
In watching operators in the marine world, I see a lot of false positives when owners get very concerned only to find they didn’t sample correctly or the problem was just a transient issue that later goes away. Again, I see quite a few false positives. But, I feel like I have reasonable judgement and, if more data is available, I’ll normally take it. The cost and the hassle of sending oil samples in from wherever we are in the world is a blocker for me. If $200 to $500 would by an accurate oil testing kit, I would do it. But sending it back from all over the world is a hassle.
The cost/value equation for oil analysis isn’t quite positive enough for us to do it and, if you don’t do it all the time, the analysis reports don’t have as much value. Oil analysis is most useful in relative comparisons between samples of oil from the same engine.
Joe from the shop on Gigha here. If you need anything at all please give us a phone on +441583505251 and we shall do our upmost for you. We are well stocked and you would not in any way be depriving locals of supplies. As arranged the fish farm are happy to drop off supplies.
Most kind of you to offer to help Joe. And, yes, you’re right we did feel guilty placing an order that might make something unavailable for those that actually live here. I’ll give you a call tomorrow to find out what’s possible. Thanks very much for following up with us.
James and Jennifer: I saw your post concerning the steering on the skiff. I have a similar issue with he steering on our skiff and I wonder if you could provide some more details on how you went about this with the carb cleaner.
Thanks, Jim Cave
The issue we saw was the grease around the rigid cable end that moves the outboard back and forth and aged and/or was diluted by sea water and broke down and hardened up into a hard coating. The tender hasn’t been used for 3 months and I was barely able to move the steering. We removed the rod that connects the steering cable ridid end to the motor. Then removed the plastic cap that threads onto the end and O-ring. While the wheel is hard over exposing as much of the rigid cable end as possible, we cleaned all the grease reside off of it. Then we unscrewed the cable from the motor on the other side and pulled the cable out as far as clearances will allow and cleaned all the residue off of that end as well. There is still a small central area that we can’t get to on either side. The best answer would probably be to remove the entire cable assembly from the motor but I had trouble getting the clearance to to that. So I continued to spray it down from the outside and work wheel back and forth which seemed quite effective. We then let it dry, greased it up with high quality wheel bearing grease and then worked it in and reassembled it. At that point, the steering system was back to close to “as new” friction whereas before I needed both hands to force it.
In the past, I’ve replaced cables after 5 years. This one is only 3 years old so I felt it was early to replace it. It’ll be interesting to see how long it lasts with periodic lubrication.
Many thanks James. I will work through those steps.
It only took around 1.5 hours so wasn’t bad but one thing to keep in mind the cables aren’t that expensive nor that hard to change. I changed a cable on our last boat at around 5 to 6 years. It was getting very stiff at that point and the cable changes wasn’t bad. It’ll be interesting to see how long my clean and lube operation lasts. Based upon how free the steering is right now, I’m optimistic. Good luck on freeing your steering up as well Jim.
Hi James
I thought there was a post in here somewhere talking about prop shaft temperature monitoring but I can’t find it. I just wanted to ask how you attached your temperature probe to the shaft and where exactly on the shaft?
Thanks
Chris
The only possible sources of shaft heat are the transmission or bearing failures at the transmission, a pillow bearing if so equipped, or the shaft log. Our boat and yours don’t have a pillow bearing so that’s not an option. I do monitor transmission oil temperature so feel like we have that one covered. We use a PSS packless shaft seal so haven’t put temperature monitoring in place. But, if you have a conventional shaft log, it can get hot if not adjusted properly or hanging up for some reason, so a temperature sensor there would make sense. If I was doing it I would attach the sensor mechanically to the stationary shaft log.
Makes sense. I don’t have a dripless (yet – maybe upgrade in the future) and it definitely takes some care to get that packing set right. I’ll find something to bolt one of those ring terminal probes to…
Hi Chris,
I’m using a Maretron TMP100 and their ring sensors (TR3K) for my shaft logs (traditional). I simply used a large hose clamp to secure it to the shaft log nut. It has worked perfectly and displays through N2K on the DSM410. I had issues with my shaft temperatures for a while that was driving me crazy – now I consider my shaft temperatures as important as my engine temp.
Great solution Steve. I do the same thing on my main engine alternators. The hose clamps give that firm mechanical connection so the temp reading is good. It’s a good approach.
ah – the alternators! That’s what I was trying to remember for more temperature sensors. Thanks for the reminder!
yup, great idea with the hose clamp – thanks! I’m using the Maretron stuff too.
I just got a Karcher power washer like yours. I love it! it’s like spray-painting a coat of clean on the decks!
-cb
p.s. I resisted the temptation to write my name in the grime…
Isn’t it great? It’s amazingly inexpensive and quite effective. I also find we use less water when using the power washer.
While a custom boat would be ideal my thought’s on reading your blog is that your boat has worked out fine for you. If something were to happen to Dirona would you replace it with another 52′ Nordhavn?
We are really happy with the 52 and the only reason we would look at other sizes is liking different layouts. We like the all-on-one-deck design of the N60. From a size perspective, the 52 is close to perfect for us but we like the layout of the 60 better and we would prefer to have twin engines. Many of the features that we added to the N52 are rare additions on a 52 but easy to get on the 60. For example, hydraulics.
My guess is that we might end up with a 60 if we were to buy again even though the 52 is a perfect size for us.
Don’t forget the berth and head in the PH.
Curious to understand why you prefer twin engines? I thought for the kind of cruising you do the twins would be additional maintenance for not much gain (and that was why Nordhavn largely uses a single + wing setup).
We prefer twins in the absolute sense but, in our opinion, twins are the wrong configuration for this boat. It’s not big enough to have twins without giving up range it needs. If we bought this boat again, we would have it with a single engine again (and we love that Deere 6068AFM75). But, were we to buy a bigger boat, say a 60, we would go with two Deere 4045s.
The reason we would prefer twin engines is greater redundancy where space allows,. The reason we prefer single engine in the N52 is twins slightly reduce efficiency and the wider mechanical configuration reduces the fuel carrying capacity. Our preference for twins isn’t a strong one — a single with a wing is a very reliable configuration.
Hello – love your site and adventures, moving my black water to pressure sensors. In your 69 degree knockdown entry, you show pictures of rotating latches that hold drawers closed securely. We are in need of something like this on our 1969 Chris Craft Commander 47. Would you know of where to find these? I’ve looked, and so far they have eluded my searches.
Happy travels!
Steve.
They are hard to find. I ordered mine through the boat manufacture (Nordhavn) but do have manufacture and part number: Actron 0213. The part number is hard to read so might be incorrect but the manufacture site is https://www.actronmfginc.com/. They list the parts as quarter turn retainers on this page: https://www.actronmfginc.com/products/type/retainers/#page=1.
Amazing, thank you!
Hi James and Jennifer, we met a year and a half ago at the Nordhavn Seattle Boat Show party. In March we finally bought our Nordhavn, 50-10 Akeeva (thanks for your encouragement!). We’d planned to be cruising, but like you, are sitting at anchor much more than usual! Just the other day I equalized the batteries, but haven’t been able to tell if it made much of a difference.
One of the projects while at anchor has been learning the electrical system and start planning changes. I’ll be very curious to read your article about battery capacity over time. The house bank on this boat is ready to be replaced, and I’m torn between various technologies.
Stay safe!
Congratulations on your purchase. On batteries, I love Li-Ion chemistries and use them at work. But, if you don’t care about size and weight, lead-acid still looks like a better price/performer for me. We’ll eventually go to LiFePo4 but the combination of the good value of AGM and the hassle of changing to a different form factor and charging profile has left us still using AGM. But, as new chemistry prices continue to fall, we’ll eventually make the move.
We’ll get that battery article out this week. As a teaser, one of our observations that is pertinent to your current situation is that old battery banks can continue to deliver reliably even when their capacity is low. The gen run times goes down, the frequency goes up, but the actual duration per day doesn’t go up much at all.
After 25 years as an electric vehicle specialist with caterpillar, I have found this to be the best explanation of electricity and its components. http://www2.ece.rochester.edu/courses/ECE113/materials/smoke.pdf
That’s it!!!! Actually as an ex-exotic car mechanic, I’ve worked upon my share of Lucas and Magnetti Marelli electrical equipment and I can tell you with some confidence that neither does a great job of designing for smoke retention. Thanks for the pointer to the article.
Lynn was curious how you like your cockpit table set and where you bought it. Is it holding up well?
We’re very happy with the furniture and it has lasted well since purchase in 2012. It’s from the Westminster Teak Barbuda line, a 48″ folding table and armchairs. We also have a Nevis rectangular drop-leaf folding teak table on the boat deck with four more Barbuda chairs. We generally keep both tables unfolded, but the cockpit table we fold and stow in the starboard walkway to make room for our fuel bladders.
When new in 2012, we sealed the furniture with Mar-X-Ite, then applied several coats of Cetol Marine Light and Cetol Marine Gloss. (Bill and Kay O’Meara from N62 Anna Mae recommended the procedure and it has worked very well.) The Cetol was still in reasonable shape when we re-applied it again at the end of 2013 after a year in the equatorial Pacific, and again at the end of 2015 after a couple of years in Australia and the Indian Ocean. We’ve not reapplied it since, and it’s still holding up well.
We also had custom covers canvas made for the furniture that helps keep the sun and weather off them.
Links:
Pics of folding table and canvas covers: https://mvdirona.com/2012/12/fuel-for-the-crossing/
48″ Barbuda folding table: https://www.westminsterteak.com/PID15623/Barbuda-Teak-Folding-Table
Barbuda Armchair: https://www.westminsterteak.com/PID12602/
Nevis rectangular drop-leaf folding table: https://www.westminsterteak.com/PID15663/Nevis-Rectangular-Teak-Folding-Drop-Leaf-Dining-Ta
Mar-X-Ite: It was produced by XIM, which Rustoleum now owns, and product seems to be discontinued. Perhaps it is being sold under a new name?
Cetol: https://www.interlux.com/en/us/search?q=cetol&page=1
Jennifer
How do you get the NMEA 2000 data into your Raspberry Pi? Do you consume it directly with its own connection to the NMEA 2000 bus? Or are you doing DB queries over the network from the Raspberry Pi against the MariaDB relational database where you store all of your data? I can see benefits to both, though the DB query route seems more elegant since you aren’t adding yet another device to your NMEA 2000 bus.
All three of those options are pretty easy to do. The way our system is set up the database is running on a central server. All input data flows to that system. It reads NMEA2000, scrapes web page screens to get data from proprietary systems without APIs, and makes calls over ZMQ to the Raspberry PIs to get there input data. The central system takes most actions again with a variety of transports: 1) makes requests to Raspberry Pis over ZMQ, 2) pushes data onto the NMEA2000 bus, 3) sends email, and 4) uploads data to mvdirona.com.
In this model, the PIs mostly just do input at the request of the central system or do output at the request of the central system. One of our Pis reads and writes to Maservolt devices over Masterbus which is a proprietary protocol over CANbus. They can do the same with NMEA2000 using CAN boat (https://github.com/canboat/canboat). We don’t do it but it’s also easy to query a MySQL database directly from a Raspberry Pi or to run the entire database locally on the Pi.
I see, so the control logic is centralized. Makes sense, thanks!
Yes, the control logic is central. It doesn’t take much resource so it would be equally happy on a Raspberry Pi but it runs on the central server in our configuration. There are a few exceptions where the Pis act directly:
1) The LED confirming key press on the virtual watch commander (latency reasons make this best handled directly)
2) The detection of the central computer or software stack is on a Pi and it will independently make the decision to reboot the central computer if fault is detected (this needs to be independent of the central system)
There probably are 1 or 2 others but, for the most part, all logic is central and the Raspberry Pis are just input/output processors.
Happy Walpurgis Eve to you guys! Last year you where visiting Aland island and us at Maritime Safety Center. It was great to meet you and i wish you a safe time in these testing moments and a safe onwards journey on your exiting trip around the world. Stay safe !
I will try to post a link later to a live feed from the same bonfire that you visited last year:)
Hey Sam! Great haring from you. We’re doing well and taking it easy in beautiful Scotland. I hope you and the entire team at the Maritime Safety Center are doing well. It would be great to see a picture of the Walpurgis Eve bonfire. Thanks for thinking of us and thanks again for the educational visit to the Safety Center. All the best.
Here is the link https://alandsradio.ax/
They will light the fire at 19:45 our time so 5:45 your time.
All the best !!
Hi hope is all well,
What do you control with the Rusbery Pi ?
Best regards
Roy Grixti
The Raspberry Pis implement around 45 channels of digital input (detects whether a device is off or on), about 25 channels of digital output (ability to turn appliances/or devices like the water heater or furnace off/on), 3) implement a wireless remote control to change any of the above states, 4) 1 channel of analog input (voltage measurement), and around 12 channels of temperature measurement.
That is great. Is it controllable from the dash monitor too ? Have you got the link for the Raspberry Pi ? Does it logs ?
Best regards
The Raspberry Pis are controllable in four ways: 1) the boats central control systems can request via private protocol over Ethernet that a Pi turn a device on or off, 2) there is a 4×4 matrix keyboard in the engine room and another in the pilot house that allow human input to the Pi (some examples of what it can control below), 3) there are 4 16 channel wireless remotes spread throughout the boat that can send requests to the pi (examples below), and 4) there is software running on the Pi that can make decisions and directly act on them (e.g. when entertainment system gets warm, turn on the fan).
As examples of some of the things the PIs can control: 1) TV Lift up/down, 2) 240V inverter off/on, 3) entertainer system cooling fan, 4) defroster off/on, 5) HVAC off/on, 6) generator off/on, 7) chargers off/on, 8) clear all alarms, ….
RE: Leaking PSS.
We recently replaced our PSS with a Tideseal Shaftseal and for the first time we have a perfectly dry bilge. Very happy with this change as the PSS always had some dripping underway. The other nice addition is the ability to put a spare seal on the shaft if it ever needs replacing, one does not need to pull the shaft back to do the job.
https://www.tidesmarine.com/shaftseals/
(I have no affiliation with the company but am just a very happy customer.)
-evan
That’s a good suggestion. I’ve heard that tides are much more forgiving to out-of-true prop shafts and vibration. When things are right, PSS don’t leak and we have had very good luck with no leaks in 10,400 hours. However, since the last service stop, it leaks and is wearing as well. Thanks for the suggestion.
While not cruising yet, I would like to make the Atlantic crossing one day. I watched your videos on the route and passage. Did you consider or is there a reason not to consider shorter hops from Nova Scotia to Greenland, Greenland to Iceland and then Iceland to the Faroe Islands or direct to Ireland?
By far the most common rout to cross the Atlantic is way further south where hops can be made from the mainland, Bermuda, Azores, to mainland. The Norther route that you mentioned (Labrador, Greenland, Iceland, Faeroe Islands) is used much less frequently but it seems to be getting more popular. We plan to take that route on the way back. The downside of the northern route is the crossing season is very short, even in the best part of the years, the weather can be stronger, but the hops are shorter than the weather prediction interval so waiting out bad weather is effect. One of the key pluses of the Northern route are the sites. We’re really looking forward to it. The route we took from Rhode Island to the Ireland is not a common one for small boats. It’s a long time in the North Atlantic and it’s a big hope at 3,000 nautical miles. We spent 17 days to cover the distance. The only advantage of this route is expedience but the weather will likely be worse. I think the Northern route is going to be fun.
That would be elegant. Massive amount of copper in that space just to support the AC source selection switches. I’m with you – everything you need fits on an ethernet or N2K cable. I’m finally reaching the point with my nav system redo that I’ve got most of my nav data on the lan. So nice to just open a computer or tablet and Voila, there’s you are! ok, this is getting off topic. Time to get back to the projects!
-cb
Good job. Glad your mega-project is nearing final form.
With the anchorage having alot of wind and waves do you employ your flopper stopper, or stern anchor or anything special to deal with rolling at anchor?
The boat is remarkably heavy so it takes a lot of weather to bother it. But, when it is bad, we use the flopper stopper. We haven’t ever bothered with using a stern anchor to get positioned correctly to the wind but we have one and could do it if things were really rough.
that’s good to know. I hope my 60 will have the same characteristics. I declined the STAR system because of price and the need to run the genset all night.
STAR wasn’t available when Dirona was built but I think we may have arrived at the same conclusion as you if it were. The boat seems remarkably stable at anchor and the flopper stopper is quite effective at reducing roll action.
Looks like we both have PSS issues. I also just replaced my seals during my haulout in February. This week, we found that one of them leaks quite substantially when the boat (Bayliner 4788) is up on plane. No leaks when traveling at displacement speeds. Trying to get someone from the yard out to my boat to tighten it up but will also have them look at the alignment and wear on the seal.
Sorry to hear that. I’ve used them for 4,100 hours on the last boat and never a drip. And, we used them for 8,000 hours on the new boat without a drip. But if you have a mis-installed seal or an out of true shaft, they can leak a bit. I’m lucky enough to have both :-). Hopefully your issue is easy to solve.
Looking at the recent photo of you replacing the pi in the PH over head, I realized you have those panels on hinges. I wanted to do this the instant I opened the first one on my boat a few weeks ago. Can you tell me about the hinges and catches? Looks like a piano hinge…
Thanks
Chris
Isn’t that a cool solution? It’s a factory option and, yes, you are right. It’s just a large piano hinge and it’s held on by 4 machine screws running through captive nuts. Super easy to open and close with a power screw driver (actually easy without as well but that’s how I do it). I love it and I bet it’s been open and closed 1,000 times over the last 10 years :-).
That’s brilliant. Adding that to my project list now. Well, it’s gonna be a bit o’ fun getting that hinge screwed onto the edge of the instrument panel… Then there’s the vertical panel covering the massive trunk of wires and hoses and everything else between the two berths on the lower level. Is yours super packed and bulging at the seams like mine? I can barely get that thing back on and I’ve already had to take a chisel to the floor and hole saw to the overhead to make room for more cabling – even just to make room for what was there already. They should have crafted that panel with a convex radius rather than flat. It feels awful using a chisel and hammer on my new boat…
Mine isn’t quite that snug but it is tight. The problem is mostly caused by heavy power cables going back and forth. All gen power and shore power goes up to breaker panel. Then most of it goes back to chargers and heavy appliances. Would be better to have a remote breaker panel with externally controlled breakers down near the loads. The PH would only need thin control wires to show remote breaker status via LED and be able to remote switch the breaker through light signalling wiring. Most of what I have done runs on 1) Ethernet (only need 1 wire), 2) NMEA2000 (only need 1 more wire), 3) or thin control wires with remote load switching so I don’t need much more space.
James and Jennifer; Just read an interesting article in the NY Times about people self isolating/quarantining on boats are being denied access to marinas, etc – in fact anything shore based. When are you allowed to touch terra firma again?
In these unusual times, we’re all learning as we go. We will eventually need to re-provision but it’s not been an issue thus far. We’ll learn as we go Rod.
I find it kind of funny your doing the bread thing. In the states currently in many places flour is hard to come buy. Seems with the health situation persons have taken to bread making. btw your bread maker is the brand we eventually purchased which the Japanese seem to have the best products in this area. Cheers! btw Update on N6081. Pretty much all the choices made and they are hard at work on the carpentry and wiring and such. The FB is not on yet but mostly the haul is complete. We are next and I suspect Sep or so ready to ship. My wife Lynn is an ER Physician at a major US hospital so we are in the thick of this situation currently.
Congratulations on the build progress. Good to hear you are getting closer to the finish product. Our experience is shipping time vary greatly but it is the last step the process. Your getting close.
All the best to your wife. She currently holds one of the most vital jobs in the country. Let’s all hope that current trends continue and the pandemic is brought back under control.
Good Day Jennifer and James
I have spent the last few weeks in isolation reading all your posts and find them very interesting.
I have one question, Your 52 is now plus 10 years old and far from the boat that came out of the factory, with regards to upgrades and changes you have made, Have Nordhavn adapted any of your designs with regards to equipment and or systems to their new range of trawlers.
Keep up the posts and stay safe in these strange times.
From a locked down South Africa.
We’re a long way away in Scotland but also locked down. You were asking if Nordhavn has picked up any of our design ideas. The Nordhavn designs are always improving and a few of the changes will have come from our experiences. For example, some of our electrical system changes are now available as options. Our engine was a special install when it was done but is now the standard engine in the 52. There have been a few changes influenced by our experience but Nordhavn has many sources of the new design ideas and we’re only a tiny contributor.
Alfred, Nordhavn is incredibly versatile in allowing buyers to customize the product. And to your answer we are currently building a N60 and we have implemented several ideas James and Jennifer ‘thought’ up. I think one of the best things they did is “better electrical system”. That is in my opinion a strength of the Nordhavn owners and company. I can only report positive things with the team in Dana Point.
Eric , thanks. Yes I would love to see a video walk through of your N60 when complete. I love the design of the N60.
It does sounds like it’s going to be a winner doesn’t it?
Hello Jennifer and James,
I am working with Vripack in Sneek Holland to build a boat. I have been a follower of your blog for a long time and very impressed by the honest and accurate and professional work that you both have done on this boat. I feel I can read your blog and quickly get into what you’re describing.
I have a small request, do you have a spreadsheet or a word document that list all the different components that you are currently using, or modified on your boat. Vripack are suggesting a Perkins engine, I am going with John Deere, especially after reading your comments on the Deere engine.
Please any help that you can provide me is highly appreciated.
I am sure you’re enjoying your time under lockdown a lot more than us staying at home.
warm regards,
george
Thanks for the feedback. Your projects sounds like a fun one. We’ve heard lots of good things about Vripack.
Our boat is basically what’s on the Nordhavn web site:
https://nordhavn.com/models/n52/
We covered most of the major modifications we made here:
https://mvdirona.com/blog/content/binary/Hamilton_TF10_BuildingTrawlerWebPost.pdf
And, we try to cover everything we fix, change, improve, etc. here on the web site.
What do you store in your Synology NAS? Do you use it for all stateful storage on Dirona or is it more of a backup?
We have it under the settee in the Salon. In out configuration, it’s the primary data storage location for all devices on Dirona. The Synology is configured with 4 disks of 16TB each in RAID 6 so we have 29TB of space and can take 2 disk failures without loosing data. On the last unit, it went 4 years without any issue but at around 4 years we had a disk failure, replaced it, then a couple of months later we had another go down. We replaced it and then another starting to producing errors so we decided it was time for an upgrade. Hopefully these Seagate IronWolf 16TB drives (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07SGGWYC1) will do as well as the Western Digital Red 6TB drives (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LO3KR96) did. Given the temperature extremes, humidity, and vibration, I’m impressed that the WD drives did as well as they did.
With your NAS have you made sure you have a duplicate Synology unit of the same model.. I have heard of people getting caught due to failure in the unit (not the drives) and losing data as a replacement is not available. Have you considered Solid stat drives in RAID which with the new costs and no moving parts could be a good solution.
Given the fairly low cost of a backup device, we should have one but don’t. Mostly just because of the space requirements and the fact that we replace them every 4 years. But, it’s a good idea — we probably should have a backup. In fact, we are going to take your advice on that one. It’s a $369 insurance policy. We will order a new unit from Amazon to pickup on our next US trip. Good suggestion.
We use solid state drives for high I/O workloads but they are poor value for bulk storage. We have 29TB built from 64TB of raw storage. If we were to do that with SSDs, it would cost $8,256 at current retail prices. SSDs just don’t seem like good value where access performance isn’t critical or is largely sequential and large amounts of storage are required.
I have my two computers, router, switch and two DVRs on the boat all connected to a UPS so when I switch between shore power and the inverter (or temporary power loss) I do not have to shutdown or worry about the systems.
Hope all three of you are doing well!
Our runs on the inverter so is stable through power transitions and other on board changes. In fact, the mean time between power failures these days is likely somewhere in the 6 to 12 month range. But, given the risk of hard failing the Synology and given how disruptive it is, the UPS makes good sense for us and we probably should have done this before.
I noticed it was the shorter member of the team that flipped the switch and caused the power outage. Clearly Spitfire needs more training before you let him loose on the distribution board again.
:-). Well, I’ve heard it might not actually have been Spitfire this time. He’s easy to blame because he shows poor attention to detail, is forgetful, and even when he is in the helm chair during watch, he’s usually fast asleep.
But apart from that he’s the purrfect crew member.
(sorry, couldn’t resist it)
:-).
Glad to see you guys are doing well and are OK.
Yes, we’re relaxing and enjoying a slower pace for a while.
The picture Liquid Tomcat:
You commented that you had to alter course because the sailing vessel was overtaking you and that an overtaking sailing vessel is stand-on. This is incorrect!
Any overtaking vessel, regardless of propulsion, is the give way vessel. See Colreg 13.
Yeah, you’re right Trond. We were the stand on vessel in this case but, either they didn’t know it, or felt their course changes would still yield a safe distance. When they didn’t adjust course and we were uncomfortable with the situation, we changed course. We find that many boat operators, mostly small boats, are comfortable with a 20′ or even a 10′ CPA but we’re not. So, if they push it and don’t yield, we will. We probably should give them 5 as we take evasive action but, for many of these operators, the distance they have chosen seems perfectly safe to them and they would annoyed to hear our horn. We only use the horn if the situation is both quite close and there may not be time to safely take further evasive action.
Then you acted as you should, according to Colreg 17b.
Yes, there is lots of ignorance or lack of knowledge about the Colregs. It appears that some people think that “I have a sailboat, therefore I am always stand on vessel, and can behave the way I want whenever I want…” even when they use the engine. Scary!
Anyway, hope you have a good time and stay away from the corona.
Liquid Tomcat has the genoa poled out to port and the mainsail boom is eased right out to the starboard side, indicating it is running close to dead downwind. In these windy conditions, the last thing they want is an accidental gybe as the boom will ‘crash’ over to the port side with so much momentum that it could de-mast the vessel.
I think they would have had the autopilot on its ‘wind-vane’ setting so that Tomcat kept at a constant relative angle to the wind (rather than to a typical fixed compass bearing as you would do on Dirona). To really keep an accidental gybe at bay, on my yacht I opt for about 140 to 150 degrees on either the port or starboard quarter. As the wind direction varies by modest amounts around the predominant direction, so does the vessel heading as it seeks to maintain the dialled up relative wind angle. Most other times we set the AP to either a compass bearing or a waypoint goto.
Even though you were the stand-on vessel, my guess is that Liquid Tomcat’s skipper would have been very grateful that you gave them the sea room you did as it helped them reduce the risk of a dangerous gybe. Best wishes, Ian
If the give-way vessel for some reason is unable to act according with Colreg, they should never just keep going and force the stand-on vessel to act to avoid collision. That is about the worst kind of “seamanship” and definitely a violation of Colreg nr 2, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 13.
In this case, the Liquid Tomcat should have altered course to give way to Dirona.
If Liquid Tomcat for some reason was unable to give way according to Colreg 13, an alternative (and perfectly acceptable solution) would be for LT to contact Dirona on VHF and request Dirona alter course. This would first of all be good seamanship, and both parties would know what was happening, instead of causing confusion onboard Dirona.
You are right Trond but it wasn’t until we needed to make the second course change that we were starting to wonder “why?”
Absolutely agree with the excellent points you make, Trond. As you say, it’s important that recreation yachtsman understand the Colregs but, sadly, many don’t. It’s quite possible LT erroneously assumed that, as it was a sail/motoring situation, they would always have the right-of-way and that took precedent over the requirements for overtaking vessels (Colreg 13). Or as James inferred, LT’s skipper recognised Dirona as the stand-on vessel but was happy to accept a closer CPA than he was.
I was only hypothesising as to why they may have been altering course the way they did. I like to think that had I had been in LT’s situation, with a tight CPA coming up and at a hairy point of sail, I would have found time to call Dirona on VHF/DSC to explain my constraints and request cooperation. Maybe they didn’t have an AIS or check MarineTraffic or like to know who to call. If I couldn’t raise Dirona on the radio or they insisted on their rights as the stand-on (I know from James and Jennifers great seamanship they would have cooperated), I would have dropped the whisker pole, gybed the genoa and veered well away from Dirona on a broad reach until ahead.
In my almost many years of sailing, I have never ceased to be amazed at the number of times I’ve seen two vessels both wanting to occupy the exact same spot in the ocean, even well off shipping routes and in remote parts of the Pacific Ocean. Both may have left port days before, travelled at different speeds and different courses.
We have an AIS transponder on our yacht and have often used it to enable a VHF call to another vessel, including ships, and confirm that we both have the same expectation, e.g. that, yes, we will be passing port to port (or even starboard to starboard) on a bow to bow approach. It eases the pressure, particularly at night.
I find commentary like this really interesting – it’s a great learning opportunity and Trond’s useful information had me looking at Colregs again. And that can’t be at all bad.
Ian said “I have never ceased to be amazed at the number of times I’ve seen two vessels both wanting to occupy the exact same spot in the ocean.” Exactly! When there is nothing but open water for miles around and only two boats in the area, how could it possibly be necessary to alter course twice :-)
Yes, that is a fascinating observation I have seen countless times too. Must be the dreadful “law of attraction” between pleasure crafts.
In general, pleasure crafts act way too late in give-way/ stand-on situations. This is both for motorboats and sailboats.
One thing most can get better at, is to actually do a proper look out, with all available means, and not just “have a look at the sea near your own vessel.” As an example: If you have a radar or AIS onboard, you are obliged to use it whenever you are underway. (Colreg 5)
If you see another vessel, monitor it immediately and determine as early as possible if it is a threat to your own vessel. Is a crossing/ opposite/ overtaking situation about to happen…? If LT had done this, they would have detected Dirona early enough that maybe even a 5-10 degree course change would have been more than enough for a safe overtaking.
Looking at the Colregs once in a while is always a good time, regardless of your knowledge level. Even though I know Colregs very well, I always read them at least a couple times a year. Safe boating is happy boating.
Good advice.
J & J:
Impressive fridge arranging. I see Matua Marlborough Sav B is still holding pride of place :) :) One of our family’s favourites
Yeah, we love Marlborough Sauvignon Blancs in general. Matua isn’t among the best of the Marboroughs but it’s both an enjoyable wine and good value. It’s often available in box format which saves storage space and produces less waste.
J & J What is your favourite Marlborough Sav B. We visit there almost every year from Canada
Family vineyard supplies Oyster Bay, which is the only winery without a local tasting room etc in the region
Hey Rod. On our preference from Marlborough, the good news is there is such a massively wide variety of producers in that region but the bad news is that, in our world travels, we rarely get the opportunity to get the same one twice. They all differ greatly in their exporting deals and where they actually ship. But, one we have seen frequently and really like is Astrolabe. Haven’t seen it recently but it’s a favorite of ours.
Re Hemicycle 3/4/20 A pedantic point but Britain is no longer a member of the EU having left at the end of January 2020.
Hey James! Going back and looking at the Google map updates/tracks. How are you automating your Google map updates? It appears that there are routine updates to maps and you’ve done a great job at separating out voyages. I just went through and read the updates and corresponding data for your Indian Ocean crossing.
We have a substantial control system that has evolved over the last couple decades on two boats. It started when the second or third NMEA 0183 multiplexer failed. I wrote one to replace the failed unit in software. Then since I was seeing all the data, I stored it in a database. Then I wrote software to display some of the content. Then we added alerts, alarm, email and eventually added external control and monitoring. Jennifer wrote code to push some of the data up to mvdirona.com where it’s display in Google maps.
The system in it’s current form pulls data from many sources including NMEA 2000, digital inputs over ethernet, analog inputs over ethernet, and web scrapping over internet. Every data point on the entire boat is stored every 5 seconds in a MariaDB database. Alarms, alerts, reporting, etc. all run off this database as well as software that pushes a subset of the data up to mvdirona.com where it is displayed there as well.
I don’t have a question or very meaningful comment, I just wanted to share its so exciting as part of my morning ritual of clicking through my favorite sites and seeing Dirona on the move!
Hey, that’s great to hear. It’s been a nice little 3 day run. We expect to arrive in this evening and we will have covered around 490 nautical mile (900 km) run. Thanks for the feedback.
loved your video to Antwerp , did the same in the 70’s! I was trying to find where you might have posted about what I think is a change of plans to go to the Isle of Giga again . are you looking for somewhere safe to be for a while , and if so why there? cheers warren
Our decision to defer our trip to the Mediterranean was made the morning of 3/13 where we looked at the news from France, Spain, and Italy and decide it was just the wrong time to be visiting these countries. We redirected to Scotland and that remains our planned destination. More detail here: https://mvdirona.com/2020/03/changing-plans/.
Just watched you leaving Portland Harbour, looks a little choppy out there for my liking – I’m up at The Nothe Fort – safe onward journey
Yes, you are right. It is a bit rough out here but we expect that it’ll settle down over the next few hours and, as soon as we turn west, we’ll be heading down wind so should be fairly comfortable. All the best.
I live overlooking Lyme Bay and have been tracking you online. Unfortunately you were out of range of my telescope. It’s been a bit of a rough night with the sea crashing against the wall and shaking the house a bit so I guess it’s been an up and down night for you guys. I see you will soon be rounding Lands End. Have a safe journey.
Thanks for the comment and sorry you missed us. As you said, it was pretty lumpy out there and we were 20 nautical miles off shore at that point so the combination of distance and often being hidden by waves were in your way. We’ll make the turn northward at Lands End in about 3 hours. All the best.
Hello from Sedona Arizona
When Jennifer goes grocery shopping what’s her procedure for washing leafy greens to kill bacteria.
Gregg Testa
In places such as the South Pacific, we soak all produce in a mild bleach solution, followed by a freshwater rinse, before bringing them inside the boat to kill any insects.
In cooler climates, when buying from locations in countries with high food storage standards, then we just take the standard recommend approach of bringing them on board and washing them thoroughly in fresh water before consumption.
Jennifer
Hi Guys,
I see you are passing pretty close to Hastings.
Why don’t you pop in for a quick cuppa?
I even have a few Jaffa Cakes left. Oh no! I seem to have eaten those. Oh well!
Have a great trip.
Where are you on your way too?
Looks like we passed you in Hastings last night Tony. We’re just approaching the Isle of Wight now in wonderful weather. If conditions stay as good as they are, we’ll head to Portland Harbour this evening. We’ll probably go spend some time in Scotland or that is our current thinking.
Portland Harbour? Mmm. A little far for me to pop over for a visit from Hastings.
Maybe I can swing a visit to Scotland and see you folks there. Unlikely, but who knows. :)
Enjoy!!
Dear James and Jennifer,
Welcome in Antwerp!!
Along the pier in Willemsdok you will find MY Monara (www.monara.be), we have been following you for the last two years, have become addict to Maretron through James’ inspiring technical blog, and I live in Antwerp.
If there is anything that we can do to introduce you to our beautiful city, please shout!
I would love to invite you for diner in our Antwerp Yacht club this Saturday, if you are available.
We want to take Monara around the world in 2021, are preparing here as good as we can, but would love to “pick your brain” on all the practicalities of cruising around the globe.
I’ll be on Monara tomorrow, from 09.00 to 17.00, please pop in for a coffee!
Kind regards,
Jan Legein
We would love to have had a chance to meet you — it’s fun meeting people all over the world and we often learn about new things to see or do in the area from residents like yourselves. But, we have decided to leave Antwerp this morning so won’t be able to do it. Hopefully our paths will cross again in the near future.
Hi! It is great to hear about your adventures aboard Dirona. It is great to see how adventurous your cat Spitfire is. My question is about where you decided to feed (probably not so difficult) and place the cat pan (more difficult). Thanks for the insights as we plan for our future boating adventures (dreams at this point).
Best Regards, Griff
Spitfire’s food and water bowls are kept in the day head across from the Galley They are in front of the washer and dryer and the toilet is in the other end of the small room. It’s an easy place to check and refill his bowls and it doesn’t get much in the way there. The cat box is down in the guest stateroom. We used to keep it in the GSR shower with the door open but as he got older, he decided he didn’t like it there so it’s now on the floor of the GSR. If someone visits, it moves into the MSR. We find the Tidy Cat system to be super easy to manage on a boat: https://mvdirona.com/2010/06/cruising-with-cats/.
James and Jennifer
We’ve been following you for years and appreciate your contribution to the cruising community. Understanding your background in IT I’m curious about your thoughts on the use of VPN while cruising? We connect to the internet via WiFi when available, otherwise via cell hotspot. Our interest in VPN is from the security prospective not anonymity. We have had great results using VPN while land-based, however while mobile is yet to be tested.
I should have included that we are thinking a router based VPN would best suit us versus device based VPN. We have 10+ connected devices with likely 3-4 actively being used at any given time.
Makes sense. We use ExpressVPN and they are natively supported by most routers so just going to a router-based VPN solution would make a lot of sense. In our case, we use an open source router solution DD-WRT. Even DD-WRT supports EXpressVPN well, so that still isn’t a blocker for us using full router based VPN. But we run our router in a multi-WAN configuration where the router has 4 WAN connections and the Router automatically chooses the least expensive configuration: 1) WiFi, 2) Cellular, 3) V7hts satellite unlimited mode, and 4) V7hts satellite metered account mode. In this multi-WAN configuration, it’s much more complex to get a VPN working. I also have several dedicated encrypted channels running out of the router to allow external to the boat access. And there are static IPs to support another incoming channel.
We love the router and the overall configuration but it would make running full router VPN more complex. It clearly can still be done but, the more I thought about it, the more I was concerned that the VPN would yeild some weird fault modes and make it more difficult to know why something wasn’t working. And, there are times when I need different VPNs from different devices for different purposes. Also you don’t want to use the VPN 24×7 on the sat system since the VPN has constant heartbeats consuming metered data even when no customer data is flowing.
Where we ended up is install ExpressVPN on 3 android phones, 1 FireTV, and 3 Windows systems. A single ExpresVPN license can be install on all 7 systems (or as many as you have) as long as you don’t use it on more than 5 at the same time. It seems to work pretty well. In fact, I really like having per device control but there is risk that we forget to connect to the VPN and run some traffic unprotected. Other than that, the setup is pretty nice and is working fairly well. And, it’s super clear when the VPN has a problem and when there is some other connectivity problem — in my opinion, tying it all together can make it hard to figure out what’s causing a communications problem. There are pros and cons to both but I slightly favor a per-device VPN.
I use a VPN to get secure resources at work and we use ExpressVPN around the boat quite frequently. When doing financial work, we hook up but don’t stay connected all the time although it works well enough that there is no reason why we couldn’t stay connected.
James – Thanks for this insight, your comments regarding per-device VPN are thought provoking, I’ll consider this further. I also wasn’t aware ExpressVPN was a multi-device license, however now understand that it is so this becomes a viable cost effective provider. The Apple TV and NAS drives were what was driving me towards a router based solution, however I see that ExpressVPN is able to be run-on these, I’ll review the security aspect of that further.
We run a 2 WAN set-up (Cell + WiFi) with a Wi-Fi Ranger antenna and router to manage the WAN selection.
Thanks again and safe travels.
Steve McCreary
MV Last Laugh
DeFever 52 Offshore Cruiser
Now lying Hilton Head Island, SC, USA
That sounds like a good set-up. Hope the VPN implementation goes well.
Speaking of connectivity, what are you using for LTE access? We’re using a Wireng gigamimo-lite antenna (and just upgrading to a gigamimo-5G) with a cradlepoint router, but I’m not super happy with either right now. I just can’t find a better answer.
We just use cell phones with their connectivity shared out with the boat. If any of our cell phones are close to the boat, it uses them for connectivity. If no cell phones are near, then it uses the KVH V7hts satellite link. So the boat is always connected automatically and, overall it’s a pretty slick system.
The only improvement we wanted to make was to install a cellular range extender. We’ve read lots of good things about them and WeBoost (https://www.amazon.com/weBoost-MultiRoom-470144-Booster-Carriers/dp/B07VG9ZZMV) was well reviewed so we gave it a try over 6 months and really couldn’t measure the difference in connectivity. The phones do well up to 10 to 20 miles off shore and the WeBoost extender didn’t change that so we stopped using it.
Gotcha! Yeah I’m wondering if we’ll end up with that simple of a setup as well. Many times, the current antenna arrangement is slower than simply tethering to our phones. However, some other times, it’s much faster. So, we’re still trying to figure out the pattern. Apple has been putting slightly more money into antenna design than WirEng, but it still seems like a 3’x3’x2′ antenna setup should clearly outshine the iPhone antenna under all circumstances… But if it doesn’t, then it might be time to just dual-sim our cell phones with the unlimited SIM cards we use and call it a day…
I read about your KVH setup back when we started planning our great loop trip, but with Starlink on the horizon, I struggled to drop 70k on an antenna + thousands per month for unlimited low-speed service. In your shoes, over the past few years, you had no other choice, so it totally makes sense, though. :)
Cheers guys! Keep up the fun. Maybe someday we’ll be on the same worldwide adventure as you.
The simple setup I described works fairly well. I hear you on Starlink pricing and agree it sounds apealing but suspect they are still a year away from an production constellatoin and it might be more. The KVH V7hts antenna isn’t as expensive as you might think. It’s $25k for the antenna and $1,000 a month will get you 5G with $300/G if you go over. I don’t know the details but I know they have some plans where they put the antenna on the boat for free and you just pay monthly.
I wouldn’t call what we have “cheap” but it’s pretty nice to always be connected. Hope we do end up in the same city sometime.
Aha. I think I was looking at the V11 stuff, but it looks like V7 can do 3Mbit, which is fine for out-of-cell-contact always-in-touch. Do you have an intelligent caching proxy layer on your boat to help assist with large builds? I worry about doing things like Kubernetes development, where, for example, docker image building does a really poor job out of the box of caching intermediate data pulls, so you end up burning tons of bandwidth redownloading the same images repeatedly.
With coronavirus keeping everything closed for who knows how many months, we might need to just do a second great loop after this to catch all the things that are closed the first time around, putting us into Starlink constellation opening day range… Then maybe we feel better about switching to a slow speed trawler and going more worldly. :)
Doing team based software development over the sat link would be challenging. The only acceptable solution would probably be to do a full clone locally and only work on areas of the code where nobody else is making changes. If you absolutely have to do just run business as usual in a team development environment, I suspect you’ll blow through 5+ gig a day but the best way to figure it out would be to instrument your router or client system to measure all bits sent and received for a day and get a read on exactly what an average day looks like for you.
James/Jennifer – I have just come across your trip blog of the Dampier to Rodrigues trip in 2015.
While I appreciate it was a few years ago, but was there a reason why you did not go via the Cocos/Keeling Islands? I understand that the overall trip would have been further but it would have allowed for a break in the journey with a stopover on dry land.
Peter,
You’re right, Cocos Keeling is the common stopping point when crossing the Indian Ocean from Darwin. There are lots of upsides to doing it, and we gave it considerable thought. The standard route is either by running the 2,000 miles directly from Darwin, or by running 500 miles south to Broome and then 1,500 miles to Cocos Keeling. Rodrigues is then 2,000 miles from Cocos Keeling.
We were covering basically the same distance, but in a 1,000-mile leg from Darwin to Dampier and then a 3,000-mile leg to Rodrigues. The reason we did this was partly for experience in covering longer distances, but also because fueling in Cocos Keeling would be incredibly expensive. Diesel was $2/liter in Cocos Keeling compared to $1.48/L in Dampier. (And in Dampier we could get GST and fuel excise tax rebates that brought the effective price down to about $1.10/L). Also, we couldn’t reach the fuel dock in Cocos Keeling due to shallow water, so we’d need to be supplied via barge. The cost of hiring the barge would make the effective price about $5/L or nearly $20 per gallon. When you’re taking on many thousands of liters, that can really add up. :)
Jennifer
I found your YouTube videos which led me here. I grew up in the PNW and love anything maritime – well anything with an engine and sails or wheels really. What a great adventure! I look forward to seeing more. Looks like I have a lot of reading to do to catch up!
Glad you found the website and we should have another video posted soon.
Hi James and Jennifer, Here Rob. Wonderful trip and website! We are also living on a boat 365×24 in the Netherlands. Idea: Sailing on the Rhine and Danube to Instanbul where you enter the Mediterranean. All this provided that the Dirona is not too high. Greetings, Rob
We would love to do that inland river trip but Dirona is an Ocean boat and draws 2.1m of water and has an air draft of 9.1m. We get to enjoy some inland water ways like the run from Amsterdam to Antwerp but there many where there either isn’t enough water or enough air clearance or both. No complaints though — 10 years later we continue really have fun with the boat.
Hello Jennifer and James,
Welcome in Antwerp!
I’ve been following you since the publishing in “Motorboot”.
Antwerp is a nice city, I hope you will enjoy your stay.
We also love boating very much.
Best Regards
Ania & Henk
Thanks for the welcome to Antwerp. We’re excited to be here and looking forward to spending 7 to 10 days here and we’re enjoying it so far.
Simple coolant change question. I have an M844. When draining the coolant are you draining solely from the block drain on the service side of the gen? The manual also says to disconnect the coolant hose on the under side of the heat exchanger/manifold. What do you do? Cheers.
I drain only out of the drain on the oil filter side of the block which appears to be low enough to get most of it. The drain on the other (heat exchanger) side looks higher. You could try the house after a full drain to see if you get materially more by taking the hose off. I go with the drain only.
Thanks for prompt reply. I’ll stick to the same engine block drain that you use but will have to flush a bit longer next time to get clearer flush returns. Enjoy your web page and all the varied posts, topics, video etc. My wife and our two girls (9,12) have lived aboard full time for the past five years on Bella our 65 ft MV classic Bill Garden pilot house cruiser. While not set up for passage making we do enjoy exploring the BC coast from our home port in Ganges Salt Spring Island. We can very much relate to the challenge of keeping all the systems operational 365. Cheers.
That sounds great. Ganges is a wonderful place to live.
Hi James-
Great to see you underway again – I really enjoy watching your adventures from afar.
As we are working to get N4709 up to date with deferred maintenance, this coolant question raised another related question I thought I’d run by you. I need to change the coolant on our main L668T. It seems pretty straightforward to drain the block, but have you come up with a good system to get the coolant out of the keel cooler? I’ve been told that a wet vac on one of the coolant lines to the keel cooler can be used but I can’t figure out how to do it without putting a fair amount of coolant in the bilge. Once drained, would you flush it further or does re-filling it dilute the old residual coolant enough? Any issues with air locks?
Looking forward to seeing your Med adventures – have you figured out a rough itinerary?
Thanks –
Greg
I’m a big fan of wet vacs and have one in the engine room always handy and used frequently. When we changed our coolant we dropped down the heat exchanger so didn’t have to do it but, if I did, I would use a combination of wet vac and repeated freshwater rinses and wet vac cleans.
Our only firm fixed calendar point in the Mediterranean so far is Genoa at the start of July. We’re already having a really enjoyable cruise down through the inland canals of the Netherlands. It’s looking like it’s going to be another action packed year.
Thanks James – I have a wet vac, and it sounds like this will be a good use for it. My only concern about the fresh water rinses is the generation of more coolant contaminated water to dispose of.
Genoa should be fantastic. Are you going to winter over somewhere next year or will you be able to cruise through the winter?
Greg
We’ve only planned as far forward as Genoa in July. I suspect rather than to take 3 or 4 months off at a single location we’ll take a month here and a month there along the way but we’ll need more experience in the Med before we make final plans.
I am also considering a 60 which has a hard top with enough room for 7 panels. How does your 27 kWhrs per day convert to DC amperage removed from the battery bank? Our previous boat could easily generate 300+ amps per day (12 volt) in Florida and the Bahamas. I guess the simple question is how many DC amps (24 volts) per day would the inverter pull from the battery bank in order to maintain the Sub Zero and perhaps the additional freezer.
I like the idea of the autostart as well and would incorporate one in to the system. I would hope that with the reduced amperage draw of just those two appliances and 7 solar panels the autostart would be the last line of defense, only used in cloudy situations.
Your thoughts?
The 60 is a great boat — we really like the single deck MSR and living quarters.
We wouldn’t run a cruising yacht without auto-start. It frees you up from needing to think about the generator, avoids mistakes that can hurt expensive battery banks, and gives you the freedom to stay away for a couple of days when you thought it was only going to be a few hours.
For consumption measures, we are on the high-side since we always have the boat live and operable. For example, the satellite system draws more power than the Sub Zero and it’s almost always on. We always have lights on around the boat. The video cameras and storage systems are always running. We have a large fridge and an additional freezer and they are both always on. The Nav computer is always on. Our 27kWhr per day is an average draw of 46A @ 24V which is crazy high. I would think that most boats would be down around 30A @ 24V and some, even fairly electronic boats, probably get down close to 20A @ 24V.
But 20A is still way above the 12.5A/hour you expect to be able to average with the Solar panels. Getting the draw down to that level would require that you turn off almost everything except the fridge. For our tastes, needing to shut the boat down before heading out is just too much hassle so we would probably just use the solar panels as a bridge to reduce generator run time.
Richard, James is on the money here. There’s just not enough room on these boats to put enough PV to run the boat, unless (maybe) you gave up the entire aft upper deck and dinghy storage area. I don’t really know, that’s just an exaggerated guess. If you can tell us the specs on the 7 panels you can fit on the 60’s hard top I’ll go through the math with you (I gotta return the favor to James on the customer support effort!). As a starting point, your previous boat produced roughly 3600 watt-hours (normalizing to 12V) on a good day according to your statement. All other things being equal, it would still be 3600 w-h on a 24 system. We don’t know how many or what type of panels you had to do this so it’s impossible to translate this into what might be possible on a N60 until we know more.
Chris
James you like a great number of adjustable wrench users are use not only the adj. wrench but also the end wrenches wrong, sorry. Please watch this you tube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=latrFJ7uFiM that willshow you what you are doing wrong. My father used to holler at me if I use a wrench in this manner. Please take my criticism as constructive criticism. Your way can break the wrench when you need it most not to mention hurting your self.
You’ve had your father explain the use of adjustable wrenches to you. I’ve had the same. I’m also a licensed professional auto-mechanic so you can imagine I’ve had automotive trade teachers explain this too me many times. I’ve done a 9,000 hour apprenticeship so, yes, I’e had this explained to me by many seasoned and highly skilled professionals. We post to our blog (https://mvdirona.com/) and put videos (https://www.youtube.com/user/mvdirona/featured) up describing our trip and showing some of the service work we have done in our years rounding the world. Literally dozens of folks like yourself have jumped in to save us from injury and explained how adjust wrenches could or should be used. I’ve had a lot of advice on this topic.
But even with all that good advice, I still don’t religiously follow the “adjustable wrench rules” that are otherwise so popular. As a professional auto-mechanic, I had a 5′ high tool box with thousands of dollars in tools and yet not a single adjustable wrench. When you have 2 cubic meters of tools, you almost always have the right tool and it would be silly to accept the bulk and weaknesses of adjustable wrench. But, on a small boat, it’s not practical to have anywhere close to 2 cubic meters worth of tools and, ironically, there are a great many fasteners much larger than any found in an automotive application. Even more tools are needed on a boat. There just isn’t space for all the right tools so adjustable ends up being the only practical solution. Boats also often have a shortage of space and adjustable wrenches are bigger and more bulky so it’s often the case that the adjustable wrench can’t use used in the “right” way and the only way to move a nut is to sift it first a bit using one side of the wrench and then turn it over and use the other side. That’s why all wrenches have about a 15 degree offset on the end — it allows progress when the clearance is tight but that does require using the wrench in both directions in violation of popular advice.
Having used adjustable wrenches “incorrectly” for literally decades, I’ll observe they are far stronger than conventional wisdom allows and I’ve got a great many jobs done that wouldn’t have been possible following all the rules. And, I’ve never had an adjustable wrench fail. They are far more reliable than conventional wisdom but I do agree they are worth avoiding and, if they must be used, they should be used with care.
A quick thank you for having your “Prince William Sound” presentation available on-line. We returned to North America from Micronesia via the Aleutians and were debating in which region of Alaska we would transition from “delivery mode” to “cruising mode” for a few weeks. Your presentation led us to deciding to spend our slack time in PWS vice the busier SE Alaska and the whole family thoroughly enjoyed it (http://sv-fluenta.blogspot.com/2020/01/more-ice-yale-glacier-and-watersports.html).
Even as a sailboat guy I follow the technical aspects of your blog as I enjoy reading how well you two overcome the technical challenges of cruising.
Thanks again,
Max
SV Fluenta
Presently Sidney, BC
GREAT choice to go to Prince William Sound. It’s an amazing place and your blog brings back many great memories. Thanks for the blog feedback.
What sensor did you use to publish the domestic hot water temperature on your NMEA2000 network? I love the idea of having that information available centrally to know when I would need to fire up the generator.
We use the “Ring Temperature Probe” Maretron Part# TR3K connected up to a TMP100 (https://www.maretron.com/products/tmp100.php). I clamped the metal end of the temp probe onto the brass outlet port on the water heater right up against the heater pressure tank. The tight mechanical connection of a hose clamp gives excellent conduction and gives an accurate read on hot water tank temperature.
Perfect thanks. Ordered some ambient temp sensors too, that will be very helpful.
We find having temperatures sensors with alarms all over the boat is really useful. Some examples from our boat (some humidity sensors aren’t operative):
Temp & Humidity: 02/14 07:58 (02/14 06:58)
Outside 47.1F 77.3% 1013mb 0.0kts
Water 46.4F
MSR 63.0F 52.0%
Pilot House 73.0F 47.0%
Salon 65.0F 52.0%
Furnace 56.9F
Water Heater 120.4F
Engine Room 63.2F
House Bank 63.5F
Start Bank 60.8F
Autopilot 1 59.6F
Autopilot 2 60.9F
Lazarette 62.9F
Laz Freezer -12.8F
Entertainment 89.0F 25.0%
120V Inverter 77.0F 25.0%
240V Inverter 1 67.0F 55.0%
240V Inverter 2 68.0F 74.0%
Engine Intake 58.0F 60.0%
ER Intake 61.0F 1.0%
ER Outlet 62.0F 100.0%
Stack Shroud 61.0F 66.0%
Stack Fan 60.0F 46.0%
Fuel 55.8F
Wow, that is an impressive set of temperature data. Especially given your power setup the inverter ones seem particularly relevant.
I saw that picture you took of the melted transmission at the boat show, and it got me thinking: Is there value monitoring the transmission temperature? Aside from checking the oil level regularly I’m not sure how else I’d get ahead of a failure like that. Wondering if you think that would be a useful leading indicator.
Yes, measuring temperature of the transmission is worth a lot. In fact, if you monitor transmission temperature and frequently check the fluid (level and looking for water or other impurities in the oil), you will detect most problems before failure and, on many problems, have lots of warning. Monitoring transmission temperatures is definitely worth doing.
Hi James,
Can you tell us what you’re using for the big floodlights up on the stack – the side- and aft-facing ones. As-built, or new led ones or what?
And also your hydraulic bilge pump so I can go find one for my boat.
Thanks
Chris
For the hydraulic bilge pump, it’s a Pacer and they make both hydraulic and electric versions of the same pump. Hydraulic is a nice solution for a hydraulic boat but, when retrofitting the electric version might be an easier install. Both use the same pump and can move the same volume of water. Here’s an electric pump from Pacer:
https://www.absolutewaterpumps.com/pacer-close-coupled-centrifugal-self-priming-pump-se2elc2-0c-electric-single-phase-2-hp-2-fnpt-110-gpm?fee=2&fep=7869&matchtype=&network=g&device=c&adposition=1o2&keyword=&gclid=Cj0KCQiA7OnxBRCNARIsAIW53B9P6i4Bgre93TLsh53IHb08XiRgQSanhYj2LrfVnL9G8m5ZTv4ttwYaAh8-EALw_wcB
The side floodlights are super bright, 150W LEDs (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008XGT27U/). They are real beasts and the design point for them is to augment GPS, charts, and RADAR when entering tight quarters at night. These lights are setup to not illuminuate the boat so there is no back scatter but they really light up the surrounding area for a few hundred feet. It’s an added visual check to help stay away from the rocks. We also have a Flir but find visual checks with bright lights even more effective.
The back lights are to illuminate the boat decks and swim platform for working at night. The most common use is lifting the tender at night.
Great, thank you. Nice lights, bummer they’re not on Prime but still look very cost-attractive in a three-pack. Clicking that one now. The thing about the electric-vs-hydraulic on the pump is that if the boat’s full of water, the engine and hydraulics may be the only thing still working. You’ve got the big hydraulic pumps on Dirona but my 47 has the small pump on the main for the stabilizers, and will get another similar or identical pump on the wing. I’m hoping that this will deliver the capacity needed by that bilge pump in the hydraulic version. I’ll take a look at the specs and see; maybe convince my hydraulics guy to put a bigger pump on the wing, or be able to use both engines to drive the bilge. We’ll see; plenty of time to make this decision.
Your right that that water pump is a high volume hydraulic consumer. You could put a bigger hydraulic pump on the main. Variable output pumps back off and produce less volume when needed so a larger pump barely changes the parasitic load when not moving large volumes of oil but makes available large volumes when called upon.
I just looked at the hydraulic version of the electric pump you linked above. says 500 pounds, 9 gpm. Surely even the smaller hydr pump used for the stabilizer system would drive this?
https://www.absolutewaterpumps.com/pacer-self-priming-centrifugal-hydraulic-water-pump-se2el-hyc-hydraulic-driven-2-110-gpm-female-npt
I’ve got a 45cc Bosch Rexroth Pump on the wing and the main engines. What that means is that 45cc of oil is pumped on each RPM. Find out what your pump capacity is and then multiply it by RPM to find the max volume of oil you can move at that RPM. That’ll allow you to figure out if you can drive the Pacer crash pump.
I’ve got a manual pump that connects to a manifold, allowing a connection to the four different bilge locations. Theoretically, could this pump be connected to a Y connector on the manual pump, allowing this pump to be used? Feels like it’s a viable way to avoid having to plumb another set of hoses to each of the bilges.
That’s very close to what we did as well. Most of our pumps have there own non-shared pickups and their own non-shared through-hull and that is the recommended approach. But, when we added the second Rule 3700, we put it into the manual bilge pump circuit. The Rule 3700 is in the main bilge and it pumps up the manual bilge pump, through the flapper valve in the manual pump, and out the manual bilge pump through-hull. This isn’t the recommended configuration but, when set up like this, the Rule 3700 still produces the same unrestricted output and the manual pump still operates as before. I’ve tested both and I’m happy with the configuration but I don’t view the manual pump as adding much safety with all the other pumps we have and I suspect we may someday just remove the manual pump entirely.
I just got my set of three flood lights. Holy cow these things are huge! Holly could barely lift the package to bring the thing in. My friend saw them, and said, “you will be seen from space”! Best comment of the year.
Anyways, I wanted to ask how you have these wired: did you put a weather tight junction box in the stack and connect them all together there, or did you run per-lamp cabling all the way to inside the boat? Certainly current is not an issue with three or four of these at only 150W each on a single cable; really just a question of the amount of wire and where to interconnect them and relative convenience. I’ve never been inside that stack so I’m not sure how much room there is in there for cable management.
Thanks
Chris
They are big lights. We where in the middle of the options you mentioned. We want individual control of the three circuits so we went with one wire for each of: 1) forward spotlight, 2) side floods, and 3) boat deck floods.
The only problem with those lights is the bracket is powder coated steel and it’ll rust. I have stainless steel brackets made to the same dimensions. Other than that, even in very high use in difficult conditions, you should get 5 to 7 years from those lights.
Thanks for the tip on the brackets!
Thank’s for bringing all of us along on your adventures. You’re doing what a lot of us would like to, but will never take the plunge. A couple of questions. Based on your engine hours do you have a feel for when major engine work will be necesary? You’ve done a lot of changes/modifications on your boat. How many of them have you done for your specific needs vs what would help the “general” boater. Do you know how many of your-and other long distance cruisers mods have been incorperated on production boat’s?
We expect the engine will do double the hours it has on it now — it should easily reach 20k hours and many experts predict 30k. At this point (10,800 hours), it’s not a hint different from new with no oil burning or smoke. It still feels “new” and it really running well.
Many of the mods we have put in make the boat easier to use by automating things. For example, rather than having to monitor the electrical load and be careful not to put on the microwave and the hair dryer at the same time, the system load sheds so that breakers don’t pop. Less essential loads are shut off allowing the boat to continue to operate without having to explicitly manage the load. These are more advanced systems that I believe will become “normal” in RVs and boats but it’ll be quite a while before that happens. Some other aspects of our designs, like the ability to run on dual shore power and easily use 50/60hz (https://mvdirona.com/2014/08/a-more-flexible-power-system-for-dirona/) is becoming more common and is optional on current Nordhavn builds. But all these items are for convenience and none are a prerequisite to really enjoying a boat or the trip.
I’m thinking of putting together a generator auto-start system similar to what you described. I like the precision of the system you’ve built as compared with the rather limited control some of the off-the-shelf solutions provide. The automated signals based on N2KView all make sense. But I’ve got a few questions about how those signals are used:
1) You seem to have some beefy switching relays for your loads (https://mvdirona.com/blog/content/binary/Blog_WarningLights_IMG_1182.web.jpg). What are those relays?
2) The Northern Lights control system sounds great, but I have an Onan generator which doesn’t seem offer a similar product (though granted I just did a cursory search). Would using the Dynagen control system for the generator work for any engine? It seems like it would (and since I’d be using it for a generator I wouldn’t have the throttle issue you had).
3) How do you manually turn on the generator with this setup? Is the idea that since the warm up/cool down is something you always want to do anyway (regardless of what the signal is) that you have a manual ‘switch’ in N2KView that you use to manually switch on the generator, and never just start it up directly? This is important in my case because I don’t have a need to implement your ‘all loads through the inverters’ setup, so there are some loads (like the water maker and water heater) that I need to run the generator for.
Thanks!
Alec
You are doing 100% the right thing to start with warm-up/cool-down when thinking through autostart. It’s vital that a cold engine not be brought online into a full load. We have a 12KW generator which is 50A max output. I like our electrical systems with headroom so I use a 65A contactor to implement warm-up/cool-down. I’m a big fan of Shcnieder products and use them heavily at work so I chose their LC1D65ABD (https://www.se.com/ww/en/product/LC1D65ABD/tesys-d-contactor—3p(3-no)—ac-3—%3c=-440-v-65-a—24-v-dc-standard-coil/) which is a 3 pole contactor rated at 65A at 240V and it’s using a 24VDC coil. There are variants of that relay with all different coil voltages — you should use whatever is easiest to implement in your control system. There are variants of that series of contactors so you can get one sized for whatever generator you are using. I like to run max load at around 80% of the contactor rating so we use a 65A contactor on our 50A circuit.
For engine controller, I really, really like the Dynagen TG410 (https://dynagen.com/tough-series-tg410-auto-start-controller). We use our main engine as a 9kw backup generator in case our main generator fails (https://mvdirona.com/2018/01/two-generators-when-you-only-have-one/). On this install, we use a Dynagen TG410 and it’s great.
Both the Northern lights controllers and Dynagen controllers have provision to implement adjustable warm-up and cool-down times. When I originally installed I used a 2 min warm-up and a 1 min cool down. It’s super easy to configure on both these engine controller designs where it’s one menu entry for each and the number of seconds can be set. This approach works great and is all I recommend but, I can’t leave well enough alone so my control system warms the generator up to 150F so sometimes will give 20 seconds of warmup (the min) and sometimes up to 10 min of warmup (the max). But the fixed 2 min and 1 min works great.
With the Dynagen TG410, all you need is to send a 24V control signal to the TG410 when to start. There are many ways to do this. Some system use battery voltage and some use battery state of charge (SOC) and both have issues. If you use SOC, it’s sometimes off by a wide margin and is really not very reliable if you are not frequently charging your batteries to 100% charge. I don’t recommend it. Using voltage will cause your generator to premature start when large loads hit the system and draw the voltage down. This works fine, will never hurt your batteries but will be auto-starting more frequently than absolutely needed. I used max voltage over 15 min which works very well but probably isn’t supported by most off the shelf solutions. Just using voltage works adequately well and most modern inverters can do this for you.
My solution is to use a custom software system that monitors battery voltage and starts when the trailing 15 min max voltage indicates 55% charge. What I do is note that over 15 min periods, the max voltage is almost always the average current for the boat. Battery voltage is poorly correlated with battery state of charge. But, battery voltage at a fixed discharge rate is VERY highly related to state of charge. I configure the system to start at 55% and it works great.
You asked how can the generator be started in this model. Many different ways depending upon the richness of your system. The simplest is to walk up to the TG410 and press start will do a manual start. I almost never do this since this is full manual mode and won’t auto-shutdown. An easy alternative is to have a dash switch that is in paralel to your auto-start system and is an alternative way to send a start signal. In this model, the 24V signal can be sent to the TG410 from the auto-start logic (usually an inverter) or via a rocker switch. To start, you just flick on the rocker switch. Here again, it won’t auto-shutdown but it’s useful for oil changes and testing purposes or if you want the gen on for cooking or other high load purposes.
Our system is a bit richer in that I have a couple of other ways to start the gen. It’s implemented on a web page where I can request the control system to start from a web page from anywhere on the boat. Actually from anywhere in the world. I can turn on the water heater, the generator, the HVAC system, the diesel boiler, the chargers etc. from any device on the boat or where where I’m sitting and typing this in Seattle. When we fly back to Amsterdam, I’ll turn on the water heater and heating system to warm the boat so it’s back up to temperature when we arrive.
I also have 16 key keyboards spread throughout the boat where I can turn on gen, tun off/on chargers, heater, HVAC, change the duration of the next generator run, skip to the next song on the entertainment system, go back to the last song, pause the music, and many other things. So, there are MANY ways to turn the gen off and on and you are only limited by the number of different ways you can send a 24V control signal to the Dynagen TG410. It’ll automatically give you warm-up and cool down if you install the contactor recommended above.
Wow, thanks for the detailed response.
If I’m understanding this correctly, in this model the warm-up/cool-down logic in the auto-start system itself, separate from the demand signal? So one way I could go is rely on the inverter to do a very simplistic ‘the batteries need to be charged’ signal, or do something more nuanced in N2KView that would look at the battery state, and send the signal at the right time to the Dynagen. The Dynagen would take responsibility for the generator warm up/warm down. So that means a manual signal to the Dynagen takes care of closing/opening the relay between the generator output and the loads as necessary. That makes sense.
I am curious about your comments regarding the ‘when to charge’ signal. Specifically this statement I wasn’t quite sure about:
“What I do is note that over 15 min periods, the max voltage is almost always the average current for the boat.”
The relationship between current and voltage certainly makes sense, with more current reducing the voltage of the system. But as both of those are analog values that many permutations, how do you reason about what 55% SOC looks like in an automated system? Do you basically have a bunch of conditional blocks over the trailing 15 minutes with ranges like “If the voltage is between 24.8 and 25.0 and the current is between 30 and 50 amps”, and “if the voltage is between 24.6 and 24.8 and the current is between 50 and 100 amps” with a catch-all at the end like “if the voltage is below 24.0”, any of those evaluating to ‘true’ would be your signal to activate the generator?
If that’s the case, what’s your signal that the batteries are to 80%? I would assume it’s the function of the net input into the batteries combined with the terminal voltage, in another version of the logic above that could probably be a lot simpler, since with the battery chargers pumping current in the voltage should be in a much smaller band.
One other question I had: I love that you have all of those devices automated, but what that likely means is that you’ve replaced the manual breaker panel with this automation as the way that these systems are powered. So you’ve likely got many of those Schneider relays spread around the boat (one for each of the loads you’re managing), controlled by Maretron DCR100 relays?
You asked for more detail on how to know when to start the generator and when to stop it. And for a bit more on how circuits are switched on and off given that we are still using mechanical breakers. Let’s start with the last one. We use contactors sized to the load. The HVAC system and the generator warmup/cooldown circuits are 50A rated so I used 65A contactors on those two. Others are much smaller so I use smaller contactors. For contactor control, in some cases I drive them using a Maretron DCR100 which can handle up to 6 contactors. In other cases I drive the contactors with a Raspberry Pi digitial output but this is more complex and I recommend just using the DCR100.
On how to start and stop the generator, you really want to use battery state of charge and it’ll work fine if you are frequently fully charging the battery bank. But, for applications that go for long periods without fully charging, SoC gets inaccurate. Many use it fine and for those where SoC stays close enough to accurate, they are happy with the solution. In our application, SoC is effectively useless but, if you can use it, it’s a nice and simple solution.
Because SoC is quite inaccurate and gets progressively less accurate as batteries age and the boat goes through charge/discharge cycles. For starting the generator, we use voltage at a given load. Computing SoC as a function of voltage and load can be quite accurate but it’s complex to get enough data to fully calibrate the system. Lifeline published SoC data at various load rates so computed a polynomial approximation of the 2 dimensional surface of voltage on one dimension and load on the other dimension and the output from the function being SoC. This was excessively complex and not sufficiently accurate. I eventually went for a simpler approximation where I take the highest voltage over the last 15 min — this avoids short duration heavy loads and, when looking at longer periods (we chose 15 min), is close to to the average load on the boat. From the Lifeline battery manual I interpolate to get the voltage level at our average load that corresponds to 55%. It’s a bit complex to describe, a bit of a hassle to figure out but it’s super simple to take the maxV over trailing 15 min and compare to 55% voltage and trigger a start. That’s what I use but many far simpler solutions work fairly well and, if the generator sometimes starts a bit early, you don’t really care.
On stopping the generator, we look at the amperage going into the batteries. The actual amperage produced by the generator will be higher since it’s also powering the house. What you want is the amperage going into the batteries.
The above two points can be calibrated using the data in the Lifeline technical manual and a SoC meter is quite accurate on the first battery cycle so you can use it to select the correct triggering voltage for 55% (or whatever you chose) charge and the triggering amperage for 85% (or whatever you use) charge. Both are approximations but it’s surprising how accurate this simple system can be once calibrated.
For my use case I agree that SOC will probably work, Thanks!
The advantage of SOC is it’s super easy to setup and works fairly well as long as the batteries are fully charged prior to the SoC calibration drifting off due to accumulated error.
Hi James,
We have the same engine as yours in our 49′ Selene (though it’s M1 rated instead of M2). Looking through the oil change procedures for the engine, this step is one I don’t know how to do:
IMPORTANT: Immediately after completing any oil change, crank engine for 30 seconds without permitting engine to start. This will help insure adequate lubrication to engine components before engine starts.
Two questions about this:
1) I haven’t seen this in other engine oil change procedures (though admittedly my sample size is small, but for the Onan generator we have in the same boat it doesn’t include this step). Given how many oil changes you perform do you see it as a critical step on this engine?
2) Assuming the answer to #1 is “of course it’s important”, how does one crank the John Deere 6068 engine without allowing it to start?
Thanks!
Alec
Deere is playing it safe in case customers change the only on an engine that hasn’t been run for a while and I don’t follow their recommendations in this case. We never change the oil unless the oil is hot which means the engine has been running and is fully coated with oil and the engine is warm. I then change the oil and start the engine and it takes roughly 10 seconds to fill the oil filter and come up to full oil pressure.
Theoretically it would be slightly better to crank the engine to oil pressure first and then start up but only slightly better and I’m not sure it’s worth the hassle. The only ways I know of to cause cranking without starting are to disconnect the ECU and there is no way I would do that without very good reason. I don’t want connector wear etc. If you were really concerned about this, you could 90% fill the filter with fresh oil before re-installing it. Personally I don’t think it’s worth the hassle — a warm engine that has been running in the last 30 min is very well oiled. Don’t start it into load, leave it a low idle, and otherwise don’t worry about it is my approach.
Because I have a live hydraulic pump (always on), I ensure the hydraulic system is not on (won’t be pumping above idle pressure) and this should always be the case until the main engine has been running and is warm and ready to take load. The main alternators on our boat are big beasts that will apply material load. These I’ve adjusted to to not engage the field and put load on the engine until it’s been running for 30 seconds. This is an easy option on a Balmar external regulator (MC-614 for 12V systems and the MC-624 for 24 volt systems) and, for tawler applications with large house banks, I recommend external regulations to allow the charge control you need for large house battery bank operation.
If you do want to prevent starting for 30 seconds, my recommendation is to contact your Deere Dealer and get their advice on how to do it. All methods I can think of our pretty clunky. I personally don’t think it’s worth the hassle and most I know don’t either. It’s vital the engine be warm and recently run on an oil change though.
Great re the oil change, that’s the same rationalization I was going through in my head and mitigation I was hoping to use (ie, running the engine right before, which they also recommend). Thanks for the confirmation. Clearly they are going full ‘belt and braces’ with reducing risk. The alternator on the engine now doesn’t even kick on until the engine hits 1200RPM, so from the perspective of loading the the engine that’s all good.
It’s interesting you mention the Balmar alternators. I had one in my previous boat (a 90A/14V), which was fantastic. It very close to its maximum output (about 80%) on a continuous basis as long as I had a demand for it. The one that came with our Selene (it was a floor model) is a 140A/28V alternator (not a Balmar). This feels like it should be enough for the loads we have, but even at cruising speed it barely put out 50% of its rated capacity on a continuous basis even when the batteries are well under 80% charged.
I was thinking of putting a Balmar alternator in its place, and was wondering which specific ones you have? Looking at the options there seem to be a few possibilities but I was wondering if for extended heavy use you rely on the “Heavy Duty Cycle” extra large case units, and do they fit well on the 6068 engine?
We use 2 Balmar 190A@24V units (http://www.balmar.net/product/alternators/alternator-97ehd-190-24/). These are about 4.5KW each and absolute tanks able to put out 100% output continuously. Integral regulator alternators are designed to charge start battery banks and aren’t setup to efficiently charge large house battery banks. The easiest and least expensive solution to your problem is to keep using the 140A unit you have but take it to a alternator repair store and get it converted to external regulation. If you do decide to do that, it probably makes sense to get it freshened up while there. Then I would install a Balmar MC-24 (http://www.balmar.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/PDS-MC-624-H-1.pdf) to control it.
That is an inexpensive change that will allow you to get full alternator output. You need to be careful and limit the output to hold the alternator down below 225F to at very most 240F which is easy to do with the MC-624 regulator. There are a full alternators out there that can put out full output up above 300F — noboby recommends they be run there but, as an experiment, I ran the Balmar 97EHD-190-24 without temperature limits for years and it was often in the 300F to 315F range and that alternator is an absolute tank and it’ll do that all day long but, generally, unless you are using an unusually good alternator don’t let it go much above 225F.
On our previous boat we had 105A Delcos and I learned super quickly that they can produce 105A for about 5 min before releasing their smoke. I experimented a bit and found out that they are best limited to 77A and, at that level, they don’t go above 225F and will last forever. At 105A, the field windings and bearings fail very quickly. The Balmar 97EHD-190-24 is a rare breed with very durable field winding insulation and great bearings and it’ll run at very high temps for yeas without a problem. The 190A will fade slightly to about 177A at 300F but seems able to run that way indefinitely.
In your case, the easiest solution is external regulation but the nicest solution is to replace the alternator with a larger unit. Given 140A is pretty high, I would be tempted to stay with what you currently have.
The N47 we are purchasing has a Leece-Neville 175A internal regulator. That’s going to have to go, mainly because of the internal regulator but I also don’t know anything about its true capacity characteristics. James, what do you know/think about the 98 series Balmar as compared to the 97 you’re using? Maybe they are a newer design that was not available when Dirona was built?
The 175A Leece-Neville is a wonderful alterator that is used heavily in trucks and buses. It’s not quite as temperature resiant as the Balmar of the same size but it’s a great alternator and I personally wouldn’t replace it unless it’s failed. Just convert it to external regulation and install Balmar regulator configured to keep the alternator temperature down below 225F to 235F. That’s the most efficient approach. Changing alternators is more expensive than needed in my opinion, although if you do, I’m a pretty big fan of the large frame Balmars.
Excellent, if that thing can be converted to external regulation that would be ideal. I’ve always heard good things about that brand but can find little documentation. Also I just remembered what drew my attention to the Balmar 98 series: it’s brushless, which should add a bit of long-term easing of maintenance and failure rate. But that’s an expensive bit of gear. As it turns out I actually have two of the L-N alternators (came with a spare) so if I convert them both and mount the second one in place of the small start battery alternator as you have done I’ve got about 9KW on the main engine which is not a bad outcome for basically no cost! Seriously, thank you for saving me several thousand bucks!
Yes, it can be converted to external regulation cheaply and efficiently by any alternator shop and the Lease Neville a well built system that I would happily use. The dual alternator config works very well and make the main engine into a medium sized generator. With that configuration, we never need to run the generator when underway even with AC systems running.
Hi James,
Can you give me some details on the cameras you use and how you integrate them into your electronics plan? The 47 we are purchasing has a couple of analog cameras and an old-ish monitor with some vga inputs or something requiring you to fiddle around with the monitor’s input selection to choose which camera to look at. Pretty unscalable and inflexible.
Thanks
Chris
I use a combination of Reolink Bullet Cameras (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C5JWK4K) and Reolink Dome cameras (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FQ2T89L/). They are about $50 each with 5M pixel resolution and excellent longevity in difficult conditions. These are single connection Power over Ether (PoE) cameras.
Reolink provides a free client application that will find and show all the cameras on the subnet. I use that program to set them up. They all need passwords etc. This application could be used to show the Cameras but I use Synology Surveillance Station (https://www.synology.com/en-us/surveillance) which is an app that comes with Synology File Servers. The no-fee version with Synlogy file servers supports up to two cameras and, after that, licenses are $50 each.
Great, thanks James! I just got one of the bullet cams to test, plugged it in (I have POE switches all over the house), installed the client app on my laptop, good to go. Really nice system. Time to start pulling ethernet through the boat!
I have POE switches at three locations and that does a good job of covering the boat: 1) lower dash, 2) upper dash, and 3) salon entertainment area. If there was one also one in the GSR/MSR area, the entire boat would be covered and easy to deal with. #1 can reach the entire area below the window in the PH and down below to the staterooms. #2 can reach the upper dash, the fly bridge, and the stack. #3 can reach the salon, galley, engine room and laz.
Definitely putting a switch in the GSR. That’s my office. In the PH there’s a little closet to the port side of the stairs, just forward of the stack. That seems like a good place for a 16 port POE switch to feed the cameras and internet access gadgets, and whatever else ends up the PH like a laptop, Maretron, or whatever, and then feed a couple of smaller POE switches and outlets from there. I’m putting one of those little micro form factor computers in there too, replacing the ancient Windows XP thing that’s in there now, and actually died in front of us on the sea trial day! Good idea to put a switch in the salon. I might throw a smaller switch under the PH dash to. You really can’t have too many switches!
If you put PoE switches at those location, than adding cameras or anything else is always easy. No big wire pulls. The entire boat is within reach with only a moderate amount of work.
Hello James,
Reading about your diesel drip made me remember something you “might” be interested in.
Removing the handle to tighten the packing on a ball valve is no big deal really, unless of course you are tightening the packing on several hundred, or simply wanting to give the ones on Dirona a quick run through.
Here is a link to a tool that allows you to tighten the packing on a ball valve without removing the handle.
https://www.plumbmaster.com/plumbmaster-approved-packing-nut-wrench-1-4-2-inch/p/97550?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIhcvOnruj5wIVC5yzCh2BSAFoEAQYAyABEgLEzPD_BwE
I have no idea if that is a good price as the company I work for literally buys ball valves by the semi truck load and the suppliers pretty much give us all we want.
I do know if you are doing multiple valves, it is well worth having one.
The Plumbmaster site has been down for the last couple of days but, from what you said, that does sound like an excellent tool and quite inexpensive. Thanks for the pointer Steven.
Hello James,
I’m surprised something I always took for granted could be so difficult to find. When you told me that site was down, I went looking for another link.
Even with the tool part number from NIBCO which is where mine came from, there doesn’t appear to be anyone other than that one site that offers them on the internet. Johnson Controls does have packing nut tools for actuators (which I also have) however they aren’t the same thing.
Then I went to trade forums and could only find people asking if they made such a tool.
I’ve got 52 I’ve collected over the years and I’m half tempted to test selling them on eBay where, if that works buying a truck load and selling them on Amazon
Anyway I assume you can pull my email address off my posts, if you are interested tell me how to ship it and I’ll send you one to play with.
Fantastic and much appreciate Steve. I’ll follow up with you offline.
Nice tool, I just got mine. Thanks for the tip!
I’m collecting Steve Coleman recommended tools and it’s a growing and useful set.
Hi Jennifer and James!
My wife Melitta & I are learning a lot from your Blog/Vlog! We own the N52-72 Fortuna Star currently located in Port Sidney Marina, BC since 2017 and are preparing ourselves and the boat for crossing oceans! I watched with much interest your Steering Video. We will follow your precious advices. During that video at minutes 8:15 Jennifer is holding a replacement bolt in her hand. I noticed that she is wearing some kind of Alarm Buzzer ??? on her wrist. Could you clarify what that is? Is this an alarm she can activate while she is somewhere in the boat to call your attention? Since we are also planing to travel alone as a couple , this could be something to consider! Would appreciate any thoughts on that! Very best regards, Peter and Melitta – N52-72 Fortuna Star
We lived in Victoria for years and have boated a lot in your area. It’s a great place to boat. And, on your N52, congratulations. I’m assuming from it’s serial number (ours is 63) that your boat is reasonably new.
I like your idea but, no, the device on Jen’s wrist is a ReliefBand anti-sea sickness device: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PG4NUOS. Jen has some trouble with sea sickness but only when the boat is pitching. When we see those conditions, she wears the band and that solves the problems for all but the worst cases. In those rare cases, she goes to a Scopolamine but that’s pretty rare.
On the problem you asked about, getting the attention of someone on the boat in a remote place. if the person on the helm wants to catch the attention of the person working or doing something down below, we just change the engine RPM. It’s subtle and remarkably efficient at getting attention. When we need to talk back and forth, we use a handheld VHF radio on a working channel. We don’t have a good solution for the person below getting the attention of the person on the helm so we use a VHF radio when we know there is a chance we might want some help. And, when I’m working around active machinery there is a chance I could get hurt, stuck, or incapacitated so Jennifer keeps an eye on the 2 video cameras showing the engine room.
So, we don’t have the exact solution you were asking about but we have some solutions for some of the use cases.
James!
Thank you for the clarification. The Relief Band sounds interesting. We will give it a try when we will cruise from Seattle to Dana Point later this year going out on the Pacific for the first time!
Our N52-72 is a late 2015 model. We bought it in Seattle and up to now have been cruising the Puget Sound, San Juans up to the Broughtons. In some part we followed your paths and anchored in quite a few spots where you have been. We will complete the planed upgrades this summer and start moving south. Our plans for next year is to cross to Hawaii and proceed from there. Greetings Peter & Melitta
Your plans sound great. The Pacific coast can be lumpy especially when heading south but the crossing to Hawaii is both fairly short and usually a pretty easy crossing. Your 52 will do well on both but, if you can, be selective on the weather for the trip south.
I am a only a few years away from transitioning out of full time employment and doing some budget planning for full time cruising. I know there is a lot of variability in any budget. Can you tell us about your cruising budget? What is an appropriate budget for continuous cruising of a Nordhavn 52 like you are currently doing? If I own the boat outright is $150K per year sufficient for coastal cruising in US waters? $176K? Has foreign cruising significantly increased yours costs?
It really depends upon how you Live. Big variables are flights back to the US (I do quite a bit for work), telecommunications costs (I spend a lot because I work full time), restaurant eating, marina time, etc. Assuming you don’t have a big satellite bill, spend similar time to us in Marinas, don’t eat out too frequently, and don’t fly back to the US frequently, $150k would cover most years but assume that every 2 to 4 years, you’ll have some bigger boat related bills. Seems to run $25k to $50k.
Overall, the high end of your estimate looks pretty safe as an average. We spend more but it’s because I’m still working but pay for all flights, hotels, and telecom costs. Things like staying in downtown Seattle for 3 weeks adds up quickly. We also do some off boat travel that is above these estimates like the Rhine River boat cruise and the F1 race in Abu Dhabi.
James, have you given any thought to SpaceX satellite internet service and it’s potential for marine usage. As a large data user of Sat I wanted to get your take.
Yes. I’m super interested in the new low earth orbit satellite constellations being deployed: SpaceX Starlink, OneWeb, Amazon Kuiper, and Telesat. This new breed of satellite system are using low cost satellites built using commercial off the shelf parts where possible and exploiting the emergence of low cost space lift vehicles.
The cost of communications will be falling but it’ll take time. We’re still a ways away but I’m excited about these new services mostly because they will dramatically reduce costs but also because LEO satellite systems can cover the entire globe whereas the geosynchronous systems can’t reach the poles and tend not to cover areas without much commercial shipping traffic. Better coverage and lower costs are coming but it’ll take time.
Port of Amsterdam looks busy-ish:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1217547142048468993
Nice work getting in and out of there unscathed!
Yes, the river in front of the Central Station is very busy. Last night we had the tender out doing a canal cruise and touring the Amsterdam Light Festival (https://amsterdamlightfestival.com/en) and, on the return trip, the traffic was quite heavy. Lots of canal tour boats out enjoying the light festival, the steady flow of commercial barge traffic on the river, a dinner cruise, and the rapid criss-crossing of multiple ferry routes. There’s a lot happening.
This video is from Sail Amsterdam, a once every 5 year event, taken during the sail in at the beginning.
So not representative of the daily traffic, which is still busy, but not like this.
More astounding would be the evening fireworks parade, where this traffic looks like a deserted place.
This year 2020 there is again Sail Amsterdam ( August 12-16). And yes we will be there.
That video reminds me of Sydney harbor at the start of the Sydney-Hobart sail race. Both are wonderful events and both great experiences to have in someone else boat with someone else at the helm :-).
Hello James and Jennifer,
Happy New Year and thank you for so much great information regarding your peregrinations. We’ve all loved it!
I’m still working as an architect here in Portland, Oregon, but have longed daydreamt about travelling aboard a Nordhavn 52 to see the world with my wife and daughter.
As we consider the layout of a 52, and what electronics one should/should not include on it, it makes me wonder if you’d ever consider consulting through such a process?
We will purchase a used boat (wouldn’t have enough for a new boat), but are patient enough to find the right boat and fit it with the necessities for such long trips.
Thank you again.
Ben
Sounds like you have a good plan. If we know the answer or have thoughts on how to approach getting an answer, we’ll follow up to any questions you post here. And, if you ever happen to be in the same city as Dirona, we would be happy to show the choices we have made and talk through the pros and cons.
Thank you James, I’ll likely take you up on that some day in the not too distant future.
Safe travels.
Cheers,
Ben
I’m not sure how long you guys are in Amsterdam, but if you’re looking for a weekend trip, check out Ghent in Belgium (about 2 hours by rail). It’s essentially the beer capital of Belgium, has some of the best Gothic architecture outside of Germany (walk east from St Michael’s Bridge along Sint-Michielsbrug) and is larger and less tourism focused than the more famous Bruges as it’s a bit of a University town.
If you do go, get drinks at a bar called Dulle Griet, where you have to give them your shoe as a deposit to prevent the theft of the glasses (is a problem with certain collectors).
Thanks for the travel tip on Ghent. I’ve got lots of work stuff on the go right now but, if time allows, we’ll check it out.
As part of our research to fully prepare N5705 Alice for PNW cruising, we came across your article on stern ties. We like your message line system. In any case, our question regards what dimension stern line to use. Did you find the 1/2” Sampson was ultimately satisfactory? The 57 displacement is higher than the 52, although I assume loading on a stern line is not simply a function of displacement. Thanks. Bob and Marty N5705 Alice
The 1/2″ Sampson was used on our previous boat. On our current vessel we use Sampson Amsteel Blue to increase the breaking strength while at the same time allowing a smaller and easier to store diameter to be used.
Have you done any loading calculations to determine what breaking strength range you need? Thanks.
No but, at 55 tons the boat will put amazing forces on a stern line if it’s loose and the boat has room to move and the wind is blowing hard so we’re pretty conservative in choosing when to use this solution.
Dear James and Jennifer
When we first made contact we were in that trap of working and living 5hrs away from our boat and not being able to move towards living on board and achieving our cruising ambitions.
We took a hard look at our lifestyle and ages and realised that there is a clock ticking, and its getting quicker and quicker. So in October we sold up and moved 40 yrs of house living and accumulating into store, the decisions we had to make were so stressful and have probably caused our delay to go cruising for years.
I have established a client base that will let me work on board with the assistance of video and audio conferencing.
We are now finishing fitting out Sontay with a plan to start a UK circumnavigation next year.
You have a lot to answer for but we are so grateful that you are sharing your life it’s inspirational, thank you.
We are taking a break this Christmas in Seattle with our resident children. Can you recommend somewhere we can go and look and touch Marentron equipment.
Best wishes for Christmas and safe cruising next year.
Mike and Trish.
Congratulations on moving to living aboard. That is a big step and we remember going through some of the same decisions ourselves. It’s not been more than 10 years and we still have no regrets. We’ve seen a lot and had some amazing experienced.
I’m pretty sure that West Marine sells Maretron and I know that Fisheries supply does. Recommend that you give them a call and see if they have a display system set up. Another approach is to talk to an installer and see if they can show you one of their more recent installs. You might try Emerald Harbor Marine — they have done many installs over the years.
Best wishes over the holidays and all the best on your cruising next year.
Hello James,
I’m curious about your inverter. I can think of multiple ways to automatically turn it off when not in use. Have you found a way to anticipate when it will be used and turn it on automatically or is that a manual function?
I hope you and Jennifer are enjoying the holidays, it looks like a nice place to spend the winter.
I gave thought to making it automatic but decided that manual is fine. If I shut off the water heater and the HVAC, it’s very likely we’re traveling and don’t need the inverter on but, in a 60 hz country, we might have the house running on shore power and not need the inverter and it’s conceivable that we would want the inverter with the hot water heater and HVAC off. For now, I’ll leave it manual where it’s just on a web page that shows power consumption and allows manual control of h/w heater, HVAC, furnace, defrost, both chargers, and the 240V inverter.
Have a great holiday season.
Dear James and Jennifer,
We are in awe of your travels and expertise. Thank you kindly for the valuable resource and inspiration. We hope to travel far and wide too on our newly acquired N43 once we retire next year. Your site and contact information will be most welcome.
Gerry and Angela
Congratulations on getting a Nordhavn 43. You just bought freedom and can go anywhere in the world. 10 years later, we still love our boat. If you have questions where you think we might be able to help, we’re happy to help. Just post them here.
Thank you kindly, we most certainly will! We hope to live aboard beginning in April 2021 once we retire, fingers crossed. We will be 60 at that point and hope to have some good years of travel and learning. If you are ever in New York, give us a shout.
My only advice is consider starting the process earlier than April 2021 on the argument that it takes time to get a boat, get it set up and running the way you like, and to learn the boat. Getting it before retirement could give you an year back by overlapping some of these operations more and ensuring, when you retire and have time, you are using it all fully.
We agree! We have a N43 for 8 months now. We are learning it and getting it prepared.
That’s a good approach. The best way to get a boat the way you want it and to learn it fully is to use it and spend time with it.
Hi James and Jennifer.
I’m trying to import gear into Turkey, for our N57, Beyond Capricorn 1. i cannot find a freight forwarder willing to handle what they consider a small shipment. I’m keen to bring this gear in ‘duty free’ if possible so need to go the full customs/duty, ‘vessel in transit’ route, so can’t use DHL or FedEx.
I know you have had items shipped around the world., would you mind sharing your contacts/freight forwarders.
Thanks,
Phil
We last used Intervracht (https://www.intervracht.nl/en/) to bring a pallet from the US to Amsterdam. The contact information there is sales@intervracht.nl. They did an excellent job for a good price and we’d happily use them again. They are a Netherlands-based company, so if they don’t do Turkey, they might be able to give you a reference. Or you could try Rotra (https://www.rotra.com/) which is the US-company that Intervracht dealt with to handle the Seattle pickup and transport.
We actually had trouble finding a freight-forwarder for this pallet as none of our previous contacts from shipping to Aus/NZ were interested. We had found a Netherlands customs broker already and asked them for a recommendation for shipping the pallet and they recommended Intervracht. So you might try that if you don’t have luck any other way.
Jennifer
Thanks Jennifer,
I’ll give Intervracht a try and see if they will do it.
Appreciate your help.
Cheers,
Phil
They seem to be awful proud of them but https://second-wind.net/products/imtra-exalto-2108-280-600-mm-adjustable-heavy-duty-black-pantograph-wiper-arm
That was exactly my take as well Steve. Thanks for having a look for us.
Well, this is a little better but it seems they are now ROCA which as far as I can tell is a Swedish company.
https://www.mauriprosailing.com/us/product/rocaexalto-hd-pantograph-arm-adj-w-surface-mount-plate.html?gclid=CjwKCAiA_f3uBRAmEiwAzPuaM0dy3I8vm0-a8n27mIqDK4kic9yYPSGIv_YINGItZB2CP8IAON8wKBoCp2AQAvD_BwE
The deeper I go, the more questions I find I don’t have the answer to, I’m sure you’ll get it sorted out.
Good job Steve! It turns out that Exalto is only a 40 miles away from us in Amsterdam. I plan to tackle this one once we return from a couple of weeks at work in the US. Thanks for the research.
Hello guys,how are you? really enjoying reading articles and adventures on this lovely boat. I have one technical question,regarding “blowby” test that you have done in the past when CCV filter was clogged,i have similar tester,on which units you have measured blow by?
inHG,or inH2O?,bit confusing me that part..Thank you so much!
Different engines may use different crankcase pressure units but, on our John Deere 6068AFM75, the max crankcase pressure specification is listed in inches of water. So we set the manometer to show inH2O. We expect the maximum pressure readings of less than 1 inch of water and I typically see down below 0.2 inches of water when the RACOR CCV is in good condition. Of course, a key factor here is the engine is in good condition. As an engine wears, there will be more blow by and, as wear gets more serious, the volume can exceed the volume the RACOR CCV can handle and the crankcase pressure would then go up even with a new CCV element.
Hey Hamiltons. Been reading your blog on and off for a couple years now, and we are actually going to be shipping our boat out east to spend next year doing the Great Loop, working full time in the process, so digging back through your tech history and general working-aboard-a-boat tips have been great.
For our trip, I’m working on setting up our own blog, and completely failing to find anything either out of the box or requiring minimal modification for a map control (from the top of your blog) even vaguely as useful as yours. I dug into your source code a bit and it looks like you guys came to the same conclusion (back in 2012) and wrote a pile of your own code. I’m actually wondering if any of that is in a state that could be reused (even if I need to write my own KML-dumper in some fashion that it reads from) and you’d be willing to share it? :)
Either way, thanks for keeping up on the blogging! Always fun to read about your adventures.
Years ago, we had a request to make the system available through the retail channel. At first glance this sounded exciting but we both come from a commercial software backgrounds so we both started think through what this would really mean. It would be massive amounts of work just to remove the dependencies on other software and hardware systems on board. And, once that was done, even more work to support it. Our eventual conclusion is we possibly couldn’t charge enough to cover all that work and we would rather spend our time at work making money or on the boat having fun enjoying our travels.
The system is the product of 20 years of accreted features, changes, improvements, language changes, hardware updates, and it’s grown over time without focus on supportability, portability, or any thought of ever being deployed elsewhere. We will open source useful parts of the system that can be separated like the custom network router code but most of the system won’t see use beyond our boat.
For the boat tracking map, I recommend using a commercial offering with embedable maps like Spot or Delorme.
I figured the map system was probably super integrated with the rest of your boat craziness. :) I had to ask, though. I’m currently using the embedded map with our Inreach, but it’s miserably bad and I’m going to definitely need to write at least a simple KML data transformer to make it less useless on the blog site. I’ll probably end up with a system just as tightly-knit as yours to service our blog in the end, though. Given that I already have a full time raspberry pi pulling data off N2k on the boat, I’ll probably just end up exporting that to the blog…
David said “Given that I already have a full time raspberry pi pulling data off N2k on the boat, I’ll probably just end up exporting that to the blog.” Yes, that’s exactly what we do on Dirona. We have all data pulled from the N2k bus every 5 seconds to be acted upon. A subset of that data is exported to show track data. If you already have a Raspberry Pi reading the data off the N2k bus you are a long way down the path. Well done!
That aqueduct is fascinating! I wonder about those wind turbines- how long does it take for them to recoup their cost?
The investment recovery recovery time on a wind farm is dependent upon a wide variety of features from size of the turbine, scale of the farm, cost of the lease, turbine cost, the price of renewable power in the region, the weather at the turbine, possible tax benefits, service costs, etc. It’s really complex. I’ve seen credible claims in the 5 to 7 year range some claims that were far faster. But what I can say with certainty is that wind farm investments are currently skyrocketing so it’s clearly profitable.
Hello James,
I can’t find the post I am thinking of but, didn’t you have a leak on that hose once before? I just remember it was a hose clamp on something that was also difficult to reach.
Is there any way to replace that hose or part of it putting the clamps in a more reasonable spot to reach?
Tied up in a Marina is probably about the best place you’ll ever find to work on it.
Yes, you’re right this is the second time I’ve gone after this one. The first time was right after the work was done where these hoses leaked on first use. I tightened them up and that was the end of it for 3 years. Now that they are tightened again, if it’s like other heavy coolant hoses I’ve worked around, I suspect I’ll not see more leaking but, since two of the clamps are excessively large and are now done up all the way, I may have to go back in there. Probably not and, given how hard it is, I really hope not. I think it would be close to impossible to new clamps on there installed and taking the hoses out would require draining the antifreeze and I suspect the hoses would need be replaced since, more often than not, they need to be cut off. I’m hoping we’re done with this one until the hoses need to be changed 7+ years from now.
Clearance in this area is truly challenging and even removing the hoses is surprisingly difficult due to low clearance and the use of very large stiff hoses.
Hi James –
Did you have any gunk around the check ball and seat in the Racor’s? This puzzled me for quite a while. I was shocked what was collected around the ball — debris from construction (FRP tanks).
No, there wasn’t any build up on the ball but all the fuel on our system first passes through a 25 micron RACOR FBO-10 so all the ugly stuff gets caught up in that first filter. We’ve found everything from pieces of metal, rust, and even a cockroach in the FBO-10. The RACOR 900s are downstream from there so mostly catch asphaltenes and other finer debris missed by the first filter.
Hi James
Greetings from cold and snowy Niagara Falls, ON. Have you ever considered using a battery tender to cosset your new tender batteries (just realized the pun) during a cold winter with little use? I always use them when leaving my cars for a long time. Many sizes are available on Amazon. Also Happy Thanks Giving
A battery tender (trickle charger) is a good option but force you to run power up to the tender and plug it in. Not a show stopper but the approach we take is to just turn the battery switch off so the battery has no parasitic discharges and then once every 6 months we charge both the primary and the spare battery and test them. On this model, we usually get 4 years from a battery. I would prefer to get more but 4 years isn’t bad so we don’t worry much about it.
Hello James,
You noted that you had found a source for your spherical rod ends however, as I watched your video did that really pan out?
If it didn’t I’m wondering if the tiller arm has enough material to safely drill it out for a 7/8” bolt?
I can find all kinds of 7/8-14 female rod ends in the static 46,000 and up static load range, but none with ¾ I.D. ball.
If the tiller arm could be drilled to accept a 7/8” bolt then look at a McMasters-Carr catalog. I don’t know if that would cause issues down the road if you replaced the cylinder, especially with another brand.
The tiller arm would be 100% fine with 7/8″ of inch bored out and that would allow a standard 7/8″ hole with 7/8″-14 TPI RH rod end to be used. And, having done that, it would be easy to get a stronger and more durable part than original. My current leaning if I can get a good price on the original equipment part, is to just stick with that approach. But, failing that, boring the rudder arm would be far superior than other options. Thanks for the good suggestion.
I wonder if it’s a custom made product. If that’s the case your only chance might be to call someone in the industry.
http://www.aurorabearing.com/index.html. The worse they could do is refuse to help you in which case, you are still at square one.
Yes, you are right. Every aspect of this part is identical to a standard 3/4″ rod end except that a 7/8″ hole was bored and threaded rather than a 3/4″ but all external dimensions are identical. I did ask FK Bearings if they would be willing to take a 3/4″ part and do a 7/8″ hole but it looks like they probably aren’t going to answer that query. I suspect it’s not very interesting to them to do a custom run of 4.
I did find a source of the Sea Star Solutions Part (the steering component manufacturer) for “only” 2x what it is worth so, if I don’t find anyone willing to do a custom part, I’ll probably buy 3 or 4 from Sea Star.
I looked at your most recent Video and realized that you filmed this just a few miles from my home. Welcome in The Netherlands.
Yes, we’ll be enjoying Amsterdam for the next 2 to 3 months. It’s a nice place to spend the winter.
I did a wee bit of googling regarding that steering part you require here’s what came up. It looks like Teleflex is now SeaStar Solutions. I did find this company that may have it in stock? The part you require looks to be a special order part.
https://www.seatechmarineproducts.com/capilano-hc5378-inboard-ba-200-11-tmb-rod-end-ball-joint-hydraulic-boat-cylinder.html
They ship internationally, too.
Nice find. That is the entire hydraulic cylinder assembly and rod end and, in this case, I need only the rod end (spherical joint). However, I will tuck away your find since it’s, by far, the best pricing I’ve seen on that component. Thanks very much for doing that research Paul.
James,
Would you please put the part number for the rod end on the NOG when you find it? Thanks in advance,
Ron
N4711 Moonrise
The part number is Sea Star Solutions part #HP6165 7/8 -14 UNF with 3/4 hole. There are a tiny number of suppliers of parts with this dimension and none are good enough quality to justify using them rather than the standard Sea Star part. The nicest solution would be to bore out the steering arm and going with a Rod end with 7/8″ hole with 7/8″-14TPI RH thread since these are common. However, thinking through options, I’m probably just going to order a few of Sea Start Solutions #HP6165.
Be aware that N5263 is using Sea Star Capilano steering which is different from the Teleflex steering system used on older Nordhavn 47 so these part number may not help you. I believe that newer N52 have returned to the older steering system due the Capilano being hard to bleed although it is believed to be slightly stronger.
Hi James,
An interesting little video concerning a collision between a Norwegian frigate and a tanker which happened near Sture, where you were last September. It’s an interesting watch. http://webnodesvideostorage.blob.core.windows.net/asset-cddb1644-12d0-4601-b5df-3989410802fd/003-RAPPORTFILM-HELGE-INGSTAD-HAVARIKOMMISJONEN-LANGVERSJON-ENGELSK_H264_3000kbps_AAC_und_ch2_128kbps.mp4?fbclid=IwAR0IxKDcSEpGYp8uBrp8csn_mSOeSQOgeChAbM0KR4tAihsYWU9xVrMLPM4
The accident was super interesting, the report on the accident was super interesting, and Jennifer and I went through the video yesterday and I strongly recommend it. A surprisingly large number of mistakes were made particularly on the naval boat. Overall, having been in that exact area at night I will say the combination of large amounts of commercial ship movements, the backlighting of shore (especially when operating in commercial/industrial areas), and fish boats operating can make it challenging.
The one recommendation that wasn’t made that I think would be worth considering is adding VTS lanes to the area. There appears to be enough traffic to justify the use of lanes and they can help when there is a lot of commercial traffic in an area.
Winter is setting in for your area, you posted that some places close at the end of October. What’s your winter plan? I’m assuming you head south to France?
Thanks!
It is starting to get cold. I just got up and Amsterdam is dark with the city just coming to life. It only 44F (6C) out there so definitely cooling. In Amsterdam, we are far enough south and in a big enough center that everything stays open all winter so our plan is to stay here for the winter. Next year, we’ll head south but, for now, we’ll enjoy Amsterdam and places easy to get to from the great train and air service here.
OK, as I sit on the Chesapeake about to be plunged into 18-22F temps it surprises me that it really doesn’t freeze in Amsterdam. You are so far North of us, I guess the warmer winds off the Equator help. Hope I haven’t jinxed your January.
Temperatures aren’t bad here — we’re currently in 47F but, of course, winter is still setting in. Last year there were 4 to 6 days in a row below freezing but not enough that the larger canals froze. But, some years they do get enough consecutive time below freezing to see some surface ice so it’s possible that we might see some but there is usually enough water movement on the river to stay open.
Hi James and Jennifer, have you written some story regarding your blue LED light that I can see on many pictures? Outside your wheelhouse. Brand and mounting? Thinking to do the same on my Minor 27. Regards Torbjorn
Hey Torborn. I use these lights: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0054U46Y2. They are both inexpensive at USD$31 and, if you install them carefully and avoid damaging the weather proofing or folding the tape that makes up the light, they last for years.
Thx, going to US next weekend so perfect time order. Have a nice weekend!
Excellent. Enjoy your time in North America.
Hi James
I’m hoping that you can help me with a question about your bow roller lubrication system. I understand that you’ve drilled longitudinally down the centre of the bolt, but please could you clarify how many holes you’ve drilled laterally to bring grease out to the bolt surface? Is it only a single hole around the mid-point of the bolt or did you drill several at different positions along the bolt? If you’ve got only a single hole, have you had any problems with grease not spreading itself along the full length of the bolt?
Many thanks for your help.
Tom Reed
M/V Alchemy, N7202
Hi Tom. We drilled a single hole down longitudinally down the center of the bolt that was threaded for a grease fitting and then a single hole through the middle of the bolt radially. Since there radial drill hole goes straight through, there is technically 2 radial holes. More detail and pictures here: https://mvdirona.com/2014/04/lubricating-the-bow-roller/. All the best.
Thanks very much for this James. We’ve had our bolts done as per your description and it works perfectly! I was worried that having a radial hole only in the middle of the bolt wouldn’t allow the grease to spread along the full length of the friction surface, but it seems to work fine. Thanks again.
Glad to hear it’s working. It’s a nice, simple change but really seams to work well. We hit it with grease every 6 months and it’s been in use for close to 8 years without any issue. I expect the solution will do well on your boat as well.
Hi! I saw your picture of the police car. I cannot really tell the country letter on the license plate but it looks like an S, and in Sweden we have a public register where you can search information on all vehicles just by typing in the registration and I get that it should be a Ford Excursion XLT. It is owned by a private individual and was imported to Sweden as recently as September this year. The thing is that in Sweden you can own a car that looks like that as long as you don’t have the blue lights on it, and from what I can tell from the picture the light rack on the roof has been removed. There is a place in Stockholm where you can rent special cars, and they actually have an old chevy US police car from 1964:
http://www.hyrspecialbil.nu/files/IMG_4344.jpg
I’ll bet you are right and the truck really is a retired King County (Seattle) Transit Police vehicle. I looked through the vehicle selection at the link you included and it ranged from a purple 1960 Cadillac Fleetwood to a 1964 Chevrolet Bel Air Police car. Kind of cool.
We love learning about what’s behind what we see — thanks for passing along the explanation.
Hi Guys! What a journey you’ve been on exploring the world in the last 10 years or so! Very Impressive indeed. I’ve have been peaking at your site off and on since you hit the rocks in Bornholm, DK. I’m Bernie and I’m a Dane. I’ve been living in the US since 1989. In 2019, I spent 6 months’ time in Seattle, WA exploring and enjoying the atmosphere to learn and see if area Seattle resembles Scandinavia the most. I must say, there’s a lot of similarities! I’ve been traveling the world over the years, but you guys definitely peaked as world explorers. I can only imagine how fulfilling it has been traveling the world on a Nordhavn! Anyway, I’m headed to Copenhagen in a couple of days. I will grab my bike when I get over the there and head towards the harbor hoping to get a glimpse at the famous Dirona before you leave the area. if not this time around, maybe when you hit the shorelines of Seattle again :-) Wish you all the best exploring the rest of the world. -Bernie
Copenhagen is a wonderful city. We’ve really been enjoying it here and would certainly be comfortable here over longer periods but, on this stop, it won’t quite be a week. When you get back to Copenhagen, drop us a note (jrh@mvdirona.com) and, if we are still in town, we can show you around the inside of the boat as well.
Hello James and Jennifer,
I just saw your very interesting video “Tour of Nordhavn 52 Dirona” with information on the Lenovo control system. It’s been very valuable for my own boat project but unsuccessfully searched the internet for details. Where can I find more specs on your website?
We probably should write up more detail on the control systems but this 2018 article is a pretty good start: https://mvdirona.com/2018/04/control-systems-on-dirona/. You specifically asked about Lenovo gear. We use Lenovo L1900ps monitors spread throughout the boat and, in the pilot house we use night running covers on these monitors: https://mvdirona.com/2010/05/night-running-monitor-covers/. The central navigation system computer that runs the nav software and all central control system software is a Lenovo ThinkStation Tiny P320 covered about 1/2 down on this page: https://mvdirona.com/2018/09/trondheim-projects/.
Most of the control system software running on the central windows system is custom built software that: 1) collects all data from the NMEA2000 bus and stores in a relational database (RDBMS) every 5 seconds, 2) collects data 5 Raspberry Pis (RPIs) doing digital input (off/on) and stores in the RDBMS every 5 seconds, 3) screen scrapes some key equipment like the satellite communications systems where the data isn’t exposed through any programmatic interface and stores that data in the RDBMS every 5 seconds, 4) puts all key data not already on the NMEA2000 bus onto the bus for display by Maretron N2kView (this is wonderful commercial software that we use to display and report on all operational data on the boat, 5) pushes data to the mvdirona.com website for real time reporting on the boat position, weather, fuel remaining, etc. 6) monitors all equipment state for 100s of alarm or warning condtions that are shown on N2kview, emailed to us both, and displayed as warning lights in the ER, and 7) support external communications allowing us to log in and see boat system state, change boat system state, and view other facilities like the video cameras.
I am Kuo Ming Chen, The editor in chief of Defence International. In recent molitary news, they say the Musko Base have reopen. If we write the news on our monthly, that is a monthly, now is No423. Can we use the photo you take and note your name on it? We published on Taiwan, Taipei
Yes, that particular use case is fine as long as the picture is directly attributed on the same page to “James & Jennifer Hamilton (mvdirona.com)”
Dear both.
We have followed your trip. We hope you are visiting Copenhagen next on your way south. May we recommend “Nyhavn” inside Copenhagen Port, right at the center of Copenhagen. We have ourselves a coastal cruiser and also want go cruising, just in smaler scale, like Europe, not trans Atlantic. It would be great if you had the time and possibility to spend a short time for a visit. Heating and other issues of living aboard a motoryacht in wintertime has great interest. Please let me know if you have time for a coffee in Copenhagen.
Further if you need help of anykind during your stay in Copenhagen, please let me know
Best regards
Pia & Peter
We are currently enjoying Helsingor and will be visiting Copenhagen for around a week starting tomorrow. If we can find a place we like in Nyhavn, we’ll be in there as you recommend. We’re always interested in talking about boats so feel free to drop us a note at jrh@mvdirona.com if you feel like dropping by or meeting somewhere. Thanks for the offer of help while we are in the area.
I’m impressed at how much detail you get from the various places you visit. When you were in my town, and all the other places.
One little thing – The SAR boat that you saw in Skagen is named from the person depicted in the statue “The Rescuer”
That person is believed to be the model for this painting in this famous painting: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Den_druknede.jpg
We’d read about Lars Kruse and his impressive rescue record, but didn’t realize the statue was of him as well. Thank you for pointing that out.
Jennifer
Your tender is in and out of the water quit frequently and wondering how’s the boom holding up since the refit.
The overall mechanical portions we worked upon have remained solid and trouble free. We did develop more remote control problems where the hard wired pendant failed for what I think is the 5th time. The pendants are quite unreliable whereas the rest of the electrical system is simple and very reliable. We eventually gave up and re-engineered the remote operation and, for just under $600, have wireless remote operation: https://mvdirona.com/2019/02/steelhead-wireless-remote/
It works well, seems very stable, and we continue to have the hard wired pendant for backup. The rework that you read about at https://mvdirona.com/2018/04/crane-rebuilt-remanufacture/ was massive. Days of tedious and kind of depressing work. The net result seems pretty reliable but it took days of working full time to get to this point and there were multiple different design faults that needed to be corrected. The interference between the linear winch and the boom it operates within is the only issue where I expect it’ll return to causing us trouble eventually. There are all new parts in there now and it’s lubricated but that problem will eventually return. It’s just a matter of time. The crane extension problem was the use of a direct aluminum-to-aluminum friction surface in the early cranes. This has been corrected in subsequent design updates and we corrected it in ours by sanding away enough material to allow space for an anti-friction surface. This is what they have done on the newer cranes and from what we have seen so far, I think it’ll be an effective fix. I would expect that the adhesive used to hold the anti-friction surface to the boom and boom extension will fail eventually so the longevity of this fix is directly related to the quality of the adhesives used and materials preparation during adhesive application. I suspect it’ll go 5+ years and I’m hoping for 10 but that’s a hope and it’s really hard to know up front.
I have many ideas on how basically that same crane could be manufactured by Steelhead to be much more reliable and last longer but that’s not really an option on a crane in the field. Still, I’m optimistic that the changes we made will have a good service life and we’ll not be back in there anytime soon. I admit I continue to look longingly at Palfinger commercial kuckle boom cranes: https://www.palfinger.com/en-us. They are much more flexible, have more reach, have excellent service records in rough commercial use, but would need some work get looking good enough for this application.
Hi
I am a reporter at the local newspaper at Laesoe, and took a picture of your nice boat lying all alone in the harbour. The Stars and Stripes are a rare sighting at Laesoe. I would actually just hear a little about your impressions on the Island…
Feel free to call me at my cellphone +4542742032 or write me at tom@aogj.dk
Best regards and all the best onwards
Hi Tom. We really enjoyed visiting Laesoe. We did an electric car tour of the island and had particularly good stops at the salt plant, looked around the airport a bit and, visited Byrum where we toured town and climbed the Hansen Tower. The views from the tower out over the island were great. Of course, we also went to Gammel Osterby where we watched the video on the Seaweed house construction techniques and visited Hedvigs Hus Museum. We also spent a few hours in Osterby Havn where we walked the commercial fish boat docks, spent some time in the boat repair yard, and stopped off at Sailors Pub to relax over a drink and enjoy the view out over the harbor. For dinner we both had a excellent Lobster dinners at Hotel Havnebakken enjoying their marvelous view out over the harbor.
It was an excellent visit and we particularly appreciate the help from Alex Rasmussen, the harbor master, who was super helpful and personally delivered to the boat a map of the island and other information on places worth visiting and let us know that electric cars were available for renting. It was a fun visit. We’ll drop you a note as well.
Re: The grey wire on the generator… I once spent 45 minutes with a logic analyzer cabled up to troubleshoot a cpu mother board to determine that there were no eproms installed…
My claim is I know the wiring much better now but it is true nothing teaches disciplined diagnosis better than wasting an hour on a non-issue.
Hello James,
Reading about your sea-fire system got me wondering, if you were worried about an emergency situation where you might need to either cut a wire or jump terminals, why not pre-position jumpers with Molex connectors and Molex connectors on the wires you might wish to cut?
That way in a stressful situation you could just plug the connectors together or pull the connectors apart.
Yes, that would be better and perhaps the best answer, if I think the SeaFire system might dual fault, is to put the SeaFire bypass on a switch. I already have an emergency override switch that disengages most automation and puts the boat into all manual mode. I’ve never used it but the idea is, if there is an automation failure, make it easy to return to manual mode. I could put the Seafire bypass on the same circuit with an 8 pole double through relay.
I gave it careful thought and decided that the risk/benefit didn’t justify the effort. I did decide to label the circuits since it makes the system easier to work on. On this one, the override circuit isn’t complex but it would require 18 wires with 36 connections in an obnoxious place to work and I ended up concluding the odds of the SeaFire triggering and the SeaFire override failing wasn’t very likely. But reasonable people could disagree on that point. Thanks for passing on your suggestion.
Forgot to mention one thing on Sweden: if time allows, check out Stenungsund. There‘s a hotel called Stenungsbaden Yacht Club. It‘s not a yacht club anymore but it’s a beautiful location and food there is great. They also have a very nice spa – just in case you want a break from stressful ( ;-) ) boating. If I recall correctly, they have a jetty where you can moore Dirona directly in front of hotel. Have been there on business and dreamt of returning one day with my Nordy…..;-)
We appreciate the advice on things to see. In this case, we’ll probably head directly to Skagen Denmark from where we are up near the Norway border so won’t likely make that stop on this trip.
James,
We don’t like the crowds either
Two simple rules for Croatia ( which is the favorite boating spot for Italiens, Austrians and Germans – all can be very noisy party people at times…..):
1) avoid July and August. We went there last week of August and first week of September. There is a significant decline in those weeks.
2) avoid the coastline. There are some nice cities like Split and Dubrovnik but the further you get out to the islands the more quiet it gets.
For the crowded time, probably Montenegro or Albania as they are not yet that developed (that‘s what people say – have not been there yet). Or – greek islands. Have been to Greece several times (not boating) and love the islands. Not so crowded as Croatia and stunning with lots of sandy beaches (bays) which you don‘t have in Croatia. Croatia is all rocks.
If you want any more details, just let me know.
We are planning to cruise the Stockholm Archipelago next year.
Would love to get some tips from you two.
All the best,
Thomas
You can find the detail of where we went and what we saw in the Stockholm Archipelago here: https://mvdirona.com/cache/TravelDigests/Trips/baltic2019/baltic3_TravelDigest.html and, at the bottom of that page you can scroll forward to the next area or back to the previous area. We really enjoyed our time in the Archipelago.
Thanks for the advice on Croatia and some aspects of the Mediterranean.
Dear Jennifer and James,
I love to read your blog. Great information – thanks for sharing all this!
We‘ve had first contact on the dreamers site in 2017 when I recommended the Caledonian canal (I‘m sure you had this already on your list :-) – BTW – I‘m still chartering but not one of those crash-skippers that you‘ve encountered there ;-) )
Since you are already in Europe – what are your next steps? Is the Med already in your focus?
In the meantime we did some more (baby-)steps towards out dream: 2018 PNW gulf islands from Nanaimo to Victoria BC in a Bayliner and this summer Croatia, again in Bayliner. Very different but we loved both.
If your plans allow – try the Croatian Islands. Beautiful area to cruise and nice climatic conditions from May to September. People is a different story but subject to everybody‘s own experience…. ;-)
Looking forward to reading the upcoming news!
All the best
Thomas
We appreciate you passing on ideas for us in the Med Thomas. We do plant to go next year but our interests will be to go to less busy areas and Croatia has been looking like a very good candidate. I’m not in love with the boating in the massive crowds experienced in the busiest areas of the med during the summer. Hopefully with some skill and some advice like yours, we’ll find some of the less crowded places during the busiest parts of the year.
J and J, The nice thing about Dirona if ever sold the kitchen has very little wear and tear! :) The Hamilton’s should become restaurant critics!
We go through periods where we are eating out every night but we also go through periods where we go weeks and sometimes even a couple of months without seeing civilization. We spent 28 days at sea from St. Helena to Barbados and where out in the “wilds” for 7 weeks through Fiordland and Stuart Island in New Zealand. We seem to swing from one end of the spectrum to the other and we love them both.
Lynn and I are jealous, the restaurants and scenery in Sweden are exceptional, our highlight of the evening is checking in on your blog. My wife has family in Sweden and we are so excited to cruise there. Safe travels and better get moving South. I hear snow has arrived in Scandinavia.
Thanks for the feedback on the blog Eric. Your right, the temperatures are falling here. This morning it’s only 49F out there but, the good news is that everything is much less crowded. We end up preferring the shoulder season on either side of the busiest times when we are exploring new areas but we’re probably down to our last week or two in Sweden. Overall, we’re really enjoyed our time here.
We change the hydraulic system zincs ever 6 months, but they’ve hardly needed it recently. We used to replace them every two months, and they really needed replacement. Our suspicion is the variation is caused by zinc quality differences.
Wonder if it’s also lower temps that are changing zinc lifespan. Also: is it a GOOD thing that zincs are not self-destructing as rapidly, as, maybe, they’re not providing the sacrificial anodic protection as well. ?????
I’m thinking it’s not likely sea water temp related issues since we spent out first 2 1/2 years in the Pacific Northwest where water temperatures are lower than in the Baltic. We’re currently anchored in 56F water and in the PNW, we were often in the low to mid 40F range and still had heavy hydraulic zinc consumption.
The level of protection they are offering could be lower or they could just be better zincs. Another possible factor is the Baltic region is very low sea water salinity and we have spent many weeks in pure freshwater where zinc anodes are less effective.
Anchor setup?
What is your anchoring setup. Size, types, chain size, scope? Do you use bow and stern? How were anchoring conditions in an around the Baltic?
Enjoying your blog. We’re Americans based in Groningen Netherlands on a larger boat and thinking of eventually heading into the Baltic.
Eric Davis
For primary anchor we use a Rocna 70 kg (154 lb). We have 500′ of 7/16 hi test chain. Our backup anchor is a 42 lb Guardian (aluminum, large area Danforth that is light but quite big) with 450′ rope rode and 50′ of chain. On the stern we have another 42 lb Guardian. On our previous boat we both stern tied to shore and stern anchored but in this boat we don’t frequently do either but we are equipped to do it. We’re well equipped for deep anchorages so usually don’t find it hard to find something we like that is out of the most crowded locations so we find we don’t need to tie to shore or stern anchor frequently. Generally the Baltic has son many great anchorages in fairly shallow water and, on this trip, we’ve rarely had more than 200′ of rode out and often are down in the 100′ to 125′. We a bit conservative on scope and typically have 4 or 5 to 1 out and we just about never use less than 100′ if it’s shallow so at times in super shallow water we might be using as much as 10:1. In very deep water we’ll drop back to 3:1 but don’t usually go lower even though we know that many that use Rocnas with similar chain have good results at far lower scopes.
Most boaters in Sweden seem to anchor using a stern anchor and then tying their bow to shore. This allows them to step off the bow onto shore so they don’t need a dinghy. It only works where there are no tides but on the Baltic side the tides are so small you can safely ignore them. Because locals favor anchoring right against shore, there are usually ample room to anchor.
Thanks you for the great overview.
The Dirona crew REALLY knows how to get the most out of a cruise. I can only hope to see half as much at any of my destinations!
Thanks Joe!
Hello James,
If you post the manufacturer and model of your freezer so I have a better idea of what you are dealing with, I might have more suggestions.
Generally a freezer that is not keeping temp esp. when it’s had a history of “airflow or loading issues” is going to be a bad evaporator fan motor, dirty evaporator, bad condenser fan motor, dirty condenser, or improper or non-functional defrost cycle.
I know you have a small chest freezer in your Laz, but I can’t tell from the pic if it’s that or something else.
If it’s that one, it could have a start relay going bad, weak reed valves in the compressor (that’s a recip. in the picture) from years of operation in high ambient conditions or loss of charge (it doesn’t take much on small units) from something rubbing a hole due to vibration. It will quit cooling completely rather soon if that’s the case though.
Something that small is not going to have service ports which, considering the amount of charge I wouldn’t use anyway as you’ll lose some just from hooking up. The manifold I use can be up to 9 oz of refrigerant if I am unable to get it all back into the system (you never can).
Since temp=pressure you can still find compression ratio to check the valves and get a very good idea on charge status with an electronic thermometer.
Sorry for the non-specific info dump, but without knowing what you are looking at that’s all I know to suggest.
Hey Steve, thanks for your thoughts. The freezer is a Dometic RSF-115E and it uses a tiny Danfoss comporessor. The system is back to -8.7F which is around what it always did at this ambient temperature so I think it’s back to happy. What I found was the condenser and cooling fan was quite dirty. I cleaned both and found the system worked well once the condensor was cleaned. In fact, it even worked OK with the fan not running once the condenser was cleaned. Cleaning the fan has got it back to full RPM but I sometimes can hear the bearings so I know it’s not long for this world and, after 10 years on a muffin fan, it’s probably no surprise that it needs to be replaced. I’ll change the fan once I get a new one but, other than that, it seems to be back to working well.
You’re right the system doesn’t have ports. It’s a good idea to use temperature as a proxy for pressures. I’ll add that to my AC diagnostics list. In this case I didn’t measure the deltaT but the hot side is very hot.
I’ll change the fan when I get a chance but, at this point, it seems to be working again at max efficiency. Thanks for the advice hear and all the recommendations over the years. Much appreciated.
Hi.
I have been following your site with great interest for the couple of last years or so, and I am impressed by the work you have done, and the journey you have been on. And, I have to say; A bit jealous! A Nordhavn is high up on my wish list… I now see that you are nearing my home waters and is wondering if you are planing to visit Oslo? If so I would be happy to give you advice on things to se and do. Our current boat, a Nord West 370, has its home port in the outer Oslo fjord, And I live and work in the Oslo area.
Thanks for the kind words on the blog and the trip. We continue to head north but we’re not sure if we’ll make it as far as Oslo at this point. It depends a bit on how busy we stay in the islands but, if we do have time, we will head back up to Norway and enjoy some more time in your country. We had an excellent summer there last year. If we do end up in Oslo, drop us a note and we’ll be happy to show you around Dirona since you have an interest in Nordhavns.
Will do! And if you come, i will be happy to show you around the area!
Sounds great Svend.
J and J, Lynn and I were interested in going back and reviewing your entire blog. It appears the “Travel Digests” have a complete timeline with the pictures, etc. Is this parsed or is it complete and is this the best way to review your times on Dirona? Btw; 6081 is out of the mold! We are likely headed to Asia end of this year to early next to see in person. Meanwhile headed to Ft Lauderdale this Fall for the boat show. Exciting times.
Yes, the travel digests (https://mvdirona.com/maps/TravelDigestList.html) are complete and include all trips except the one currently underway. That probably is the right way to see all the content.
Congratulations on N6081 being molded and underway. You’ll enjoy the trip to the yard. It’s a massive place, your boat will at times have 30 people on it with work underway in every nook and cranny, and things take shape super fast.
Hi Jennifer and James
Wanted to comment your hydraulic zincs. I think that your zincs are ok with normal ocean water, like Atlantic where salt content is approx. 3.5% or higher. Baltic sea is low salt area, Denmark approx 1% From mid Sweden to Finnish gulf there is only 0.7% salt. You’ve been travelling a lot in lake areas during last 4 months so for me those zincs are looking “normal” what we normally see here in Finland. If you want to have proper protective voltage levels out of anodes, (in Finland) usually aluminum anodes are needed (sea area) or magnesium ( lake area). On my own Mercruiser Bravo1 sterndrive I usually survive 2 seasons with anode set. After winterisation before second summer I just clean / brush anodes with non metallic hard brush ( cleaning oxidation/brownish colour away)
Wishing you pleasant voyage
Good point on the impact of low salinity on anode where. Thanks for passing on your experience Jukka.
Dear James, Jennifer and board cat,
May I present to you: your biggest fans. Ever since we opened our sleepy eyes at 7.30 am on a sunny Sunday morning at Läckö Slott in lake Vänern some weeks ago.
The Saturday evening we were surprised by the passenger vessel Wilhelm Tam to moore alongside at Läckö. Their guests were doing singing and some ritual with dance and Candles in the dark. A nice surprise in the quiet harbour. When waking up the next morning, your vessel was there. Out of the blue. And a cat on the quay. An American vessel all the way from Seatle in our skärgård (peninsula) needed to be investigated once we got home. And wow, you are on such a great journey. My husband and I both work in Gothenburg so we went to see you in Lilla Bommens harbour, you must have been out on one of your explorations of Swedens west coast. Until today we regret not taking the chance talking to you that Sunday morning. Of all the poeple we would love to talk to it is you about your fantastisc trip. I saw you are headed for Donsö now, I’ll be there tomorrow representing my work at a seafarers fair. I hope to meet you there in person! If not, we wish you in any case fair winds and following seas for the journey to come. Kind regards, Viola & Jonas
You should have said hi! Thanks for the excellent pictures of our boat at the castle. We just had an huge day touring the fish boat Ceton and the two oil tankers Fure Ven and Ramanda. It’s amazing they managed to fit two oil tankers into the harbour at Donso and it was fun watching them carefully leave the harbour with tug assist. It was a fun day at Donso. We gave some thought to trying to attend the conference but decided we’ll head north tomorrow morning and go spend some time in the Islands. I hope the conference goes well and, if you happen in the future to be near Dirona, let us know. It would be good to meet you.
Where Spitfire is sitting taking in the view from the salon we noticed how clean your leather chair and cushions are. What do you use in keeping them in such good condition?
Gregg
We take off shoes on the way into the house and, except for a few violations from me, try not to wear work clothes on the inside of the boat. On that plan, the upholstery doesn’t need to be cleaned often. We’re doing it less frequent than once every 5 years. When we do, we find package leather cleaners pretty effective (even though it’s Ultra Leather). We last used Mequires (https://www.amazon.com/Meguiars-G10916-Leather-Cleaner-Conditioner/dp/B0002V9IFU). It seems fine and doesn’t hurt the fabric. On any bad marks not otherwise removable, we use a product called Goof Off which is remarkably effective on just about anything on any part of the boat and it’s not particularly caustic: https://www.amazon.com/Goof-Off-Remover-Trigger-22-Ounce/dp/B076J8BL97. Unfortunately that later cleaner is US only and were down to a bottle and a half left after 10 years of cruising.
Hi James and Jennifer – like many, I’ve been following along on your travels and adventures for years and am continually inspired on my own journey.
In June we purchased our first cruising yacht, a Meridian 490, and on 11th August, we moved aboard full-time at shilshole and have started exploring locally while we both get familiar with and verify/upgrade ship systems.
Like you, I’m a remote technology worker (ServiceNow) and am dependent on connectivity. In reviewing your August 2025 post on Communications at Sea, you mention using a dongle for a SIM cards as your #2 option for connectivity. I’m headed the same direction and am curious if this is just a standard device like what the carriers sell or if it’s something more sophisticated? Are you plugging it in to a USB port on your router or connecting via WiFi?
Thanks in advance for any tips and thanks for sharing all your experiences so freely!
-Shawn
2nd Circus
Sounds great! Our configuration for the last 4 or 5 years has been a Netgear R7000 router running DD-WRT configured with three WAN ports, 2 LAN ports, and 2.4 and 5Ghz WifI. The Wan ports support: 1) WiFi, 2) Cell, and 3) satellite. The satellite WAN connects directly to a KVH V7hts VSAT systems. The WiFi and Cell WAN ports connect to Ubiquity bullets one of which we use for WiFi connections and the other which connects to one of our cell phones. The Netgear system is running custom software that automatically connects to the lower cost service or, optionally, allows manually selecting a service.
Because WiFi is often fairly poor and cell connections are getting both fast and cheap, we are most often using the system with WANs configured as 1) cell #1, 2) cell #2, and 3) satellite. We know longer use dedicated dongles but instead we always have two SIMs in use each in it’s own phone. If either phone is near the boat, the boat is connected via WiFi. We like this model because we are connected 24×7 and don’t need to even think about it. We also like we always have active SIMs with us in our phones. The advantage of using a phone rather than a dongle is 1) it’s useful away from the boat, 2) it’s the way most people use cellular so it just works without screwing around, and 3) if we always have one phone on the boat, then it’s always connected. So, on this model, no dongles and we have evolved to a model where we have 3 cell phones even though, strictly speaking, 2 people only need 2 phones. We like the redundancy where a broken phone is solved instantly and, if an active phone is left on the boat, then it’s connected.
Remotely we can always access the boat and see reporting on all systems, turn anything off/on including the generator, heat, cooling, water heater, etc. see video cameras, etc.
Best of luck on your adventure.
Thanks for the detailed reply! I already have an R7000 so adding a bullet to one of the WAN ports makes perfect sense and using that to tether to a cell phone or mobile hotspot. I’ll look into DD-WRT as I haven’t considered that previously but, perhaps now is the time.
The Netgear R7000 only has 1 WAN port with the standard software. To do what I’m describing you need either a Peplink or an hacked open source stack on the R7000. The DD-WRT option configured with multiple WAN ports is a lot of work so the commercial systems are probably better time/performance but I love the flexibility of owning the software stack and I love that it runs for without issues or reboots.
Hi Jennifer and James! I’ve been following your blog for years and was pleasantly surprised to see Dirona moored at Spikön here this morning when visiting back in my hometown of Trollhättan. Enjoy Sweden!
We’re really enjoying our stop in TrollHattan. We stopped for 3 days extended to 4 and now it’s 5. We just keep finding more to do. Today we’re going to make the tiny trip down to the top of the locks and spend a day there as well. Drop us a note if you’d like to come by.
Thanks for the invite, our schedule didn’t line up unfortunately. I don’t know your cruising plans for past Gothenburg, but we took a trip out to Smögen on the west coast and I was reminded how beautiful the north west coast archipelago is. Definitely worth checking out if the weather cooperates.
We’ve heard a lot of good things about the area and plan to spend some time as you recommend.
Hello James,
As usual it looks like everyone is having a good time, I know I am enjoying reading about it.
Out of curiosity, the tags attached to your bow railing, are they markers used to indicate you’ve paid for something? The “bikes” collect a lot of those type of flags at rallies like Sturgis as an easy way to clear entry gates for the various parks and activities. I was just wondering if they used something similar for the canals etc. over there.
Yeah, we are having a great time in Sweden and the Canal trip from one cost of Sweden all the way over to other continues to be really fun. We’re mostly just enjoying not having near term schedule requirements so we stay longer where we are having fun, often take only short trips between stops, and make most decisions on a day-by-day basis.
You were asking about the tags and, yes, your guess is correct. The Gota Canal is broken up into three regions and the bow tag shows what form of transit you have purchased so the lock tenders can see at a glance that you have paid. Many of the marinas in Sweden also use bow tags to indicate payment and some boats collect them during or across trips and end up with 10s of tags on their bow.
James
Happy birthday greetings (albeit a little late) on reaching another 0 milestone!
If our paths cross (I certainly hope they do!) I would love to buy you a beer as part of your world wide ‘pub crawl”
Hope you had a happy B-day James, did not realize we share that special day!
The beer is on me as well if your boat gets into scenic Delft in Holland! please pass by and say hello!
Happy birthday to you as well Andras. We did visit Delft last year (https://mvdirona.com/2019/02/delft-nl/) and we had a truly exceptional time. This winter we will be back in Amsterdam and will likely be exploring by train from that wonderfully convenient hub. Thanks for the offer of a beer if we pass through Delft again. And, if you are going to find yourself in Amsterdam over the winter, let us know.
Reminder set!
Thanks for the birthday greeting Rod. I’ll rarely turn down a beer and an interesting discussion on boating or engineering.
Happy B’day James. You are very fortunate to have been doing your cruising for this long. I just asked James Leishman what the average age was for entry into Nordhavn and he said about 60. I will be 55 when we start and I feel like I have waited too long.
Thanks Eric and I agree with you. I wish we had started boating earlier. And, if we had started earlier, I would probably still wish we had started earlier.
It’s been a great adventure and you are going to have a ball with your new boat.
James:
Plastic bags snagging on outdrives/outboards, sadly, is becoming more common. In an incident a few years ago a bag snagged our outdrive and prevented proper cooling. The only way I was alerted to this situation was a fairly rapid rise in engine temperature. I hate to think of the possible damage from an engine overheating! There was no performance difference. This is why I like to have an engine temperature gauge.
Rod Sumner
I agree that cooling blockage is a risk with raw water cooling systems. Our Honda 50 has both a high temperature warning light and an audible alarm when it gets too high. I’ve also got a temperature gauge to help spot problems early.
Our story is more exciting but, admittedly, yours is more probable!
Your knowledge of excel is tremendous, would you guys be interested in helping me create/alter your spreed sheets for facility maintenance stuff? Im a facility manager in Brandon MS and looking to track equipment repairs and maintenance on things like HVAC, generators, preventive maintenance contracts, etc.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Please reply with email, just happen to find this site during a ramdom search.
Jody Compton
If you you have a question or two on the spreadsheet, post them here and we’ll answer them. But, the spreadsheet is designed for boat maint so you would need to be able to make the changes needed to adapt to your facilities management needs.
Jody, there are freelance sites that have many persons who do Excel spreadsheets. Also, there are quite a few specialized facility management DBS programs on the market. Good Luck!
In preparation for taking delivery of N5279 in April next year, Jenny and I attended the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria (Australia) “Practical Navigation” course a few weekends ago. The homework assignment was to plan a passage from Manley Brisbane to Urangan, including crossing the Wide Bay Bar.
This assignment has added interest for me given I had previously read of the experiences of Dirona attempting this crossing.
I will be taking extra care on this part of the passage plan!
Good choice Peter! I have it on excellent authority that avoiding breaking water at the wide bay bar is worth doing :-).
James, I noticed for the first time Dirona has a bow eye. What was your reason for installing and do you ever use it for anchoring ?
We installed it for towing and thought we would use it for anchoring. We’ve never needed it for the former and never used it for the later but I still kind of like it even though it’s never been used.
Interesting. I debated in my mind whether to include this option for N5279 as the cost is not minor and I was questioning when it would be used. I elected to include the option thinking the most likely use was for anchoring. I also agree with James (having been a small boat person) that it just looks ok.
Computer software damage, hangup associated with UPS may be attributed to surge, a spike. I recall a U.S. company in New Jersey called Zero Surge, making claims for their very heavy surge protector, a brick of copper & big slug capacitors using a feed forward design to arrest surges, that U.S. Government made a specification for their surge arrestors, based on personnel losses associated with introduction of power surge to electronic control, monitoring equipment. I read into this further and became a believer. MOVs or metal oxide varistors are sacrificial components, they keep wearing out bit by bit from surges they successfully arrest while the UPS side or the power strip continues to pump energy – so, we consumers think “it still works”. Yes, it does, but it is not providing the level of protection it once had. APC UPS is great product as UPS, and I not only live by them, am happy to replace battery cells on them as well, but I also run in series these ZeroSurge arresters and have not had any blown NIC cards, no blown anythings or weird digital occurrences either in very long time, years. Clean, flat power is under rated in the ecosystem….I am believer.
I’m not sure what happened to the small APC UPS we use. When it failed, we weren’t on the grid but the generator was on. I didn’t see any evidence of a surge nor was any other equipment damaged. My speculation is that this failure was not surge related.
Hi Jennifer And James.
I saw your lovely N52 in Bergs slussar tied at the first lock. Unfortunately u both had taken your little dinghy
out for a spin on the lake. It had been fun to speak to u both about your journey around the world and of course about the N52.
Now i have seen a Nordhavn for reel and acquisitiveness for a Nordhavn have just increased 100%.
Have nice trip in the future and i will follow your trip :)
Best regards Henry
Sorry to miss you while we were both in Berg. As you might know, the boat location is always up at https://mvdirona.com/maps. Feel free to drop by and say hi if we happen to be in the same area — we don’t move quickly or far each day in the Canal.
re Lenovo not rebooting readily: one trick is to completely clear memory by completely unplugging and then hitting the start button a few times. Some even recommend ten times. For us, it usually works with two or three.
Then plug back in and it usually starts up with no issues.
I know systems moderately well and I can’t figure out what the issue would be but the system definitely didn’t start the boot cycle until we had tried cycling the power the third time. My speculation was there had been a windows update that hadn’t yet applied. I have seen it very slow to show the splash screen in the past. Whatever the cause, we’ll keep your solution in mind. We are pretty dependent upon that system so we need it stable.
Thanks for your suggestions.
Strange figures showing in the trip statistics this morning (0800 Melb Aust). E.G. Av Speed 1160.32 Kts , 2877.60 nm/gal.
It’s was an easy to resolve software bug. Fixed now. Thanks for pointing it out.
James:
Beware the ‘lure’ of a SS prop. While possibly given better performance the risk of major engine damage is very high. If you hit a rock while using one, damage is much greater than with an aluminum prop because SS props do NOT bend/shear.
While using a SS prop I managed to twist the coupling splines all the way up through a Mercruiser Alpha 1 outdrive all the way up to the engine coupler – 3 sets in all! Very expensive lesson
On the other hand aluminum props bend/break easily minimizing any damage. Needless to say I only run aluminum props in the 1000 Islands where rocks abound
Also how/when do you record the extensive notes for your photos? Your discipline in this regard is very impressive
Happy cruising
Rod
Yes, that’s the main reason I’ve always avoided going to stainless steel props. We like to explore tight and often uncharted places in the tender and we hit bottom frequently. Replacing an aluminum prop annually at $100 each isn’t a big problem but gear or spline damage would be a huge issue. I’ll continue the experiment for another few trips but the early results are that the boat runs 32 kts with the stainless steel prop and it ran 32 kts with aluminum. It doesn’t appear to make a measurable difference to the overall speed but there is a difference. Maximum RPM with the stainless prop is down 250 RPM. Presumably extra blade stiffness holds an effective higher pitch under load so max RPM is slightly lower. So, the impact of stiffer blades can be seen in slightly lower WOT RPM. But, since the overall speed doesn’t appear changed, I may switch back to Aluminum to reduce overall mechanical risk when striking unyielding objects.
I’ll give it some more time to see if the results reported above are stable but, if they are and the speed isn’t improved, I’l switch back to aluminum. In fact, I’m might switch back no matter what in a couple of weeks and use the SS prop as a spare. Thanks for passing along your experience.
The trick to writing up the pictures on the blog is to do it right when it happens. If we can write it up within a day or two, it’s far easier to recall the details. The later we are in writing it up, the more difficult. The biggest challenge for us is finding the time to write them up. We like having the trip record, we love sharing our experiences, but it is often hard to squeeze in writing time and it’s super easy to fall behind.
Hi James/Jennifer. Your journey looks fantastic. We are hanging out in Montenegro/Croatia for the summer … well mostly me really as Jinhee is still working.
Jinhee will be in Sweden early next month, I don’t know that I will go with her, but perhaps. How long are you staying in Stockholm?
Hey Don. It sounds like your time in the Med has been enjoyable. We’ll probably be heading that way next year.
We’ll be leaving Stockholm this Friday so we’ll probably miss Jinhee on this trip but, if either of you pass through Amsterdam this winter, we’ll be there and it would be great to catch up.
Thanks, I would like to catch up too. We are likely going to ship Home Free back to the US or Caribbean this winter. Jinhee is going to work for a while yet it appears so I would like to get the boat closer to home . . .
While I was prepared to cross on the boat this spring, there is too much confusion in our lives currently and so my normal confidence is being sapped by distractions and I won’t start the journey that way. Shipping takes a lot less focus :)
We will certainly find you if we are in the NW of the continent this winter. Enjoy your passage on the way back South.
Probably the right call not to take it back across the Atlantic if you don’t have time to focus on it and help to do the trip. We’ll winter in Amsterdam so, if you do a pass through Europe, considering stopping by.
JUST WONDERING WHERE YOU GOT THE GLASS STORM PANELS, AND THE DEADLIGHT PANELS FROM?
The storm plates where supplied as an option by the boat manufacturer Nordhavn. But, they can be easily fabricated by any plastics shop for any boat where the window frames have mount points for external panels.
The deadlights are a standard offering made by the manufacturer of the port lights.
Hi Guys,
Enjoy following your travels. Should you on your way back to Denmark pass through Copenhagen. I can recommend to stop by in the small habour of Dragør. It’s an old fishing village and I would love to show you around.
We do expect to pass through Copenhagen on the return trip. Thanks for the recommendations.
Hi James,
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need me to show you around the city.
My mail is jakob@wisnewski.dk
Thanks for the offer Jakob.
James, I poked around your site and couldn’t find it. Have you ever detailed your electronics package? Kind of curious curious for your choices for radar, chart plotters, software, etc. I’m right in the thick of making choices and trying to decide if I will use a mix of Furuno and Garmin and probably doing my own custom Maretron like system. Ft. Lauderdale show will be my deciding timeline.
Yes, we probably should write up our electronics choices. We have a PC (the nav computer) running TimeZero with two screens and a Furuno NavNet3d MFDBB supporting the two other screens. All four screens can be replicated below in the MSR or in the Salon. Maretron runs on the navcomputer and it’s using 1 of the two screens leaving the other to TimeZero. We use Timezero because it can share charts at no extra charge with the Furuno system. Also from Furuno, we have a DRS25A 25KW RADAR with a 6′ open array and a DRS6A with a 4′ open array. For location we have a Furuno SC-30 sat compass and multiple seperate GPS systems on both NN3D and the NMEA2000 network. We also have a magnetic heading system that, when combined with a GPS can backup the SC-30. We have two ICOM M604 VHF in the PH and other VHF around the boat. We have a EPIRB and a couple of personal EPIRB. The tender has VHF and AIS as well. We use Lenovo L1900P monitors rather than Marine specialised units (1/10th the cost).
Up top in the fly bridge we have a Furuno MFD8 and will use a tablet as well repeating the lower stations. We have 3 help stations with the PH, Fly bridge, and aft in the cockpit. We also use a YachtCommander remote control since we don’t have room for wing stations. I would prefer wing stations but the remote serves well.
10 years later it’s all running well. We had one VHF radio failure and the Furuno 25kw RADAR started to show errors at 10,000 hours and so it’ll be replaced this year. Generally Magnetron’s are good for 10,000 hours so this is largely expected.
Nordhavn is so backlogged! I can hardly stand it, lol. At this point were about 3 months behind as it is. Who knows what changes will be in electronics by the time… Follow up, do you run a wireless local area network? I am really hoping to use my iPad or Phone connected to the local wireless while in bed, etc to check status of navigation and systems. I do like your idea of a monitor by the bed, etc but maybe on my tablet will be more flexible. Also, do you use a cellular modem such as pepwave? I know you use sims in your phone but do you also do a strictly data modem? The google Fi looks interesting.
Yes, we have a boat-wide wireless (and wired network) that is connected to three WAN ports and the router automatically chooses the least expensive connection problem and the boat is always connected somehow. In the usual configuration the three WAN ports are: 1) V7hts, 2) Cellular SIM#1, and 3) Cellular SIM#2. When there is good WiFi in the area, we go with: 1) V7hts, 2) Cell SIM#1, and 3) WiFi. Given how low cost cell data is and given how poor most marina WiFi is, we normally just run with two cell data options and we use it for everything including streaming live sports and movies.
We considered having dedicated data SIMs for the router and having done that in past years but we have come to like a model where we have two cell phones and the system just automaticaly hooks up to the cell phones when they are near and uses them. The way it’s set up, don’t need to do anything. If the cell phone is close, the system will use it. If it leaves the area, the system will use a another form of connectivity.
This sort of configuration can be built using Peplink. What we have done is a bit more flexibile and is based upon an open source DD-WRT stack running on a Netgear R7000 which is very flexible and allows us to super interesting things like having special VPNs into the boat for external access and special monitoring. But, you can do most of this with Peplink. We have a spare R7000 with the full software stack on it so, if we had a failure, we would just unplug one and plug in the spare.
We like Google Fi and have come close to using it but find that getting local SIMs gives better bandwidth and it’s easy to get the 10s of gig we use a month where Fi really doesn’t like you operating in a permanent roaming mode. So far, we have found local SIMs better value, high sustained bandwidth without limit up while we use 30 or 40g a month. If we did use Fi, it would probably be “in addition two” rather than as a substitute for what we are currently doing.
Good luck on your build.
You mentioned the Åland islands to be are outside the EU customs zone.
Finnish customs website has more detailed information:
The Åland Islands are included in the customs territory of the EU, but not in the fiscal territory of the EU
https://tulli.fi/en/about-us/our-activities/eu-customs-and-fiscal-territory
https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/business/vat/eu-vat-rules-topic/territorial-status-eu-countries-certain-territories_en
Ministry for Foreing Affaies of Filnland website
https://um.fi/the-special-status-of-the-aland-islands
Thanks for the pointer to the Aland islands tax status in the EU.
Have you thought of publishing a cruising guide for the U.K. and Scandinavia from your trip? Thank you.
We did publish a cruising guide for the west coast of British Columbia Canada: https://mvdirona.com/WaggonerSecretCoast/index.html. It was fun to do the book but it takes as much time as the blog and all the required work tends to get concentrated in big pushes. We have switched over to the blog where we can publish as we go. We like being able to publish in near real time, we appreciate the help from locals that know from our blog that we’re in their area and make recommendations on places we should go. For example, before reaching Australia, we hadn’t even heard of the amazing Kimberley region (https://mvdirona.com/category/destinations/australia/kimberley/). We also like being able to post real time boat location and the boat track (https://mvdirona.com/maps/). The blog also allows a greater diversity of topics that range from mechanical systems, through cruising destinations, steam engine trips, and even factory visits all over the world.
If a publisher got interested in doing a book based upon material from the blog and we thought there was a market for it, we might do it.
Thank you James for your response. What sort of cruising guides (if any) are you using for your current exploration?
Secondly, are you planning an east-to-west transatlantic crossing or will you ship the boat ?
Thank you!
For cruising guides in Europe we usually have the RCC Pilotage Guide to the area for the highlights, and then more detailed local guides as available. For Norway we found The Norwegian Cruising Guide (https://www.norwegiancruisingguide.com/) useful and also https://www.harbourguide.com/en/harbour-guide/, the latter particularly for marinas.
Sweden and Finland have been a little more difficult, as many of the guides aren’t available in English. But we did use the Landsort – Skanör pilot (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Landsort-Skan%C3%B6r-harbour-archipelagos-southern/dp/918956474X) for the east coast of Sweden (translated to English from Swedish). For the Stockholm Archipelago we relied on the Foundation’s website (https://archipelagofoundation.se/map-of-our-areas/) and their map and guidebook (in Swedish) picked up from a local marina. We also find information through park and local tourist web sites and recommendations from locals.
And we rely heavily on Lonely Planet guides for local attractions and destinations of interest.
We’ve never shipped the boat and don’t plan to this time. Likely we’ll do the transatlantic crossing over the northern route through Iceland and Greenland.
Jennifer
Thank you so much for this information. It is so special that you and James so willingly share your experience and information. Bless you and continued safe, amazing, travels!
James,
Months ago you mentioned putting reflective tape on the rotating radar array. I think this is a brilliant (pun intended) idea and have purchased the 3M tape (from a Seattle source that begins with A). In mentioning this to a fellow technical oriented friend, he wondered if the reflective nature of the tape interferes with the radar function? I am sure you thought of this. Comments? Thanks for the time you spent on your fascinating site.
Thanks Tom. The reflective tape is on the back of the antenna so shouldn’t be a factor on transit or receive.
If you haven’t already visit the Vasa museum in Stockholm. Probably my favorite museum in the world. My wife’s family made us also a very simple meal of fresh pickled herring, small boiled potatoes and boiled eggs. I ate a ton of that fish. We would go to the wharf and buy it just recently pickled and never canned.
We haven’t yet visited the Vasa but it’s absolutely on our list for our time in Stockholm. Thanks for the reminder Eric.
Hello Jennifer and James
I have read your story in the magazine motorboot today. What a story wauw !!!
I live in Nederland in the north and have also a little boot. I will follow your journey now on your website.
Have a good time and enjoy
That one is from back when we were in Amsterdam. Glad to hear it worked out well.
Happy Midsummer Eve to you both ?
Best regards Sam
Thanks for all the hospitality while we were Aland Sam. We really enjoyed the visit to the Maritime Safety Center. We’ll be in Stockholm in less than a week. If you happen to be in the area, let us know. It would be great to catch up. Happy Midsummer Eve to you as well.
Thank you for visiting us! It was a nice experience for us too. What route will you go past Åland on your way to Stockholm and what day would that be?
We will be passing by to the south of Aland on the way to Stockholm and expect to do it Monday morning. The reason we won’t be stopping in Aland on the way back is Swedish customs views Aland as outside the EU so entry to Sweden from Aland is slightly more complex. That’s why we chose to visit on our way to Finland rather than on our way back. We’ll be passing south of you Monday morning.
Just read about your crossing into Russia to use the canal. Great it went well. it must be a bit frightening. Hope your return goes smoothly. I am arrived In Stockholm. See you next week
Hey Marc. Good hearing from you. We’re just passing through the last set of locks in Russia and will be back out in the Baltic in a couple of hours. We’ll clear back into Finland around 7:30 this evening.
See you in Stockholm in a few days.
Welcome to Kuopio. We are admiring your beautiful ship from our balcony. Hope you have a pleasant stay.
Thanks for the hospitality. We’ve only been here for 8 1/2 hours and we have already managed to walk all over town and visit the Puijo tower to enjoy the view and walk around the sky jumps. We’re enjoying Kuopio.
My husband and I are interested in living and cruising on a Nordhavn. We are exploring a 47 or 52 Nordhavn. We are currently trying to put together our numbers to determine how to make this dream possible. We are interested in information on monthly expenses. Is there a place in your blog that discusses your ongoing expenses? If not, would you be willing to share that information. We are very inspired by your journey. Thank you.
Congratulations on getting close to what will be an adventure of a lifetime. What it costs is a super hard one to nail because it’s up to you. We know people that travel on something close to 1/2 million dollars a year and, in our travels, we’ve met people that are travelling at less than $30k per year. We saw smiles on the faces of both couples. There boats were not identical, they didn’t both fly back and forth from the US all the time, one didn’t use marinas much, restaurants were rare for 1, and the division between do-it-themselves vs for-fee was very different. It really depends on how you live, what you expect, what’s important to you, and the resources you have available.
An often quoted number is to assume 10% of the current value of the boat and use that to cover all boat related and boating expenses. Most people I know feel this is much higher than it should be and use a lower number. For us the number might be slightly higher only because I work full time so maintain a lot of expensive communications options that work doesn’t pay for and I’m also responsible for all travel (which we view as a boating expense) which some years can run up quite a bit some years. The boat it’s self is reliable and the components are remarkably durable. We use our boat a ton and have 10,400 hours on the main, 5,800 hours on the gen, and 960 hours on the wing. All are in great shape. The boat is structurally super strong and it’ll never wear out. Major components are good quality and wear very well. The boat is servicable so, when parts do need changing, it can be done at reasonable effort. We value our time fairly highly so we have a lot of spares on board and one of the reasons why we run so many hours a year is we never are waiting for service, waiting for parts, or trying to fix something that is blocking the trip.
Generally the 47/52 series are excellent small boats and are unlikely to provide with many surprise expenses. You can adjust your expenses by doing things yourself even when it’s complex and frustrating, and by minimizing your moorage costs by anchoring out or choosing less expensive location, and you can control your insurance costs by adjusting where you go. Our recommendation is to chose the smallest boat that will do what you want, make sure it’s big enough to keep you happy since one of the most expensive parts of boating is changing boats, make sure you have the resources to cover the boat you buy and avoid the temptation to buy bigger than you need only to be constrained by the costs of maintaining the boat. It’s about the trip not the boat. Remember even boats as small as the N40 has been around the world and they include all the same features and heavy construction.
Good luck on what should be an exciting journey.
Thank you.
What an inspirational post!
Kimberly, I would like to know your budget. I’m thinking the same but am a few faraway fromleaving due to kids etc.
What it costs to cruise the world is a super hard one to nail because it’s really up to you. We know people that travel on something close to 1/2 million dollars a year and, in our travels, we’ve met people that are travelling at less than $30k per year. We saw smiles on the faces of both couples. Their boats were not identical, they didn’t both fly back and forth from the US all the time, one didn’t use marinas much, restaurants were rare for 1, and the division between do-it-themselves vs for-fee was very different. It really depends on how you live, what you expect, what’s important to you, and the resources you have available.
An often quoted number is to assume 10% of the current value of the boat and use that to cover all boat related and boating expenses. Most people I know feel this is much higher than it should be and use a lower number. For us the number might be slightly higher than 10% only because I work full time so maintain a lot of expensive communications options that work doesn’t pay for and I’m also responsible for all air travel (which we view as a boating expense) which can run up quite a bit some years. The boat it’s self is reliable and the components are remarkably durable. We use our boat a ton and have 10,600 hours on the main, 6,000 hours on the gen, and 975 hours on the wing. All are in great shape. The boat is structurally super strong and it unlikely to ever “wear out”. Major components are good quality and wear very well. The boat is servicable so, when parts do need changing, it can be done at reasonable effort. We value our time fairly highly so we have a lot of spares on board and one of the reasons why we run so many hours a year is we never are waiting for service, waiting for parts, or trying to fix something that is blocking the trip.
You can adjust your expenses by doing things yourself even when it’s complex and frustrating, and by minimizing your moorage costs by anchoring out or choosing less expensive location, and you can control your insurance costs by adjusting where you go. Our recommendation is to chose the smallest boat that will do what you want, make sure it’s big enough to keep you happy since one of the most expensive parts of boating is changing boats, make sure you have the resources to cover the boat you buy and avoid the temptation to buy bigger than you need only to be constrained by the costs of maintaining the boat. It’s about the trip not the boat. Remember even boats as small as the Nordhavn 40 have been around the world.
J and J, check in on the blog every day. So we are planning level detection on the fresh, grey and black via some form of pressure transmitter (maretron, etc) but also plan on leaving the Nordhavn Dometic standard in for redundancy (although I may mount these in the N60 util room. My question is did you install the transmitter in a stilling tube or just let it rest on the bottom? I am not clear from my discussion with Nord what I should do in preparation for this. I will post this possibly on NOG although being that you retrofitted I have specific interest in your opinion.
We did much the same thing in that we left the standard Nordhavn gauges (in our case TankWatch4) in place and redundantly installed Maretron. For the black water sensor, we just let it rest on the bottom of the tank. We chose to mount on technical gear for measurement, reporting, etc. in the PH on the argument that it’s best to have it all central and available there.
I suspect our black water pressure sensor will need cleaning every couple of years but it hasn’t been required yet. The grey and freshwater are still the TLM100 ultrasonic guages. They have been very reliable but, if I was to need to install new ones, I would go with the in-the-tank pressure sensor as we are using in the black water tank.
James
We have also had very good reliability from our Tecma toilets. What were the symptoms when the clear tubing failed?
Thanks
Murray Birch N6303
Yes, Tecma heads are the best I’ve ever seen. The only fault we have seen in 10 years is that hose plugs up. The symptoms are the bowl not always fully draining. What happens is the water that would be at the back of the bowl after flushing flows down through the hose leaving the bowl and piping above the pump/macerator dry. The water that flows below sits in the pump/macerator so it starts pumping quickly.
If you see water left in the bottom and it’s repeatable, that’s probably the issue Murray.
Hello, my husband Bill and I are the owners of Nordhavn 4061. We love your website and blog entries and have followed you for quite some time. We are going to be in Helsinki (not by boat) on June 11 and would love to take you to dinner.
We would love to but got underway this morning for Finland’s Lake Saima region so we’ll miss you as you pass through Helsinki. But we appreciate the offer and, of course, if you do find yourselves passing through the same city in the future, let us know.
I was mystified by Linnahall when we visited Tallinn. I thought maybe it was just too expensive to tear down. All that concrete. Your info that it has heritage status is illuminating, but if the state or city gave it that designation, surely they could revoke it. Obviously nobody loves it. Enjoying your Baltic postings, it’s one of my favourite itineraries.
Hey Karen. We’re still trying to visit a location where you haven’t proceeded us :-).
On Linnahall, I suspect it’s a classic case where one arm of the government is putting up obstructions making it difficult for another. In this case the national Ministry of Culture making it more difficult for the Tallinn city government. I’ts an amazingly large structure given how small the seating capacity is within. Arguably not a great design and definitely an shining example of Soviet era construction quality.
We’re heading to St. Petersburg towards the end of this week and, later in the month, we’ll be taking the boat through Russia to get into the Lake Saimaa region of Finland.
So, we will have preceded you in St Petersburg but not Lake Saimaa. We are doing a short road trip in Quebec with Neil and Jackie later this summer. Too bad you are not on the St Lawrence…
With regards to your I2C voltage drop problems, you might consider utilizing a pair of p82b96 i2c voltage translator chips. they can handle up to 15V supply voltage and can even operate in a multi drop bus configuration like i2c but at the higher voltage. Compatible versions are sold by TI and NXP, and at least TI sells it in a DIP form factor which should make for easy integration.
hope it helps
I hadn’t seen that part. Thanks for the advice. With the improved power and ground changes I made, the system is working reliably under all conditions except when the main engine is running. When it’s running, I get I2C I/O errors but the system still functions so it’s not as anoying. I’ve not yet investigated this but I suspect I have SDA/SCL running beside the control lines for the remote alternator regulators. If that is the issue, I can reroute the lines and likely avoid the issue entirely.
Thanks for pointing out the voltage translator chips. It’s always nice to have another tool available when pushing signaling limits.
Did you guys get a European “Boat Operator License” for navigating in EU waters? Do you know if it is required? Cheers and thanks!
No we didn’t get a European Operator License. Generally when travelling in foreign waters, you need to comply with the regulations of your flag state. There is no requirement for any education in the US but we do have Washington State Boater Education cards and, if asked, we show this credential and thus far it’s been acceptable.
I am not sure what you mean with European Bat Operator License…
Do you mean an ICC ( International Certificate of Competence) ? An ICC can only be obtained in your country of residence and the US, Canada etc. are not part of the signatory. The ICC is only valid when a country has decided to sign the treaty.
Then for Inland water ways, you also need CEVNI endorsement. But just like James wrote, the licensing of your flag state counts.
On the inland waterways, the police usually lets you get away with it, especially with a cup of coffee offeres, your boat in good shape, and you can provide them with some more documentation, as log books etc
An ICC can be obtained outside your country of residence if your country is not a UNECE member state which has accepted Resolution 40. The RYA, for example, can issue a UK ICC to US or Canadian residents: https://www.rya.org.uk/knowledge-advice/boating-abroad/icc/Pages/who-can-get-an-icc-from-the-rya.aspx. They also have test centers in those countries.
Jennifer
Haven’t read you mentioning so I’m assuming that English is a common enough language that it hasn’t been an issue with you? Also, you haven’t mentioned having security issues, either at sea or in port.
Language isn’t a problem in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, or the Netherlands. Communications are range from excellent to sufficient and we rarely aren’t able to communicate. Menus in smaller centers are often not available in English but it’s usually possible to figure them out and there is usually someone on staff that can help if needed. Germany and France can be more challenging but we always seem to get by without issue.
Security in the Nordic countries appears excellent with little problem. In Norway, many don’t lock their cars but warn that you shouldn’t do that in Oslo. In the Netherlands, outside of Amsterdam, many bikes aren’t even locked. in Amsterdam the bikes have massive chains, are sometimes double locked, and even then theft is still a problem. All small boats are locked as was ours in Amsterdam. Big cities all over the world require more security but even the big cities we have been visiting of late seem pretty safe. In Sweden, Aland, and Finland, we haven’t even been locking the tender but we will in Helsinki and Stockholm.
Generally communications have been excellent over the few years of our trip and security hasn’t been a problem.
Just a good read on trawler/tugs. From where I grew up, Thought you might find it interesting.
http://stevebriggs.netfirms.com/osmrm/xhallet.html
Thanks. Jennifer and I lived in Toronto for 10 years and I lived in Ottawa for 20 so we know the area well.
Dear Mrs. and Mr. Hamilton,
according to your nice reports you have passed the Kiel Canal twice – but without a stopover in Kiel, capital city of the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein. When finishing your trip in the Baltic Sea, you will have to decide where you want to leave this area:
1. Round Skagen (most northern point of Denmark) or
2. through the Kiel Canal or
3. via Szczecin (Poland), then river Oder or canal (Hohensaaten-Friedrichsthaler Wasserstraße) to Hohensaaten/Germany (lock) and then german inland waterways with destinations as Elbe (Hamburg), Weser (Bremen) or Rhine (further to Netherlands, Belgium or France).
The Lübeck-Elbe-canal is too shallow for Dirona: max. draft only 2,00 m, max. height of vessel: 4,40 m.
If you choose the Kiel Canal I recommend a stopover in Kiel. Berth and TV-interview can be arranged as well as sightseeing in and around Kiel. in favorable weather conditions we can meet in daylight at the Kiel lighthouse and guide you into the harbor or a marina.
Best impressions you can get at the International Kiel Week (June 22 to June 30 2019; more information: https://www.kieler-woche.de/en/) . But this depends on your timetable.
Would be nice to hear from you.
Kind regards,
The idea of going from the Baltic to the Netherlands via canal is exciting but when we investigate we find the combination of needing 2.1m of water draft and just under 9M of air draft just barely fails on most of the longer routes. If we could find one that works, we would likely do it. Failing that we’ll either do the Kiel Canal or the around Denmark. Likely the Kiel unless we decide to head up to Oslo Norway for some time toward the end of the norther cruising season.
We were planning to go to Kiel this spring by stopping at the dock just outside the Canal on the Kiel side and busing or taxing into the town center. But we found the docks with sufficient depth for us had been damaged by storm and the others lacked the depth we needed. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to stop in to visit on our return trip. Perhaps by arranging for moorage downtown in Kiel itself. I think we would enjoy it. Thanks for the offer of hospitality in Kiel and for the suggestions. We are interested in visiting.
Hi Jennifer and James.
At first: Thank you for sharing your journey. I saw you sail through Grønsund in the fog, but I did’nt have the time to go to Klintholm, to see you and your lovely ship. Have you considered to go through the Göta Kanal across Sweden: https://www.gotakanal.se/en/pleasure-boat/. It closes sep. 29 th, may be too early for your return?
Wish you all well. Carsten.
Sorry to miss you in Klintholm. We had a great visit there. We do plan to do a pass through the Gota Kanal just before they close towards the end of the year. Thanks for the suggestion.
Hi james and Jennifer
Given your recent travels, does Norway officially fall outside of the European Union Customs Union for the purposes of resetting the EU Temporary Import clock for a private vessel?
We are Canadian citizens and residents but also hold British and Irish citizenship as I was born in the UK and both of our grandfathers were born in the Republic of Ireland. Our Nordhavn would be registered in Canada but I can also register it in the UK although it seems that the TI rules require an owner who holds residency outwith the EU and seems to also suggest that the vessel be registered outside the Eu as well.
Thank you very much
Stuart and Liz
Lucky you to have Irish citizenship. My having British/EU citizenship has been wonderful in allowing us to move freely about the Schengen area. It will be sad to lose that with Brexit. I do have Irish ancestors, but too far back for citizenship :(. If you don’t have them already, I’d recommend you get your Irish passports on the early side as they’re really backed up with Brexit.
Yes, Norway does fall outside of the EU Customs zone for resetting the temporary import clock. There actually are a few places within the EU proper that have special status and reset the clock as well, such as Heligoland in Germany, Aland Islands in Finland and Channel Islands in the UK. Technically you just need to go to sea in order to reset the clock, but we prefer to have some evidence of being outside the EU Customs zone if possible.
Jennifer
Jennifer, is James able to benefit from your British/EU citizenship for long term stays in the Schengen areas? My wife is a German citizen and i’ve always wondered how that worked.
Bruce,
Yes. EU and Schengen member state citizens have right of free movement within the Schengen area and this applies to any family members accompanying or joining them. Any time that James spends in the Schengen area travelling with me does not count on his Schengen clock. This would apply to you as well if you travel with your wife in the Schengen area.
When we cross in and out of the Schengen area, we both go to the EU line together and I carry and present both my British passport and James’ US passport to the immigration officer. James’ passport must be stamped on Schengen entry/exit because he is a non EU-citizen, but mine isn’t because EU citizen’s passports aren’t stamped by law.
Jennifer
4/18/2019: Cellina
Modern Sailing Yachts have deep going rudders in the very back of their stern. They just want to prevent their rudders to hit the rocks. With their bow instead they can get very close to the rocks and even jump on the land.
Yours very interested reader
Jochen Brecht, Hamburg
That makes sense. Thanks Jochen.
You are cruising with great efficiency through the Stockholm archipelago. You have dotted the finest places in the archipelago on your way from the southern archipelago and north. You seems to enjoy the archipelago.
For our part, it is time to start the season 2019. We have had our boat stored on land in Mariehamn in Åland. On Friday we go over there to take us to our home port in Saltsjöbaden. We may see you when we come from Åland at the beginning of next week. We have a boat that is made in Finland, a Targa 44.
Have a good journey through the beautiful archipelago.
Yes, we are really enjoying the Stockholm Archipelago and we’re looking forward Aland. If you have recommendations for boaters like us who are visiting Aland for the first time and like natural beauty, we would appreciate your thoughts.
Sure, I will share some interesting places in the Aland archipelago. I get back to you guys during the up coming weekend. A little bit busy with work at the moment,
Yes, absolutely. Only if you have time and we only need a short list of whatever jumps to mind as top locations since we won’t be there that long. Either way, thanks for the blog feedback.
Hi James and Jennifer,
Now we have jumped on our boat in Mariehamn västra (west). Its a very nice place. We can recommend Mariehamn west harbour if you wanna visit the small town here on Aland. On your way from Sweden you can make a stop at “Kobba klintar”. It is a very small island when entering the track to Mariehamn. We will also visit Rödhamn – approx 10 nautical miles south from Mariehamn west. It should be a very nice place for one night. We haven’t been there before but will probably go to that location tomorrow, sunday.
Other interesting place in Aland is a small harbour called Kastellholm, they have an excellent culinary restaurant called Smakbyn. It is close to the little harbour. They have a one of the best chief in the nordic countries. You should also visit the archipelago of KÖKAR, in the southern area of Aland. Choose the northern guest harbour of KOKAR, called Sandvik. It is the easiest place to enter with Dirona. There is also a small harbour called Karlsby, but it is rather tricky to navigate to that place. You should also join the small island called KÄLLSKÄR, south of Kökar, one a swedish aristocrat had his living. A very special story. Interesting to get there with a guide. Fab views.
If your are going to Finland proper after Aland you should prioritize the southern route in the Aboland archlepalgo with islands such as finska UTÖ, JURMO, and ÖRÖ. Other options are also BJÖRKÖ and JUNGFRUSKÄR. After Öro, Hanko (Hangö) is a great town to bunker. That harbour is also the home harbour for Sweet Hope and where we explore Nordhavn for the first time. I think Mika and Katri will be there :-)
On your way to Helsinki is the swedish speaking town of EKENÄS worth a visit.
We can recommend a very nice harbour in Helsinki, called SKATUTDDEN (Finnish name KATAJANOKKA). It is located in the very city center, close to the presidential palace. When you bunker food in Helsinki, dont miss SALUHALLEN – it is an exclusivie food fair. You should also take the ferry to SVEABORG (Soumen linna). It is an old fortress with an interesting history ande nice views to the Finnish gulf.
All the best!
Mikael
We’re glad to hear your boat is now launched and you are back on the water. This really is an impressively beautiful area to boat.
Thanks very much for all the travel information you posted. We’ll use it!
Hi, welcome to Mariehamn! I noticed that you are in the east harbour. We are in the west harbour. Tomorrow we are cruising back to Stockholm.
We have been at the town main square and listening to a mail choir singing traditional songs to celebrate the arrival of spring. In english it is walpurgis night. Now we are back at our boat, having a glas of champagne. If you are walking by the west harbour, don’t hesitate to knock on the door and say hello !
We were over on your side of town last night at the large bonfire north of you but by the time we walked south back into town it was 10:30 and too late for a visit. If we do see your Targa 44 at the dock, we’ll stop by and say hi.
Time goes quick in Mariehamn. It was a nice evening yesterday.
Today we have been cruising from Mariehamn to our home harbour in Saltsjöbaden, outside Stockholm. 90NM.
Are you coming back to Stockholm before you go south again?
Hi Mikael. Have a good trip home to Saltsjobaden. We’ll be spending the next month in Finland before coming back your way and spending around a month in Stockholm. Perhaps we’ll see you then?
Hi James,
You will have a nice month in Finland. Im sure. I hope the warmer weather will approach soon. At the moment it is to cold :-)
Would be nice if there will be an opportunity to say hello when you are in Stockholm. Will you stay with Dirona in the city center or in a marina outside Stockholm?
Keep in touch and enjoy your days in Finland and maybe Estonia.
It would be great to meet while we are in Stockholm. We’ll be staying at Wasahamnen downtown we’ll be arriving in July. Drop us a note if you have time to drop by.
Sure, would be very nice to drop by. Wasahamnen is close to our apartment. I will be in Stockholm until 3rd july. A short trip to the southern part of Sweden. Back in Stockholm 19th july and then approx 21th july we will go for holiday in four weeks boating.
Amazing that you had snow in Aland a couple of days ago. Very unusual. I hope the weather soon will turn to more summer temperature.
Enjoy your trip to Finland.
We’ll be out of town for potions of that time as well returning to Seattle for some time at work but I suspect there will be some overlap where we are all in Stockholm at the same time. We’ll hope to see you then.
Nordhavn specifications show the displacement for the N52 as 90,000 lbs. Just wondering how you feel Drone’s displacement at commencement of your Indian Ocean & Nth Atlantic passages would have compared.
The 90,000 lb spec on the web site is a on the light side. We weighed in at over 100,000 lbs when new with light tanks. We usually lift just above 110,000 with roughly 1/2 a tank of fuel. When we left Australia to cross the Indian Ocean we had full tanks which adds another 5,000 lbs and we had 960 gallons of deck fuel which is 5,700 lbs. I suspect we were in the 118,000 to 120,000 lbs range. In this configuration the boat sill can attain CE Category A Ocean so it’s still a stable platform: https://mvdirona.com/2019/03/deck-fuel-and-vessel-stability/.
Hello, I jest recently come by your video and youtube stuff. Have you had any thoughts of coming up the St Lawrence all the way to Lake superior?
I also like your technical talks about your bought. Gives people thoughts on upgrades for sure.
Yes, we’re super interested in heading up the St. Lawrence to Superior. We used to live in Toronto so it would be doubly interesting to cruise the area since we know it by car. Our current plans will be to enjoy the Baltic this year, the Med next year and perhaps head back to North American. When we go back to North America depends a bit on much we enjoy our time in Europe and what happens with Brexit. As long as the UK is part of the EU, we can be in the area without much hassle since Jennifer is a UK citizen. Once that is gone, it’s more hassle to do longer than 90 day visits so that might cause us to head back. When we do go back, we plan to take the Northern route through Iceland and Greenland to Labrador. Perhaps the St Lawrence the following summer? It’s a ways out but we are definitely interested in doing the trip you propose.
Hello James, I’m wondering if you can help? I am the captain of a Gunboat 66 catamaran. 66′ long, 28′ beam, 4′ draft. We stayed at Amsterdam Marina a few years ago. We are returning to Amsterdam next week for 10 days. This time we are wondering if it is possible to find a berth on the Amsterdam side of the river, closer to all the sights? Do you know of anywhere that might fit us in? Thanks so much, Jon Catamaran Moondoggie
The Amsterdam City Marina is incredibly well located and a really nicely run facility. Only 5 or 10 min from the central rail station by foot. More information here: http://www.citymarina.nl/ and contact information is here: http://www.citymarina.nl/contact/. Enjoy Amsterdam!
Anchoring with a stern anchor, and the bow close to shore, with a mooring line or two to shore, is very common in Norway too.
One reason is that the bow needs less water depth than the stern, and therefore the boat can get closer to shore. That means a tender is not required to get ashore.
Hope you have a great time. Happy Easter!
Makes sense. We have seen a lot of boats without tenders and it seems like a good solution. What do you do if the wind comes up blowing onto shore during the night. I would think that if you are close enough to reach shore, then if a big winds comes up the boat would get driven into shore fairly hard. Basically, if it’s close enough to stop to shore, I would think it’s close enough to bump the bottom or shore when blown that direction.
You just have to plan more for the wind directions, and pick the right places. I prefer to have the bow into the wind, but have anchored with the wind coming from all directions. My trusty Rocna has never let me down so far. Of course I would not anchor with the stern into gale force winds, when the bow is only a meter or two from shore, no matter how well the anchor is set.
Before going to sleep I let out a couple of extra meters in the bow and pull in on the anchor the same distance. That gives a bit of extra safety margin during the night. Your comment on the tenders are spot on, there are many boats around 20 – 25 feet in Norway/Sweden, and a tender becomes a bit awkward. When/if you get a bigger boat, you tend to use the same technique you did before if possible. Also, the nature with the cliffs and limited tide allows for this way of anchoring. And, when the anchoring locations get really crowded during the summer, I find it challenging to find a good spot with enough swing room, it feels more predictable to be tied to the shore. And of course, old habit and tradition comes into play.
That makes total sense. The approach of moving a bit further off shore at night would cover the wind issue and, in many of these smaller anchorages we have seen in use, there isn’t sufficient swing room for any other approach. In British Columbia Canada, stern tieing is common. This is the same approach but with the stern closest to shore. In the Canadian approach, there stern isn’t close enough to jump to shore. Usually 25′ or more off shore so a tender is still needed and it’s more of a hassle than the bow in approach because the tender has to be launched to shore with the bow line to tie off. The upside is that no swing room is needed so even small anchorages can work and it allows 10s of boats fit into a bay rather than 2 or 3. We’ve done in many times but prefer to find less busy areas when possible.
I love all your pictures from Sweden. We here in B.C. think that we have a pretty good ferry system but when I see the network of ferries in all of Northern Europe we pale by comparison! Thank you for your wonderful blog!
Yes, the Ferry systems are impressive. The rail infrastructure is excellent. And the metro transit systems in even medium sized centers is very good. BC Ferries run a great service but you right that Europe invests deeply in infrastructure.
You and Jennifer ever gonna be anyplace warm? It’s finally warming here in the central US.
Good point on the temperature Eric. We got underway this morning in 34F. The sea water on the swim platform from being underway has frozen. It’s not warm. The upside is it’s an really beautiful area to boat but it’s clear why the locals think there is only a two month season. It’s still quite cold in mid-April.
Hi James,
I’m AWS user and enthusiast living in Riga, Latvia.
MV Dirona is pretty close to us now :)
So I’m thinking is it possible to have a meeting with you in Riga?
It would be great for Latvia AWS user group!
Thanks
Good to hear Riga has an AWS users group. We’ll mostly be in Sweden and Finland this summer with quick visits to tallinn Estonia and St. Petersburg. Sorry we won’t make it to Latvia on this trip.
Hi James. last port of call for Shandong Fu Ren was Norfolk, VA. So maybe it’s good old American coal! Enjoying your blog as usual. My best read of the day.
Thanks
Doug Miller
Cheshire
UK
It’s kind of ironic as the US switches to increased use of gas over coal, we ship the coal elsewhere. The same coal is just being burned somewhere else. I think we’re close to getting to a steady and continuous decline in world coal coal consumption.
Hello, will you come to Mariehamn, Åland at some point this summer?
Yes, we do plan to visit Aland. Haven’t firmly decided on whether will make it to Mariehamn but it seems likely at this point. As I understand it Aland is outside the EU custom zone. Is there a place to get less expensive fuel? We need gasoline and could take on a couple of thousand liters of diesel as well but it’s mostly gasoline for the tender that we need.
I would like to know how you get around the 90-day Schengen limit. We sailed our boat from Newport to Scandinavia and plan to spend a large part of the warmer months in the next few years cruising Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Denmark and Norway. But we have not found a way around Schengen, so this year we are going to Sweden in June but have to be out by same date in September….any news on this would be welcome
Marry a British subject was my trick :-). Other than that, I don’t know of a good solution and, post-Brexit, Jennifer and I will have the same problems you have found. The only solution we have found to get around the 90 days in 180 limit is to get a visa from a Schengen country.
Someone mentioned in the cruisersforum.com, that they had Applied for, and was permitted a (5 year?) temporarily recidence permit for one country within the Schengen. If my memory is correct, the countries mentioned, were Portugal, Spain and Greece.
Maybe it is possible for the other countries as well?
I suspect you are right Trond. The resident visa solution is the best option but it comes with some strings. For example, in Portugal, being a resident means you are taxed as a Portuguese resident which isn’t a show stopper but is a potential issue for those with some form of taxable income.
Clearly a resident visa from an EU country will allow a long term stay in that country but does it also allow a long term stay in any other Schengen country? If it it does, it’s a wonderful solution but our read of the regulations make it appear that a 1 year French resident visa doesn’t grant 1 year stay in any other Schengen country.
Acording to the person who was granted the resident permit, it was restricted for one specific country only.
Yes, that was my read as well. So, even on this plan, you still only get 90 of 180 in the non-visa issuing countries. It’s better than nothing but a fairly high friction way to travel unless you plan to stay in the same country for an extended period. We’re still hoping for a long Brexit delay :-).
And then there is Montenegro… (-;
Everyone we talked to said 7 1/2 months was more than enough. But, I think we could spend years in the Baltic. Great area.
Yes that was what I found so far….I didn’t realize being a British subject helped..
S
It’ll only help us for as long as the UK is part of the EU so our solution is soon to fail us.
France offers a longer term visa, you will need a ‘residency address’ . Many marina’s will allow you to us theirs. The other solution is a residency permit, which is quite easy to obtain, when you show you have enough money to support yourself. Positive thing is EU universal healthcare is very cheap.
Now in broad strokes the negative point. The US is the only (or one of the few) countries who believe in double taxation.
Having a residency permit in the EU, will mean you will pay taxes there. But if your income is from outside the EU and first taxed there, that tax wil count as a credit towards the EU countries taxes.
Now income earned while in the EU wil be taxed in the EU and taxed in the US. ( any tax attorney can provide the exact details)
So as long as you point to entry and exit is the France,and you have applied for the long term tourist visa at the embassy/consulate, you can travel the whole EU.
Now an improved version of James solution is marry a Dutch National :)
Good job of laying out the solution with the caveats and complications Jan. We were concerned there might be one other issue. Using the French resident visa as an example, it’s clear you can be in France and I agree you can travel in the rest of Europe but can you stay in an EU country other than France for more than 90 days? I’m pretty sure the French resident visa doesn’t grant that capability either. Back to the option of marrying a Dutch National I guess :-).
Ok the French visa is for a longer period, up to a year and it requires you to enter and leave via France. On the application they need an address which you use where you stay in France, which could be the marina. Many Australians and Americans use this when they travel Europe by barge.
There is NO border patrol in Europe, only spot checks, and there are ONLY entry and exit stamps.
So NO from a legal point I can not say if you can be longer than 90 days in another EU country.
But with no system in place to check this….. you have your answer.
And yes this is a typical Dutch way of reasoning. We look to the intent of the rule.
There are some good articles and discussions on the forum of the Dutch Barge Association. http://www.barges.org
Makes sense. Without a spot check, it wouldn’t be noticed. Spot checks are close to non-existent for most visitors not having some interaction with local law enforcement but we’ve found a US flagged boat quite attractive to local authorities. Over the last couple of years, we have had spot checks from the UK, Germany, Sweden, and the Dutch officials have visited 4 times. I agree local officials still may not know or even care how long someone has been in country. But, when you are traveling by boat, it’s remarkably how closely many countries track the whereabouts of the boat and where it’s been. Officials often know where foreign flagged vessels are and how long they have been in country. They may not care enough to look but they certainly have the data available if needed.
I agree your suggestion is the best currently available.
Hello James,
I was looking at the picture of you changing the anti-freeze on your generator and something on the fuel line drew my attention.
Just up from the crimp fitting above the 90 it looked like a bubble in the hose. I saved and blew it up but it pixelates so I still can’t tell if it’s actually a bubble or something behind it blending in to give that illusion.
Most likely nothing, but I figured worth mentioning.
Sounds like you two (maybe three hard to tell with a spitfire) are having fun, I know I’m enjoying reading about it.
Good observation Steven. Now that you point it out, I can see the same anomaly. In fact, I can see it so well that I just went down and carefully checked the generator to see what we are both looking at. I can’t really tell. The hoses are both smooth and unblemished all the way around. They appear to be in excellent condition. Thanks for pointing out that anomaly. It was worth checking on it.
All three of us are enjoying Sweden.
Hello: I am an “older” student at Salem State University and enrolled in a Biology course Environmental Problems. For my final exit project in renewable energy, I chose wind turbines at Deer Island and previously in the course spoke briefly about the benefits of wind turbines as opposed to solar and geothermal. I am fortunate to live in Winthrop as well, and was hoping I could have a personalized tour that I could record a short video. If that’s not at all possible, I will try to come out on my own.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Harriet Bornstein
We’re not part of the Deer Island administrative team but they do public tours (http://www.mwra.com/02org/html/faqstidi.htm). You should contact them for more information. We’ve done one of their tours and can confirm they are really well done with considerable detail.
Hi! As a follower I noticed you are approaching my home town of Kalmar, I hope you will have a nice stay! The small Island of Grimskär coming up on your port side is housing a once very secret underground mine station, used from the end of WWII up until the end of the 80’s. Before that the island was used to protect the castle/town and inlets from attacks by sea. Even though the mine station is locked, and only ruins remains from the older structures, the island itself is worth a visit.
Thanks for the recommendation Marcus. We’re enjoying Kalmar enough that we may stay an extra day. Glad you were able to drop by.
Hello James,
I’m glad to see you three on the move again allowing us to live vicariously through your blog.
Looking at the picture of your loudhailer reminded me, you’ve given your feedback on the crimpers but not on the wire strippers.
I had forgotten you recommended the wire strippers as well. They are also working great and bet they have been used a few thousand times since purchasing :-).
We had a really good winter in Amsterdam but it’s great to be back cruising again.
Hi James and Jennifer !
Welcome to Sweden. I have been following you a lot the last year. We are a Nordhavn dreamer. Searching for the “perfect Nordhavn” :-) I love the N52 model and N47.
We are crusing a lot here in Sweden and in Finland, Åland, Estonia. We have a Targa 44 right now and we are based in Stockholm.
Don’t hesitate to ask for some advice when you are visiting Stockholm !
Best regards,
Mikael
Thanks for the offer Mikael — we are interested on any advice you might have for our Stockholm visit. Also, if you are in town when we are there and feel like visiting, your more than welcome. Drop me a note once we are there and we’ll set something up.
Would be great to make a visit if we are in Stockholm when you guys will be here. We are trying to learn as much as possible about the Nordhavns.
Do you already have a approximate schedule for arriving to Stockholm? The city is a fantastic town from may to late september.
Sounds good. We would be happy to show you around Dirona. We expect to arrive in Stockholm June 28 and be there through August 2nd.
Great, James! Keep in touch.
Good, the only problem I’ve ever had with mine are with a whole lot of use the lock has a tendency to engage at aggravating moments. You can remove it entirely or since I carry mine in a backpack and like them closed, backing them with a hard surface and tapping with a hammer to tighten deals with that issue.
I have seen that as well. Thanks for the work work around suggestion.
Hi,
Passed you red to red a few yers ago somewhere in west scotland. Passed you today when you where at anchor nort of Öppenskär with the archipelago ferry. Nice too see your boat again!?
Wow, the last time we met was more than a 1,000 miles away. When you last saw us in Scotland we had only recently arrived from Newport Rhode Island across the North Atlantic. Since that time we have cruised through Scotland, Ireland, Britain, Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Denmark and now Sweden. It’s nice to be back at anchor and we’re really looking forward to our time in Sweden and Finland this summer. Thanks for posting a comment.
The lighter side of lost sea containers.https://globalnews.ca/news/5111356/garfield-phone-mystery-france/
James:
I have always thought that ‘plugs’ that slowly dissolve in seawater would be the answer to floating containers, in that they would eventually sink after filling with seawater
That sounds like a practical idea to me.
Funny. France has a 100 year supply of Garfield phones!
Hi Its me again You are close to Karlskrona – with the beatiful naval museum, and the ancient 5 finger dock (1700-ish).
On the southbank of the Baltic you have – probably on your return – do note the old test site for Hitlers V1 and V2 is still worth a visit – Look in GoogleEarth for “Peenemünde” You can tie up in there and go visit.
If you visit Tallin check this birthday https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Denmark
We did get to the Naval Museum and agree it’s very good. Thanks for the advice. We love getting local help and it often improves our trip.
My husband Wayne and I are having a custom aluminum longe range powerboat built here in Antalya, Turkey. We’ve moved here for the build, and we are nearly a year into the build so far. We are former sailor/cruisers with lots of blue water experience, but with this new adventure, we’re learning how much we still don’t know, especially about voyaging under power. We have been enjoying and learning from your blog for several years now. I’m writing to ask you about your radar set-up. I dug up one early post where you stated that you have a Furuno DRS25A 25kw 6.5′ and DRS6A 6kw 4′ open-array antennas. We are being told by the local Furuno guy that we need at least the FAR 15xx FAR 22xx because, like you, we intend to cruise higher latitudes, and we need the ice capability of the bigger radars. We’d love to know how you would rate the performance of your radars, and if you have ever considered any changes to your original systems.
The FAR series RADARS from Furuno are highly respected commercial RADARS so you really can’t go wrong with them. The downside is they are quite expensive. Furuno charges considerably less for the DRS series and the high end of the DRS series is a 25kw RADAR which is middle of the range for the FAR series. We wanted a 6″ open array and we wanted 25kw. We decided to go with the DRS because it offered comparable power and beam specs, a few less features, but it was less expensive. Generally we’ve been very happy with the DRS25A. I’m sure we would have also been happy with a comparable member of the FAR series. The only limitation I’ve noticed is the DRS series limits operators to 25 MARPA targets. We’re not often in waters that busy but we co occasionally notice this limitation but not often.
We like the capability to check chart accuracy by dropping a RADAR overlay over it. Our DRS25A (or the DRS6a) will overlay easily over the TimeZero display and over the display on the NN3DBB chart plotter. If the FAR series can’t do that, I would go with the DRS. Otherwise, it’s a features and cost decision.
Overall, we’re super impressed with Furuno RADARS in general and really like our DRS25A. 25kw does make a difference — it’s noticeably better than our 6kw.
Greetings from Texas!
I recall that you two had a big Bayliner at some point. I’m looking to spend several years on the “Loops” (US / Canadian). Not much offshore except Bahamas and Great Lakes. I have above average big-boat experience in power and sail. Would not have initially considered Bayliner, but that is probably unfair. Love the layout, amenities, live-ability and at this point, price. Worry about the quality of systems and engine access. And prefer a single but boating is often a compromise.
Any thoughts?
(A response is NOT time-sensitive…but much appreciated.)
Hope all is well.
Cliff
The Bayliner engine choice of Hino and latter Cummins is a good one. The Engines and transmissions are good and if maintained and not overloaded (most are), they will do very well. On overloading, I recommend reading this: https://mvdirona.com/TechnicalArticles/DieselEngineOverload/. The smaller, less important equipment choices are a bit hit and miss. We ran a strategy of replacing with better when we found a part unsuitable to the task. As an example, our windlass was replaced by a newer model from Lewmar that used a motor less prone to overheating. The overall boat and trim isn’t strong and windows aren’t that thick so you shouldn’t have them out in difficult weather, shouldn’t really pound them, or put the in situations that strain the overall structure.
Overall, this might sound negative — they aren’t off shore trawlers — but we put 4,100 hours on a Bayliner 4081 and it performed amazingly well for us. Our great experiences in that boat led to our around-the-world trip.
Hi James,
We’re looking at getting a Selene 49 built, and really appreciate all of the detail you have put into the decisions you all made when getting your boat built. But one area I have questions on is how you handle video entertainment around the boat. I have a few thoughts about how to approach it but I’d love to know how you all handle that.
Thanks!
Alec
The common answer is to use a video server and put all your content on there for watching whenever you are interested. The commercial versions can be very expensive — you can easily pay more than $20k. Another option is the open source Kodi which we use for audio. Kodi has all of our audio content under management on a Synology file server. It works super well. For video, I’m certain it’s quite good as well.
But, whether using Kodi or a commercial video server there is also an investment in time required to get all the video content in whatever forms you have it in, digitized and imported. We like movies but this has always just seemed like too much hassle so we instead combine these two approaches:
1) We get 1 or 2 local cellular SIMs in every local we visit. Then we watch live sports and movies via Prime or Netflix via cellular. Depending upon where you are in the world, pricing ranges between $5/GB and about $20/GB. This model might still be cheaper than a commercial server even if used a lot and it’s super easy. It’s the only option for live sports.
2) For movies, we take a primitive approach that, again, is fairly inexpensive but might seem primitive to many. We buy DVDs like the old days. They are fairly inexpensive and you don’t have to rip them or administer the content. Just chose a video from the shelf and play it. Even though we’ll never watch it again, just buying it in DVD form might actually be more convenient than an open source video platform and it’s almost certainly cheaper than the commercial systems.
Our goal is EASY as a top priority. We’re busy with work, having fun, the blog site, taking care of the boat, etc. and we don’t want to waste time administering video content. We just buy DVDs when we are in North America and our supply is getting low. These we use as backup when not connected or only connected by satellite. When connected by cell, we just use Prime and Netflix the same as you might at home. Where possible we try to make the boat feel like an apartment in a big city from a usability perspective.
Thanks James, makes sense in terms of DVDs vs streaming, and easy as the goal. In terms of the actual media output devices, do you go simple there as well, and have a Fire TV (or similar) and a DVD player connected directly to each monitor?
For DVD, we have an inexpensive Samsung player (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007BYLO4E/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1). For Netflix and Prime, we play through the navcomputer the output of which connects to the entertainment system which plays the audio and send the vidoe to the TV. It’s not a particularily high tech solution but it supports Prime, Netflix, NFL Gamepass, and DVDs to all be played on the surround sound system with a 46″ TV. The TV could be bigger but, otherwise, we like the system.
James,
Like so many others, I’ve greatly enjoyed following your travels. Many thanks for being so generous in sharing your knowledge and experiences.
I am writing today about your Maretron N2kview screen entitled “MvDirona underway”. I’ve been studying it to get ideas for a new Maretron system I am designing. Wow! It contains such a plethora of information. Is there something you would be willing to share that explains each component of that screen?
In any case, could you please tell me more about the 3 boxes in the lower left entitled “Wifi”, “Cell” and “Vsat”. I am currently deploying a communications system similar to yours and it would be useful to have Maretron display information about the 3 communication options in order properly choose among them at any given time and also to see which one is active.
All the best,
Mike
Most of them are self explainatory: Wind Direction, Barometer, Wind Speed, RPM, etc. I’ll give you a run down on the the group that show current router state and, if there are any others where you want more data, happy to add them too. 95% of what’s on that screen can be done with standard Maretron support but the indicators you asked about kind of custom both in the undlying infrastructure and in how it shows on n2kview.
Focusing on the infrastructure, the router is a Netgear R7000 which normally has 1 WAN port, 4 LAN ports, a 2.4Ghz radio, and a 5Ghz radio. This router has been reflashed with an open source router system called DD-WRT. Using DD-WRT, we have reconfigured the router to have 3 WAN, 2 LAN ports and the same two WiFi systems. For WAN ports, we have a Ubiquiti Bullet that connects to an external WiFi antena. That’s the Wifi port. The second is the Cellular port, and the third is the KVH V7hts satellite port. We have on router software that gives software control over which WAN to use use automatically chooses the least expensive option that is currently working. The router can be configured through a web page from any device on (or off) the boat to use a specific WAN or automatically switch between them
Now looking at the N2kview screen, if the WiFi is unavailable then that indicator light is black. If available but not in use, the indicator is white. If available and in use, the indicator is green. Same three colors for the Cell and VSAT indicators beside it. Below the WiFi indicator is the “Mode” indicator. If it’s Blue, then the router has been configured via a web page to be manually on a given WAN port. If it’s yellow, the router is automatically keeping the boat connected to the least expensive wan port. If the indicator is green, the router is again automatically choosing but it’ll only use WiFi or Cellular. If all that is left is the satellite, it’ll allow me to access the boat remotely, it’ll allow the boat to send out warnings or alerts, but no other connectivity is supported. It’s green because it’s the low cost. The yellow option is more risky since, if you are streaming a movie and the cellular goes out, it’ll just keep working but at 20X the communications costs :-).
As I said earlier, 95% of what is on the n2kview screen can easily be be done with standard Maretron equipment but the router indicators lights would be fairly complex. It would require a router with the support I described, the ability programaticaly access and change the configuration and you would need some way to set N2kview indicators through a SIM100. What I do is the custom software writes the router state onto the NMEA2000 bus.
If you need more data on any of the other N2kview widgets, let me know.
Thanks for the information, James. I was afraid that the router data would be a bit more difficult to acquire. I agree that most of the other data is self-explanatory.
We hope to cruise the Scandinavian countries in a few years and will follow your travels there with interest.
All the best,
Mike
You’ll love your planned Scandinavian cruise. It’s an incredible area.
In Denmark, if time and schedule permits, you might want to visit the “Lion park” (zoo): https://www.givskudzoo.dk/en
If we have time on our way back from Sweden and Finland, we’ll do it then. Thanks Trond.
When returning from the Baltic, you might consider the Gota Canal through Sweden to Gothenburg:
https://www.gotakanal.se/en/pleasure-boat/
Yes, that’s the plan. After Sweden, we’ll do a pass through the canal.
Hello, James, I thought you were going via Heligoland to take on fuel. However you only seem to have been there for a couple of hours & the remaining fuel figures do not appear to have increased ??
I see the fuel remaining figure is now showing as 1691 gallons so please disregard my earlier comment. Mal D
We’ll have a look at why we don’t show fueling in the on-boat telemetry and, if it’s not too much work, we’ll make the change.
Yes, you are right. We took the 20 mile detour to get duty free fuel before entering the Kiel Canal. We only need 3,500 liters — about 1/2 our fuel load — but we figured it’s easy and saves quite a bit. I’m not sure why we don’t show the rising fuel level. It’s either a but we don’t make fuel records when we’re not underway. We’ll have a look at it.
Re the lost shipping containers, perhaps they should be fitted with AIS!
Not a bad idea Jamie. AIS transmission is getting pretty inexpensive but, since only the refrigeration containers are powered, powering the AIS would be the challenge. Transmitting takes quite a bit of power.
James, I am considering plumbing to the gear reduction on the main and wing on our N60 build as the oil change manifold has the extra ports. Do you feel this is worthwhile? Also, considering using the anchor wash hydraulic pump with a Y valve as an additional bilge emergency pump. The latter of course would normally be in the bilge position so whenever wash I would have to switch manually.
Yes, I did the same thing. On the oil manifold I have wing, wing trans, main, main trans, and gen. On the washdown pump, most hydraulic boats have a dedicated emergency bilge pump and many also have a washdown pump. For the cost, I would get the dedicated emergency bilge pump. Having the washdown pump as an additional backup isn’t a problem but I wouldn’t personally use that to replace the dedicated emergency bilge pump.
I should have been more specific on the bilge pump, we are getting the Pacer (I believe) Emg Bilge Pump. I was considering using the anchor wash with a Y for an ADD Emg Bilge Pump. I’ve been told by Steve D’A that this has been done but I also worry about its ability to hold a prime as I haven’t entirely investigated it’s position or even where I would locate the suction. I suppose also, locating and accessing the Y valve could also be troublesome.
I understood you are thinking of using the anchor wash as a bilge pump and anchor wash by putting a Y in the input. My response was: most hydraulic equipped boats, install a dedicated pacer hydraulic bilge pump and some chose to also install a pacer anchor wash. You could go with the anchor wash only using your Y-valve to serve as a bilge pump. It’ll work but I personally would just put in two dedicated pumps for bilge and anchor wash.
If you were planning to put in both pumps, you could as an additional level of defense put a Y in the anchor wash. This effectively gives you two hydraulic bilge pumps. I’m not sure it’s worth the complexity but it’ll work fine and I’m not against doing it. What I personally wouldn’t do is delete the dedicated bilge pump and rely on the anchor wash.
Hi there James and Jen . I’ve been looking at these nordhavns and the 52 is my favorite also I wanted to ask you guys you still love the nordhavn still now that you’ve had a chance to really get to know it and also what do you think of the John deer diesel motor ? Thanks
It’s a timely question. Jennifer and I were just talking about this. Our “new” boat is 9 years old this February. It’s gone 70,000 miles and run more than 10,200 hours. It’s crossed every ocean in the world and the Atlantic twice. The boat goes for periods where it’s a coastal cruiser. It goes through periods where it’s essentially a downtown apartment in a world class city like Amsterdam, Sydney, or London. It goes through periods where it’s running 24×7 crossing an ocean. It has spent time around the equator. It’s spent time way up above the Arctic Circle. It’s been equally comfortable at both extremes. There are places where the boat looks gigantic relative to other boats in the marina and there have been places where it was among the smallest. The longer we boat, the more we learn and usually, as you learn, there are aspects of the original purchasing decision that don’t age well. Usually a decade of learning grows a very long list of changes for the “next boat”. Some people buy a boat, conclude it’s “wrong” and sell in under a year. Some go 3 years before needing to apply all they have learned into another boat that is closer to perfect for them. A very small number go 10 years before deciding to get out of boating. Next week we’re heading out on the beginning of our 10th year of cruising on Dirona and it’s still amazingly well adapted to all the use cases described above. And it’s still immune to all the problems that typically befall boat ownership described above. It’s still a good strong boat without frustrating recurring service issues. It’s still exposing us amazing experiences and it’s still just as reliable and just as trustworthy as day one. We’re still happy with the boat.
One of the things that amazes me most is if I send mail or call Nordhavn with a question, they jump on it. They act like it’s a new boat still under warranty. They always seem to find time to help. Overall, it’s been an life changing purchase for us.
The Deere is also “hitting on cylinders”. It’s gone 10,200 hours and the reliability is incredible. Its never had a coolant pump or alternator service. It’s still beautiful and white and not covered in oil. The injectors went 9,000 hours before replacement, under warranty, it only had a cam position sensor replaced. It gets a new drive belt every 4 years or so, the air filter needs cleaning every 3 to 6 months, and it gets fluids and filters when called for. Overall, the 6068AFM75 has been an amazing example of how little maintenance a well engineered diesel engine really requires.
When changing the injectors, we needed a tiny O-ring in the South of England so we drove out to a agricultural dealer and walked through their service department on the way to the parts department. Every tractor, combine and other mechanized piece of John Deere agricultural equipment we walked past had a 6068. I was expecting more of the bigger engines in some of these big agricultural machines but they were all 6068s. No wonder our engine does so well. There are many out there around the world in very demanding applications and it’s been like that for decades. It’s a great engine.
We continue to be happy with both our Deere and our Nordhavn nearly a decade after new. They both have reliably carries us through an amazing set of experiences.
James,
For us this is a very reassuring response. We have N5279 currently being built, and while my investigations prior to signing the purchase order indicated this was a good decision, it’s pleasing to hear from someone with ten years experience.
I also appreciated you taking the time to write the blog post on range and fuel options. Excellent information as we develop our initial cruising plans.
Peter
Congratulations on buying a Nordhavn 52. Seeing the build number up at 79 is reassuring for us as well. Good to see. When we bought N5263, 5260 was being built and it was lengthened 47 without most of the new features planned for the 52. We love the new features especially the 200 more gallons of fuel but, as an ex-auto mechanic, I know the first build of anything no matter how well thought through it may be, there are always has some teething issues.
We weren’t in a rush and figure we should take the third member of the N52 fleet so we took 63. The funny thing is there was a bit of an economic slow down at the time and neither 5261 nor 5262 sold. Ours ended up being the first build and both 61 and 62 were built many months after 63. It all worked out well, we have really enjoyed the boat, and it’s exciting to hear that N5279 is currently in build. The 47/52 series has become pretty successful and are getting close to the build numbers of the iconic N46.
hello James,
did you noticed that a few nordhavn delivered to England had SCANIA engines and none in US or Australia ?
Scania makes boat engines for working boat, patrol boat, army, ferry and so on..
I look forward and found that they use by example on a 60feet a 500hp with a 12.7 liters at 1800rpm continious output. That means, i guess, that your cruising speed is your full speed, in fact you have only one speed… you can use the maximum displacement speed of your hull.
Scania is a swedish truck manufacturer from more a century and if nordhavn put their engines on the option list maybe they could fit well in the nordhavn way of travelling.
hope the wind will decrease for you…
We’re super happy with our John Deere but Scania’s are very nice engineered engines with great reputations. There have been some purchased into markets other than the EU. For example, I met the owner from Australia who ordered a Nordhavn 52 with a Scania — I thought at the time it was a decision and, the more I look at Scania, the more I like many of their design choices. I particularly like their use of bypass oil filtration by Centrifuge with 500 hour change intervals. I’ve been tempted to add that option to our Deere to push it’s oil change intervals out. Deere has approved this approach selectively in some mining applications so there are at least some bypass systems that work well enough for Deere approval. Tempting but oil change intervals never quite make it up high on my list of biggest problems list and I’m slightly nervous about the negative impact of a failing centrifuge regardless of how unlikely that fault might be.
I agree that Scania has a nice engine and I think they will do well in the displacement trawler market. One thing I’ve not checked on is their parts prices — when I checked on Volvo parts costs, it was an eye opener. Assuming Scania parts are priced reasonably, they look like a good choice for this sort of boat.
tell me if i’m wrong: when you have a 1800rpm continious rating, you cruise at let’s say 10 knots at 1800rpm for days… and when you have a deere which is 2400rpm full trottle at 10 knots you cruise maybe 8 knots at 2000rpm. So continous rating is not the best deal ?
You are right and do we run our Deere that way. The 6068AFM75 M1 is continuous rated at 231HP at 2300 RPM. We never use more than than. Max speed on Dirona is 9.5 kts and we won’t exceed that at any reasonable power above 230hp. One of the things we like about our engine is we often run for long periods of time at fairly high power when coastal cruising. We like that we’re always within it’s continuous power rating.
On the 52, once you get to 210 to 220 hp continuous, you are basically running at hull speed and aren’t going to go much faster if any with another 100hp. Once you have full hull speed at the engines continuous rating, you’re in pretty good shape from my perspective and there isn’t much more you can do.
I remember that roadtrip to the John Deere dealer fondly James! Congratulations on getting to Denmark. I loved your Kiel Canal video and am excited to follow your summer cruising. Warm regards, Kate
Hi Kate! Thanks for the feedback on the video. The O-rings you helped us get on our UK adventure continue to work well. We appreciate your help with that service operation. We’re underway this morning and expect to be in Sweden this afternoon. All the best!
While you are in the Netherlands, and given your interest in all things technological, you might consider checking out VR Arcade of Delfgauw, located between the Hague and Rotterdam. There they have established a state of the art location-based VR arcade game. The two initial themes (Zombie Apocalypse and Alien Defense) may not appeal to you but the technology could well do so. That is provided by a company called Vicon (a subsidiary of Oxford Metrics) who specialize in high precision motion measurement for industries as disparate as life sciences and Hollywood.
I read through there web site. Looks pretty interesting. It looks like there are also VR Arcades in the Amsterdam area: https://www.vrarcade.nl/locations/amsterdam. A couple of weeks back I noticed a bunch of VR equipmnet in an office window near us. It’s a VR game publisher only a block away from where we are currently moored (Vanguard Games). Thanks for the pointer.
Dear James & Jennifer,
(i’ve send you an email, but just discovered you rather receive messages here.)
I hope you are enjoying Amsterdam, and the rest of The Netherlands so far.
This really is a huge coincidence, as I got on to your YouTube Channel, via which I eventually got to your website, on which I saw you are actually are in Amsterdam. Which happens the place where I and my girlfriend live.
I am completely amazed by your extensive journey, Alaska, California, Hawaii, Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Barbados, Ireland, Scandinavia, and so on..
My girlfriend and I (both are 30 years old) are figuring out, and exploring various way to go and explore and make extensive sailing trips. We have been looking at some sailing vessels, but my girlfriend rather does this on a motor vessel, so i eventually got via Fleming and Selene’s to Nordhavn’s. I work myself for Feadship, and saw you already had a visit of a Heritage Fleet owner whom I have met as well on one of our events.
Long story short, (which is already getting into a long story) we would love to come and visit you, to talk about your journeys for us to get even more inspired to push through this dream of ours, to make dreams into reality. To learn more about Nordhavn and its operations and maintenance. And take you out for an easy dinner, or returning you the favor of welcoming you to our home, which seems completely logical as im asking to see your home too. ;-) And of course we can give some tips on nice things to do and see in The Netherlands.
Kind regards, and really hope for a reply. And very curious until when you are staying in Amsterdam (or The Netherlands, as it is rather small like you guys most have figured out by now ;-)
Again, kind regards,
Chantal & Folkert
Hello Folkert and Chantel. Sure, you are welcome to come by and talk boats and tour Dirona. We’re leaving for Finland and Sweden in a week but we’ll be back in November if you can’t drop by in the next week or so. Best time for us is around 4pm on some day where we plan to be around the boat. Drop me a note at jrh@mvdirona.com and we’ll figure out what mutual fits our schedules.
Good Morning James/Jennifer. I have read your crane controller bits. How happy are you with this solution (I know it hasn’t been long). My controller is not responding. I replaced the pigtail this morning and that didn’t solve the problem so, I will move on to the controller.
Having read your solution, I am wondering if I should change tack . . . Jinhee flies over in 4 days and I can get that controller on a plane with her. I would need the other bits too for the wiring.
So are you happy, is everything working well? Do you suggest having both solutions (SM controller and wireless) or are you comfortable with just the wireless controller?
Thanks!!
In some ways the wired controller is a bit easier to use. Just a bit more convenient button layout for single handed operation. But, the wireless unit has the advantage of not be tethered to the crane so that’s what we use. The way ours is set up, we can run either the wired or wireless controller. We use the wireless but have the wired as a backup in case of failure.
Using the pin out I show in the article above you can run the crane with jumper cables. Take a jumper form the 24V+ pin and connect it to each of proportional, pump, and feature at the same time will cause the feature to operate. The power to pump, turns on the pump. The power to proportional opens that valve. The power to any single feature connection (e.g boom up) will cause that valve to open and, in the case of this example, the boom will go up. I find it super useful to be able to drive the crane without a remote control as a way to debug if the wireless remote (or wired pendant) is at fault or the problem is in the crane and/or wiring. It’s even easier to figure out if you have both a wired and wireless controller.
Using the wiring data I posted above, you can test the crane without the pendant or test the pendant without the crane. It took me a while to get this data all figured out but, once that’s been done, it’s pretty easy to test. I chose to order an extra Deutch connector pigtail to make this testing easier: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H3N21MD/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1.
Given how unreliable the wired pendants appear to be, I would install a wireless unit and having an extra pigtail around makes testing easier if you encounter another problem.
Thank you, I will review the wiring in more detail this evening and try to get both setup. I will also try to rewire my pendant. The issue is probably in the wiring near the pigtail. (Sometimes, with just the right manipulation I can get a signal to the pistons!)
I appreciate your feedback and the fact that you share all of this information.
The most common pendant fault by a very large margin is the proportional trigger proximity switch fails or goes intermittent. A quick and easy work around for this fault is to connect the 24V+ feed to the pump solenoid to also feed the proportional valve. It’s easy to put a jumper between these two connections at the pump. Once you have done that, the proportional switch and trigger are no longer needed and the system will now work in non-proportional mode. I ran like this for 8 years before putting proportional back in place when I got the new wireless controller.
That’s good to know. I will perhaps try that in the morning before ordering a new pendant.
Thank you.
James, can I check my diagnosis with your experience? This morning I took apart the hand controller/pendant. I can’t figure out what kind of sensor that trigger is, perhaps a proximity sensor. In any case, I cleaned things with a toothbrush (it was very clean, it is stored in the pilothouse) and put it back together.
I tried it on the crane and got better results (not indicative). But here is the part where my finding separate from the probable failure thesis of the trigger. When I press a button (not the trigger) it engages the hydraulics, the trigger simply sets up the proportional component. When I was pressing buttons, it sometimes would engage and sometimes not. This implies to me that my problem is wiring and not the trigger. It also explains the anecdotal “it was better this time” which is completely unpredictable with a wiring defect.
If you have any insights or conflicting analysis, I would take it gratefully.
I can’t get the bits to a Canadian address to add the wireless for this trip, in time. I am not sure I can get a new pendant from SM before Wednesday either so I may have to live with uncertainty for a while longer.
A nice simple and very definitive test is to unplug the pendant and carefully run tests at where the Pendant plugs into the crane. Ensure that pin #1 has 24V+ and that pin #15 is ground. If that’s not the case, you have a wiring issue on the crane side. Take a jumper from pin #1 to pin #10 momentarily and the pump should go on. If that works, run the jumper from pin #1 momentarily to pin#9 (proportional), pin#10 (pump), and pin#5 (boom up). If the boom goes up, you have a pendant problem. It’s really that easy to figure out where the issue is.
Will do.
I just posted a message on the NOG, you don’t happen to have a temperature sensor in the stack do you? I am trying to figure out what normal temps look like in there. My muffler is kaput, and I am working on a plan to get me moving but I want to monitor closely if I do.
Thanks
The air exiting the area between the inner and outer pipe on the port side of the stack is up over 250F at full load. Expect the outside of the outer pipe will run around that temp. The exhaust at full load is around 850F but it’s less at lighter loads.
Permatex Muffler and Tailpipe sealer, some clamps and some sheet metal scraps or even metal tape and you’ll be able to get it sealed well enough to make progress to where you can get it fixed right.
James: I see you are using one of the Midtronix MDX 600 series units to test your dinghy starter battery. Will that unit test deep cycle batteries such as the Trojan 105s? Also, I have the Northstar NSB210s with 2300 Marine Cranking amps for my Bow Thruster. It’s a 4D AGM for high cranking applications. Would the Midtronix be suitable for that battery?
It’ll test the T-105s fine. The max CCA test on the Midtronicx MDX-640 is 2000 CCA is 2000 (also 2000 Marine cranking amps) so it won’t be able to precisely check your Northstar.
Hello James,
Concerning your “frozen” picture:
Does your water source heat pumps draw directly through the hull for each individual heat pump or is there a water loop involved? Around here it’s a simple matter to install a small auxillary heater to heat the water loop to 65-70 F to keep them heating though the winter when the loop temperatures drop.
Hey Steve. I often think of you when using my Klien crimpers.
The HVAC cooling system is all flowing from a single central pump. Given the volume of water flowing, I would think it would take quite a bit of heat even though it would only need a few degrees of increase. Which heaters have you seen used.
Separately, did you see that after I had changed the T&P valve on my water heater, it continued to leak just as much. I did the planning and some buying to install an expansion tank. But, before installing, I decided to replace the new T&P valve “just in case”. It worked! It’s not often that the new part is as bad as the old one but it looks like I got a bad part this time.
When I saw how many times your old crimpers were being used for various projects I couldn’t help but think you’d enjoy that style of crimper so I’m glad you like them.
I saw that replacing your T&P fixed your leak which is good. Expansion is evidently designed into the system already. I can’t think of the last time I saw a bad T&P out of the box but in a world of mass production bad parts will occur you were just either lucky enough, or unlucky enough to get one. Lucky in the aspect you tried replacing it again first, since everyone else was pointing you down another path.
In the water source heat pump systems I deal with you are correct in assuming it doesn’t take much auxillary heat to maintain winter operation in relation to the size of the systems. I’ve seen everything from a 150 watt heating element for a small motor bank to multiple 1 million BTU condensing boilers for a college campus. The big difference is what I see are all closed loop systems which I am not sure is applicable to Dironia.
I’ve wondered about that multiple times but obviously not enough to ask even though I’ve looked once or twice on the internet to no avail. If the water going to your heat pumps is in a closed loop using a heat exchanger that then uses raw water to add or remove BTU’s, given the total BTU’s of your system I could point you to a inline heating element that would give you the choice of staying on your heat pumps and not running your fuel oil heater at least while you were in a marina. Then if you had space and wanted to you could intall a small calorifier to heat that loop with the engine while underway in cold climates.
If you are using raw water and dumping it over the side for the entire process then of course the size and energy requirements may not make it worth the effort since depending on injection temperatures you may be needing to raise the temperature 20F rather than 2-3F.
Steve, your are right that new parts being faulty is rare. So rare, that it’s easy to get stuck in “it must be something else” — I only tried changing it because it’s easy and I like to have a spare on board anyway.
You’re right the HVAC cooling system is open loop so heating wouldn’t make sense. I had forgotten that the vast majority of the worlds HVAC systems were closed loop and a tiny amount of heat would solve that one. If I felt really inventive I could plumb a variable bypass where I run closed loop when it’s really cold and, as the water in the loop warms, progressively bypass less and use a higher percentage of outside water. It would work but it’s probably not worth the complexity and hassle.
57F here in Amsterdam and bright and sunny. It’s starting to feel like it’s time to head north again!
It’s been a severe winter here, I know I’m ready for it to end.
I’ve enjoyed reading about your explorations in and around Amsterdam but I’m also looking forward to posts about your travels North :)
Love the blog and have thoroughly enjoyed many of your videos. Especially enjoyed watching one of your ocean crossing videos, I think from 2017. How do you accurately measure wave height [while underway]? I find myself struggling to do that while cruising in the Puget or Georgia Sounds. Also, just rewatched your “AWS re:Invent 2016: Tuesday Night Live” video. I’m not sure which I enjoy more – your boating or AWS videos. All of them are so entertaining, and informative. I’m a big AWS fan.
Thanks David. I also think it’s hard to measure wave height with precision. What we do is 1) keep in mind that just about everyone overestimates waves they are experiencing especially at night, 2) when we can cross reference our estimates with a weather buoy data, we do it, 3) short duration waves appear larger and long duration waves shrink, and 4) use parts of the boat with known heights as a reference point to check wave height.
Hi Again. What travel log software do you use. My wife and I will be going away next month and would like to share with close friends our routes.
For personal tracks (when we are away from the boat) we use Google My Tracks on an Android phone. It’s since been discontinued but they open sourced the code when the stopped supporting it and so we did a private build and use that. For boat tracking we have a very elaborate system that logs all boat data every 5 seconds. A subset of that is uploaded to Amazon Web Services where we show it using custom code integrated into to our Word Press-based web site.
My recommendation is to use Spot or Delorme InReach — both are easy to use commercial systems that do what you want.
James,
Leslie and I met you at the Seattle party. Great to meet you and Jennifer. We are just about 30 days out of taking delivery of a new 63 and I noted your comments on the black water sensor. Just wanted to get one last update on how it’s working before we begin the process of installing our Maretron system. Still working ok?
Congratulations on the 63 that is on it’s way. Wonderful boat. Yes, the black water sensor is amazing. Very precise and it works 100% of the time never a glitch. Short term it’s a proven winner. Over the long term, I’m pretty sure it’ll eventually need cleaning. If it goes 2 years between services, I’m thrilled. I can live with 1 year. But it’s too early to know how long it’ll last.
I’m pretty optimistic that this is a good design and it’ll deliver more than a year between service and quite possibly longer.
Hi James & Jennifer,
I’m the guy with the white beard that stopped you at the BoatsAfloat show in Seattle and gushed about your blog. Every word I meant. It has a been an inspiration to Maria and me as we set our retirement plans into motion. I wish I would have had the composure to ask you all the questions about your North Atlantic passage that I have, but I was, admittedly a bit flummoxed at actually seeing you there. Thanks for taking the time to talk. It was a pleasure to meet you.
Kind regards,
Jon Bennett
MV Sonder (formerly 10&2)
It was a pleasure meeting you as well and we appreciate your feedback on the blog.
Hi James
Apologies if I am asking this in the wrong place. I have followed your videos and adventures with interest recently. I wondered how much sailing or other marine experience you both had before you purchased Dirona and set off on your epic trip. I particularly enjoyed seeing you arrive in Liverpool as its my home town, best wishes
Steve
For about 10 years before purchasing Dirona, we coastal cruised on our previous boat along the Washington and British Columbia coast line. During this time we wrote numerous magazine articles and and a cruising guide while racking up 4,100 main engine hours. We elected to get Dirona to be able to go far greater distances and we wanted a boat able to take on more difficult weather at lower risk. We’ve now cruised 10,200 main engine hours on Dirona and, during that time, crossed every ocean and we’re currently in Amsterdam.
Hello James,
I noticed from your “snow covered Dirona” pic that you don’t keep the cap on your main engine exhaust anymore. I assume it’s because of the auto start in case of shore power failure.
What I was wondering is have you noticed an increase in stack debris discharge or has the low Sulphur diesel pretty much eliminated that?
Good eye Steve. Most Nordhavn owners use an exhaust cover. We didn’t for the first two years we owned the boat and got some sooting at times. Then we started to use the exhaust cover and, initially,it “seemed” better but I kind of wonder if it wasn’t at least partly psychological. When you do something active, it seems at least partially effective. With the cover or without, deck sooting seems to happen occasionally. It’s not that bad without the cover and it’s not that good with it but it does SEEM to help.
With the past couple of years of low sulfur fuel, the incidence of sooting is way down and so we pretty much stopped putting the cover on. And, now that we have the main engine as a backup generator, it’s always possible it’ll turn on so we shouldn’t cover it. t could possibly melt the cover and make a mess in the unlikely event that the engine was started.
Will you sleep while underway on auto pilot at night, or is there someone always at dog watch?
We always have someone on the helm and we also use a watch timer that needs to be touched every 8 min to ensure we don’t inadvertently fall asleep. The watch timer shows a yellow light at 8 min, a red light at 9 min, a gentle beep at 9 min 45 seconds, a medium volume alarm at 10 min, and really loud alarm that will wake everyone on the boat at 11 min.
Love your site and posts.
My wife and I are considering upgrading from our 340 cruiser and are wondering how best to budget for this $$?. Fuel is pretty straight forward. I think we worry more about major failure costs? Any suggestions on making sure that there is enough cash flow/savings available for potential failures while underway?
I’ve kept working full time so we continue to have cash flow to make major failures easier to live with but that wasn’t the intent when we started trip planning. The original plan is I would quit and would sell the house and car and fun the big failures as they came along. We did sell the house and the car but I did stay working so we could manage larger failures without it being so hard on the finances. But, there have few big issues and none have been very expensive. We do major out-of-the-water service every couple of years. We have had some major faults like the crane failure. After 9 years we replaced the tender. So, yes, there are expenses but the expensive mechanical systems have been very reliable over the last 10,000 operating hours and so we aren’t seeing any big surprises. Eventually the engine will need an overhaul but I would expect it would get 15,000 hours at minumum and it might easily go more than 20,000 hours. Most boats will never even get close to 10,000 hours.
My only suggestion is to buy a strong boat engineered for high hour operation and to buy the smallest boat that has the space you need for your trip plans. Our goal was to chose a boat we could afford so service wasn’t back breaking. Generally, we’re conservative in our decisions and it really helps keep the surprises to a minimum.
James:
When mounting new hardware externally, such as the new side lights, how do you seal the hole? A dab of silicone on the screw/bolt? Or?
I used to always use 3M 5200 but, more recently, I mostly use white silicon calk.
lucky@outcastcrew.com
Hey James,
We are Dawn & Lucky Read. We currently live on our 43′ sailboat, which we love. But, we also love Nordhavn’s. And, I love reading your blog–great stuff, and I learn a lot.
Anyway, I was hoping you had a simple answer to how you are able to use google maps on your travel blog. I just LOVE the way you have incorporated it.
We are hoping to cut our dock lines later this year, and would love to incorporate something similar for our family and friends.
Our current website is on the Wix format, and I’m not even sure if it’s possible, but I thought I’d at least ask.
Keep up the adventure, and posting. You guys are great.
Hope to meet you OUT THERE one of these days.
Lucky Read
That sounds like a very good plan. On the real time tracking software, it’s part of what has become a very large integrated system. The work has it’s roots back nearly 25 years ago on our last boat where I got tired of NMEA 0183 multiplexers failing. I designed my own multiplexer. Then since my software was touching all network packets, I started to store all the data in a database. Then I started writing apps against this database.
That same architecture is still there today. We have software that writes all NMEA2000 data to the database, 5 Raspberry Pis that send digital input data from throughout the boat to the database, a monitoring program that gets data not captured by the Pis and not accessable on the NMEA2000 bus and this program stores the data in the database as well. All data from all over Dirona is stored every 5 seconds in a database and that’s been like that for many years. We write applications against this database to support power load shedding, generator autostrart, warning, alerting, and email notification, remote monitoring, and to extract the data used to support this website (mvdirona.com). Jennifer made modifications to WordPress to allow this data to be displayed using Google maps. We also have a real time tracking system running on Android that tracks us when we are not on the boat and that data is also integrated onto the web site using custom code. It all works well but it’s very specific to the equipment and design that we have on Dirona and it would be challenging to port to other configurations. My recommendations would be to use Delorme Inreach or Spot to get your real time tracking.
Excellent!
I was assuming you might be using WordPress. I tried it, but found it to be too cumbersome. The Wix platform is WYSIWYG, and SOOOOO simple. Of course it does have it’s limitations. It will allow for HTML code, if and when the need arrises.
Until then, I believe we will most likely use the Spot system, as we have a couple of friends that use that as well.
Thank you so much for your response.
Look forward to following your journey, and possibly meeting up someday.
Happy Voyaging.
I had a look at the Wix platform web site and it looks pretty good and with more than 11 million web site, there is good critical mass behind the engineering effort. Friends using Spot have also reported good results with a nice web page showing location and route similar to what we did.
James and Jennifer, we are deep into the specification of the N6081 and I must say this has been 100’s of hours on my part just reading data sheets and O&M Manuals and going over every decision over and over again. We are getting close on the mechanical and hull essentials. Exhausting but fun! I wanted to thank you for your ideas and replies from your site. Without the help of yourselves and others I feel I would have made several errors.
Good to hear Eric. Most of the design features we have discussed where done after the original build of Dirona. Your approach of doing it at build time is far more efficient but I know it requires a ton of research.
James, I think you know Steve D’Antonio. We are going to use his help some in China and perhaps during commissioning. I would consider myself a pretty good engineer but discovering problems/concerns on boats isn’t what I get paid for nor would consider myself completely qualified. I am hoping he will save us money, time and maybe even our life.
Steve is incredibly knowledgeable and can both catch system design issues that we both might miss and he can help to help find the best solutions where there are design alternatives.
Hi James, with reference to your latest project – I recently implemented a soft start modification to N4736 and it has been a great success. It was well worth the effort.
I managed to fit the additional equipment into the existing shore power enclosure inside the cockpit locker. It keeps the installation neat and tidy. The total cost of the modification was around £35. I used a 25 Ohm 50W resistor and a 25A contactor.
Before the modification I would get a text from the boat almost every week saying that the power had gone off (lots of power interruptions happening externally). The pontoon would then have its power restored but my 32A supply would then trip out on the restoration of the shore power. The MCB on the 32A supply would trip at least once in about every three power cuts! There does not need to be any load on the supply as the inrush from the large inductance winding on the 12KVA isolation transformer was all it took. Marinas tend to fit ‘type B’ MCBs.
Since the modification my pontoon MCB has never tripped.
If you like I can send a photo of the finished installation, just let me know.
Regards, Ian.
Your blog is wonderful – keep it up.
Love it! I’m taking a very similar approach but I’m limiting current down a bit further than you do since I often plug in into very low amperage shore power connections (sometimes down around 10A or lower). I’m using a 40 ohm, 100W resistor but the rest of the approach is pretty similar. I’ve got a timer on the contactor to keep it in circuit for 500msec but the 14 msec delay in the contactor itself is probably fine without the timer. The house load is brought online 10 seconds after the shore power becomes available.
I’m about 80% done with the new control box completed and installed with the power leads in a loop waiting for another nice day for outside work. All that needs to be done to complete the job is to connect the input leads to the shore breaker and the other side on the feed to the isolation transformer. It’s good to hear you are happy with your configuration given how similar what you have done is to what I’m putting in on Dirona. We’re really looking forward to eliminating spurious shore power breaker openings.
Hi James. As a retired airline pilot and now teach pilots to fly biz jets I use Garmin avionics. I was wondering if you knew or had heard from others about Garmin in Marine world. We hope to build if we can or buy used Nordhavn once I finally retire. If building I’m tempted to use Garmin. Thank you. You guys motivate us with your travels! Keep it going! ??
Garmin is massive in the business jet market and seem to be getting traction in the small boat market. I never see them on cruise ships and other large commercial vessels, they aren’t super common on the fish boat fleets, but they do seem to be getting traction in the small recreational boat market in the US. I’ve seen them used fairly heavy in small law enforcement boats as well.
Our leanings were toward the gear used by the Alaska fish boat fleet and many commercial vessels so went with Furuno. Generally we prize reliability so look to the professional fishing industry to get a read on what they depend upon.
Thank you James!
Visiting Amsterdam and just saw the Dirona docked west of central station. I would love to come say hi before i return to California tue am
Sure. Just drop me email at jrh@mvdirona.com and let me know if something like 4PM Monday afternoon works for you.
James: for stainless steel fabrication you can try
http://WWW.tatasteel.nl#
I’m all set up on this job but thanks for the reference Gary.
Best wishes to you both for the coming year. We hope your cruising is safe and exciting.
Mike & Trish Taggart
Thanks Mike and Trish. New Years in Amsterdam is certainly a great way to start 2019. The Dutch LOVE their fireworks. We spent the run up to New Years walking around Amsterdam and then brought in the New Year on a pier near our boat where we had a nice place to sit with a glass of wine enjoying the entire sky full of fireworks.
Happy New Year Jennifer and James,
FYI, there is a recently opened Chihuly exhibit at the Groninger Museum in Groningen, it’s up until May. All the best from Bamfield BC!
It’s great to hear from a Bamfield resident. You live in one of our favorite locations on the west coast of Vancouver Island but it’s been a long time. We spent Christmas 2011 anchored in Grappler Inlet near you: https://mvdirona.com/Trips/BarkleySound2011/BarkleySound2011.html.
We last saw some of Chihuily’s work at the Tacoma Glass Museum. Thanks for pointing out the exhibit in Groningen and all the best in 2019.
Full disclosure, we are West Seattleites but still have my grandparents house here in Bamfield, came up for the holidays. I started following you guys just before your trip to Grappler and sent you an email at that time saying I thought your GPS posit was off as I didn’t think anyone without extensive local knowledge would have the “stones” to take a boat as big as Dirona that far back into the inlet!
We do remember getting a note from you basically saying “you can’t possibly be where your AIS says you are.” And,you are right, it was a big of a slow nail biter to work our way in but it’s a great spot. We were pretty proud of ourselves for finding a path in without touching bottom but, when the boat was next lifted out of the water I noticed there was a few inch wide set of scrapes in the bottom paint all along the keel from bow to stern. Looks like “nearly” touched bottom might have been even closer than we thought :-).
We’re looking forward to a fun 2019 in Sweden and Finland. All the best to you in 2019!
James and Jennifer
All the best for 2109. Await your postings with great anticipation
Happy New Year Rod.
Hello James,
Seeing you hooked to the crane reminds me of something that happened once. While using a sign company truck to lift me up so a repair could be made the dang thing quit while extended with no way to lower it without the engine to power the cable reel. Luckily it had a ladder on the boom I could climb down and get it restarted for the guy.
I’ve noticed you’ve used that method in several posts and works well when it does however, you might want to work out a contingency plan with Jennifer :)
There are definitely some downsides to the crane assisted lift system. And, currently we don’t have a backup control system so your point is even more timely. Getting me safely down on a crane control system failure would be challenging. I suspect we would go with a rope up through the safety tie off eye and back down to me with Jen belaying from the boat deck. It wouldn’t be fast :-).
James, reading your post about waxing/polishing the boat in Amsterdam I was wondering if you have tried any of the newer tech “nano” waxes? Some of the companies which produce ceramic coatings also produce easier to use sprey versions. Gtechniq is one I’ve tried (liquid crystal v2) and I can top up the protective coating on the top sides of our 38ft cruiser in about an hour every two months or so. It’s a lot easier than more frequent buffing.
Long time reader and fan of your blog from Dublin.
Regards,
John
Thanks for your suggestion John. We probably should some more advanced coatings. We have never done anything other than use old technology wax. We probably should try something more modern. I’m slightly nervous of more modern coatings from my days as an auto mechanic were I have seen some coatings fail and start to yellow or, worse, flake away in sections. There are substantial messes and some required re-painting to correct. They both made me more conservative and less eager to try new products even though it’s extremely likely that some are excellent and could really save us time. Thanks for passing on your recommendation for Gtechniq.
James: i have asked some contacts that have offices in or near Amsterdam if there are any references for a stainless fabricator.
What I need done is simple and only need some cutting, drilling, and a break press but I’ve not found anyone to do it yet. Thanks for checking on it Gary.
Hello James,
Just about any commercial sheet metal installer for H.V.A.C. systems large enough to have a water jet, or plasma table could do it if they were interested in the project. I did a search using those parameters which showed several in Amsterdam but since I can’t read Dutch, about all I can say is look in that direction?
Exactly. In this case we went with a laser cutter equipped facility. I got help from Daniel Boekel of ShipCraft Engineering and Jan Pieterse and we’ll get the brackets in early January. It’s nice to have that one solved. Thanks for the advice here and over the years and have a great holidays Steve.
I got help from Daniel Boekel of ShipCraft Engineering and Jan Pieterse. Daniel was doing an order yesterday and was kind enough to both draft up what I need and include it on his order. We’ll get the brackets in early January. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing your journey with us fellow boater’s that are still dreaming of a journey like yours. I’ve got a couple of question’s. Your computer/electrical skill’s are a lot more advanced then most of us. Would your trip be doable with good skill’s vs your advanced? We all tinker and update our boat’s. My last question is what % of your mechanical/electrical updates you’ve made are just for your need’s and what % would be good “generic” to all of us.
Cliff, it looks like a somehow missed your question. Jennifer just noticed that. Sorry about that.
The short answer is, sure, the trip could easily be done with only rudimentary electrical skills. You will need to be able to read a multi-meter and read voltage or at least use a test light to be able to investigate electrical failures. Without being able to do this, you’ll need help with every electrical anomaly on the boat — you could even survive without that but it would take more patience because you would likely be too frequently needing external help. But, voltage meter skills are very easy to learn. You can a reasonably level of self sufficiency pretty quickly and that makes the trip more enjoyable.
After those simple skills to help find obvious problems, you really don’t need to know anything about software or computer hardware to have a very enjoyable trip. Looking at the work we have done, much of it is to automate and make the boat easier to operate and to ensure we notice problems quickly. All this is useful but none of it is absolutely required and almost all of it is available from commercial sources.
Most of the more advanced things we have done, you don’t need and, for those you really feel are important to you, there are good off-the-shelf solutions available in the market. Maretron is my go to supplier when people ask me how to do X where X is some monitoring or automation task. N2kview combined with Maretron sensors can do almost everything we do and they do it with good support and there are installers that know the equipment and can install it for you.
I think most of what we have on the boat is useful and would be nice for anyone to have. Generator autostart is useful in that if you are away from the boat for longer than expected, the batteries would run down to dangerously low levels. Load shedding is pretty useful in that it allows you to use the high powered appliances on the boat without worrying about what other people on the boat are doing. It makes the boat easier to use and avoid frequent shore power breaker releases. Warnings on low batteries or other electrical or mechanical problems improve safety. We had a battery thermal runaway in New Zealand in the middle of the night that was caught by the monitoring system. We dealt with it quickly and easily before temperatures got unsafe. Remote monitoring is useful if you are away from the boat.
All these features can be added using commercial systems without the boat operating needing special skills and none of these features are a prerequisite for a long trip. You can be perfectly happy without any of them and you don’t special skills to enjoy boating. They just make the trip more enjoyable but you can learn as much or as little as you want at whatever pace you want.
A couple of wines for you to try…although I don’t think you’ll get these in boxes.
Aldi. Exquiste Clare Valley Riesling @ £7.00
Grosset Polish Hill Riesling at £36.00 this is recognised as one of the best. Not cheap though!
Chardonnay? Track down Enate 234 for about £7.00
Chardonnay with a fizz? Again Aldi. Exquiste Cremmant du Jura at about £8.00
Aldi. Portugesse Douro Red Merlot, there’s two Douro’s ones about £6.00 and there’s one @ £4.99 the cheaper one is nice for the money.
Aldi is a German supermarket, but there may well be branches where you are.
Anyhow, Happy Holidays!
We have been in Aldi’s in the past so we do know them. We’ll give some of those wine recommendations a try. Thanks for the advice Paul.
I am trying to decide if I should go with the hydraulic package on our build. It comes with a extra pump on the wing and a hyd windlass, aux pump, and hyd thrusters. Then I ran across that there are hydraulic get home motors! So what if my 20kW genset or my main with the extra alternator and inverters could run a 3 phase hyd power pack of sufficient size? All I would need is a VFD to convert the 1PH 230V to 3PH. Thoughts???
We got hydraulics and love having continuous duty thrusters and windlass. There is no question we would make the same decision if we were to do another build.
Hydraulic get home engines work fine but there are compromises:
1) Direct drive is at least 20% more efficient so, a hydraulic drive system will require a larger engine than a direct, mechanical drive system.
2) We prefer having an independent prop and shaft on the get home engine,
3) If the main engine has failed, then your only source of power is the gen. If the gen is driving the boat, there is no power left for the hotel loads.
Closely related to 1 and 3 above, for a conventional electrical design you might select a 20kw generator because you have to size to peak load. The problem is peak load is very rare. A design like this allows you to size to average load: https://mvdirona.com/2014/08/a-more-flexible-power-system-for-dirona/. If you chose to go with a more modern power system design, then you will likely drop down to 16kW generator. It doesn’t have the power to run drive the boat.
On the design you are thinking through, you need a bigger gen than 20kW to have both propulsion and power at the same time. With a more modern electrical systems, you would use an even smaller generator. As a get home system, the design feels pretty compromised but, with care, it can be made to work.
When I looked at these initially I didn’t realize they worked inline with the main. I thought they actually replaced the wing and therefore could provide true redundancy if say they drove a folding prop on a reduction gear. That would be slick and save a lot of room. I’m not convinced it couldn’t be done (I think I could design and build it myself) but as you and others have said there is value in “off the shelf”. Besides as you also added I would need a much larger genset and then possibly needing a smaller 2nd genset which really negates much of a savings. FYI I’m back to using your method of power generation underway with the second Balmar on the main. When you look at it with the dual inverter it’s really the only logical choice. I have to say this part of the design which I consider the most important is tedious and filled with reconsideration!
You are right, the hydraulic system could completely replace the wing engine. It would work fine. I’ve even been on boats where the main engine drives through a hydraulic drive. My leaning, like yours, would still be towards a direct drive wing but the hydraulics would certainly work.
James:
Interesting to read about massive alternators (from a Canadian company no less), however if you were to install one does this not violate your ‘redundancy law’? Your present set up meets the law requirements
Even with two alternators we have an entire spare off engine and, if we went with a single alternator design, we would still have an off-engine spare. The generator also acts as an emergency backup system if the main can’t produce power. My personal take is that would be adequate redundancy for most use cases but I agree with you that having two identical alternators both being driven at the same time does have appeal.
My apologies for lately inundating your site. If you have an opinion on this. I am leaning away for doing as Dirona did with the extra alternator on the Main and adding a second smaller genset in addition to the standard 20kW (the NL tech suggest 6kW although on the owners group one fellow suggested 9kW) frankly I’m going to add up expected loads and decide what I might need.) this would force us to use the genset whenever underway if we need to run A/C, dryer, watermaker, etc. After speaking with Cascade they said that the 180A additional places the maximum belt stress and adds and extra pulley and extra inverter gear. Just seems like I don’t want extra things on the front of the main although I think the cooling pump is gear driven so a belt loss is not terminal… I kind of think you went the way you did to conserve space in the lazerette perhaps? Any thoughts?
I’m reading your “More Flexible Power System for Dirona” right now and I bet it will answer most my questions.
Excellent. Most of the detail is there. Also worth reading: https://mvdirona.com/2018/01/two-generators-when-you-only-have-one/
Our decision to go with two alternator is unrelated to our want for two generators. They really are seperate points. We want a second generator because that’s our own source of power when at anchor and, if the generator fails, we have a problem. Our goal is to never redirect or cut short a trip due to mechanical problems so we don’t want a failed generator to stop us. All of us have only a limited lifetime and we don’t want to give up weeks every year on mechanical faults. Because our main engine can produce 9kW, it can serve as a backup generator. But, generator autostart is key. We need to be able to be away from the boat for long periods and know the batteries will not be excessively discharged. Our solution is to put autostart on the main so it can serve as a backup generator: https://mvdirona.com/2018/01/two-generators-when-you-only-have-one/.
If we were buying another boat, we would likely spec a second generator but it’s not certain. Since the second gen for us is only to backup the primary gen, using the main to do that seems to work fairly well. Generators are pretty reliable and rarely fail to run. Likely we would go with a second gen but not for sure given how well the backup system we have built seems to work.
Another common driver of two gens is to have a big one to handle oven, dryer, and other big loads and a small one to handle the common case. We use inverters and load shedding to be able to operate big loads without having a big generator. This avoids the problem of having a 20kW that basically is never loaded and allows a single generator to handle the load. So, with backup power if the generator fails and no need for big/little config to support peaks, the push to a second gen is less strong. We only need the second one for redundancy.
The reason we have two alternators is we want to have enough capacity to fully support house loads without running the generator when underway. The argument here is twofold: 1) the main engine has lots of excess capacity when underway, and 2) running the gen 24×7 when underway means you double your oil changes, you have to carry more supplies, it requires more service, etc. It seems nuts to have more than one power source in the common case — you need it for redundancy but, in the common case, we want only a single source so we design to run like this:
1) Shore: we can run off 60hz, 50Hz, 50A, 32A, 16A, and even down to 8A (by using 2). This works so well we never have to run the gen when on shore power. If you spend time at marinas you’ll see larger boats running the gen all the time due to not having enough shore power to support their peak loads. The new power system article describes how this works fairly well: https://mvdirona.com/2014/08/a-more-flexible-power-system-for-dirona/. The remaining aspects of the design are covered in the two generators when you only have one article: https://mvdirona.com/2018/01/two-generators-when-you-only-have-one/.
2) Underway: Underway we run on the main engine along and can drive SCUBA compressor, dryer, oven, and HVAC without running the generator.
3) On hook: We use the generator with autostart to drive the generator and keep the battery state of charge correct. No attention required and it works whether we are on the boat or not.
The serpentine drive belt on the front of the engine is rated to drive heavy duty equipment so that isn’t a problem. When our boat was delivered by Cascade, they had an 85A start alternator and 190A house alternator. I upgraded to 2x 190A which will take more load from the front of the engine but it’s all well within the design limits of the components involved. There was no change in the number of pulleys on the engine when upgrading to 2x 190A.
Also as you may have noticed the train is not really used by anyone but workers of other nationalities and “white” person certainly not. It’s just a class thing. You will notice the taxis in Dubai are generally low cost also but will not pick up non UAE or worker foreigners. Dubai as you most certainly ave noticed is about one thing… money! Just a thing about Dubai. I have skied at the mall and it is fun but the snow is very granular and the rental gear marginal. But was fun to say I did it.
Dubai and the UAE, in general, is a pretty unusual place where all work that is visible to a visitor (and perhaps all work period) is done by teams of foreigners. Many construction projects run three shifts a day with huge teams on each shift and not a single local in sight.
I was wandering why more cruisers don’t use a hydraulic power pack (electric motor driven) in lieu of mounting off the genset or wing. I spoke with the Northern Lights fellow and he said he is not particularly fond personally of mounting Hydraulics off the Genset. I was thinking with a VFD you could convert the 1PH to 3PH (just seams so much more reliable, albeit you do loose some efficiency with transmission, etc) and assuming you have a backup genset or in the case of Dirona the extra on the main. How does Dirona get Hydraulic Power?
On Dirona, Hydraulic power is proeduced by identical pumps on the Wing and the Main engines each of which is capable of running the system. Underway the stabilizers are run by the main engine, when in close quarters, the thrusters and windlass are run off the wing engine since the main is at idle. But, either engine can run the system so, if the main fails and we run off the wing, we still have stabilizers. And, if the wing fails and we’re only on the main, we still have thrusters and windlass available (but the main needs to be brought up off idle to use them fully).
The design you describe of running the hydraulics off of a 3 PH motor that is is fed by the generator through a VFD is used on ABT STAR (Stabilization At Rest) so it certainly works. In all the examples we’ve seen the main engine still has a hydraulic pump PTO so the hydraulics can be run directly when it’s running. I can’t think of any reason why you couldn’t run through the electric motor all the time — it’s a continuous rated system. The only downside is the rather large loss of efficiency when converting rotating energy to electricity and then converting that to hydraulic power. Direct drive is considerably more efficient.
On most Nordhanv’s the crane is hydraulic and driven off a hydraulic power pack rather than the boats hydraulic system. This is a simple design but does suffer the inefficiencies of multiple conversions. Since it’s only used for short periods, it’s simplicity wins over efficiency and the double conversion system works fine. An alternative I looked at was using the boat hydraulic system to drive the crane but they aren’t that easy to interface and my conclusion was the hassle wasn’t worth the trouble and we use the standard electric power pack to drive the crane.
Excellent thanks! The hydraulic option you chose seems smart and I’m going to speak to Nordhavn about that option.
You are correct about loosing efficiency with an electric power pack. One more quickie. So Dirona uses hydraulic thrusters? I am sure you are aware of the new Side Power Pro series which uses a proportional drive system on the DC with analog signal which also allows you to press a button and “HOLD” the position of the boat. Pretty slick and it connects into the NMEA Backbone. I don’t think this was available when you built Dirona and I don’t like the “sound” and lack of throttling on standard DC thrusters.
So… Would you opt for these instead of hydraulic thrusters knowing this?
Our hydraulic thrusters are proportional so no difference there. We don’t have a button to hold the boat in position but you can just adjust the levers (they don’t pop back to neutral) to the appropriate level of the thrust to hold the boat against the dock and leave them there. That sounds similar unless there is a more elaborate position maintaining logic behind the single button you mention. I suspect they are equivalent by those measures.
The sound produced by thrusters is the straight cut bevel gear lash and, whether electric or hydraulic, all designs with the same gears will make the same noise. Certainly thrusters could be made with a different gear set to control noise but I don’t know of any that have chosen to make that a priority.
Our choice of hydraulic is wanting a windlass that can anchor on 500′ of rode without burning out the motor and wanting to be able to run the thrusters indefinitely even after they age, gather dirt, and don’t cool as effectively. We like continuous duty equipment. Recreational boat electric thrusters are not continuous duty but electric thrusters can be. I’ve seen cruise ships with their electric thrusters on for nearly 10 min straight. Clearly it can be done but I’ve yet to see a continuous duty recreational electric thruster.
Thanks James. Reading last night I have to firmly agree with you on this. Looking at the O&M Manual on the pro series and others the duty cycle is only 10%! I’m going hydraulic. The thought of needing to keep the nose into the weather if the main is down, etc is enough for me. Thanks so much.
That was my thinking as well. Unlikely to be needed but I still wanted to have the protection of continuous duty protection for the thrusters.
Hey there kids , so I found you guys from the nordhavn website I was looking at the dirona she’s beautiful James you and Jen must be having a blast .
I’d like to do the same some day with my wife also not quite ready yet , tell me how is the 52 in ocean passages ? I like the bladder idea I quess that’s really the only way to get maximum range right ? How do you guys like the John deer as oppose to the lugger ? What’s the difference .
The 52 is good for a comfortable 2,500 nautical miles so you don’t really need fuel bladders. This is not a computed number but a real on the ocean number — it can do this in ocean conditions. With fuel bladders the range is stretched out to a real world 4,000 nautical miles.
Both the Lugger and the John Deere are marinizations of the John Deere agricultural/industrial engine. Both have great reputations. We went with the Deere because we wanted the 266 HP available from the John Deere 6068AFM75. The Lugger is a great engine but we wanted more than 163 HP with an intermittent rating. The 266 HP John Deere is now the standard N52 power plant.
Our John Deere 6068AFM75 now has 10,200 hours and it’s been wonderful. The engine is bright, white, and shiny. After 10,000 hours it’s not leaking oil, it never has consumed any oil, and it continues to run perfectly. What I find amazing is it’s never consumed any parts. Even the coolant pump is original. It’s a good, solid, under-stressed, and super reliable engine.
Noticed your in the Arab region. Lynn and I are planning a 3-4 week trip in Jan-Feb in the Arab and Levant regions. Lynn saw you holding the falcon and is so jealous! Anyway Cheers! I put a post on NOG on boat naming. Basically I was wandering how you two came up with the name and do you think it’s beneficial to have as short of a name as possible? We are stumped!
The criterion of selection was that it be reasonably easy to pronounce and spell, be unique (so that 50 other boats didn’t have the same name), and that reflected our locality in the Pacific Northwest and also our sport of cold-water scuba diving. The name didn’t necessarily need to be short, but we wanted it to be easy to say and understand on the radio. More on the name is at https://mvdirona.com/Dirona/AboutDirona.htm
Jennifer
Hello both of you. I hope everything is going fine.
During this rainy sunday, i was wandering in yachtworld web site and i saw a few nordhavn with 2 engines, same engines… on a 57 with 2 lugger 325hp, one with 2 cat 3126 6 in line 420hp with 11.5knots cruising and so on…
when you moved from bayliner to nordhavn did you ever looked closer to twin engines boat or you were already main + wing convinced ?
For you, why some buyers go twin and some main + wing ?
have a nice stay in holland, we go on summer holidays every year since 15 years in South holland (zeeland: Vlissingen, Middelburg, veere, goes, zeeriekzee, yerseke, etc…) and we really enjoy this country with our 3988.
love your articles each time i receive a mail news. you describe everything so well that you should have a couple of pages every month in the English Motor Boat Magazine & Yachting magazine.
best wishes
Yes, we absolutely did consider a twin engine configuration. I larger boats, I would definitely select two engines. But, as the boat sizes drops down below 60′, single engine designs seem to win out for us. In smaller boats, the additional space that twin engines require reduce the fuel load that can be carried and shorten the boat’s overall range. In larger boats there is plenty of room for fuel but in smaller boats, the additional space required for twin engines reduce the boats range below what we want. Twin engines are just a small amount less efficient than singles as well so, for our usage, in boats less than 60′ single engines seem to be a better choice with longer range. If were to go with a larger boat, it’s highly likely we would go with 2 symmetric engines. I particularly like the application of two John Deere 4045AFM85 in many newer Nordhavn 60s. The 4045AFM85 is the Tier III emissions, 4 cylinder variant of our Deere 6068 that has served us so well over the last 10,000 hours.
My father and I often speak about how boats should be. he is for twins and i prefer main and wing and big outboards for the recreationnal market but that’s not the point we are interested in.
For me, the way Elling made their e6 is very interesting. they put a volvo 900hp and 75hp wing. the boat has a range of 3500 at 10knots, a full speed of 21.5 and a fast cruising between 15 to 18. i know it is not the kind of range nordhavn owners are looking for but i think it’s a good way to motorize boat from 40 to 60 feet. And i think the holland yards “think” their boats, how owners will use them. like tony Fleming.
when you see that our cummins didn’t missed once in 21 years, a main and a wing should take a bigger part of the market in displacement and semi displacement boat.
after 10000hours on one engine, why would you go for two ? what are the reasons two twin engines should have advantage over main and wing on a displacement hull ?
Nine years ago if nordhavn made a 52 with two 4045 or single 6068 with same range, what would have been your choice? and why?
You asked “after 10000 hours on one engine, why would you go for two?” We put 4,100 hours on the twin Cummins in our previous boat without issue and 10,100 hours on the single Deere in this boat also without issue. So your question could be “with 18,300 hours having never seen a failure, why deploy more than a single engine?” I agree with you that diesel engine failures are rare but they do happen. We have all seen an over-the-highway truck at the side of the highway. Diesel engine mechanics continue to earn excellent livings even though their patients are well built and last long. I really like redundancy.
We really do want to have two engines capable of moving the boat but we could have gone for two symmetric engines or a main and a wing. Due to space limitations and range considerations, we went with a main and a wing and we’re quite happy with the overall configuration. If we bought another under 60′ boat, we would make the same choice next time. If we bought a larger boat where two symmetric engines could be installed without giving up range, we would probably do it and you asked why we would go with twins.
For redundancy reasons, we have already decided we are going with two engines so the only question left is should they be the same (twins) or asymmetric (main with a wing). If we ignore space, range, and efficiency considerations, the advantage of twins is the backup engine is actually running rather than waiting to be started. The second engine in a twin engine configuration has 1/2 the horsepower and, running at higher than normal load can continue to run the boat at normal or very nearly normal speeds. If we drop back to our wing engine, we’re down to 40 hp engine with a continuous rating that is probably closer to 25hp. It works well, it will move the boat at over 4 kts, it’s safe, but it would be far from ideal in heavy seas.
There are lots of arguments for and against asymmetric power configurations. We selected an asymmetric design on Dirona for space, efficiency, and range gains. I’ve also seen it used by ice breakers and military boats to allow massive power to be applied when needed and then to fall back to efficient operation when the extra power isn’t required.
you’re right, 40hp, 4 knots with 2 meters in the nose and 3 knots of tide must not be very funny, you never sink on a sunny flat day… Everything is theory until you’re out there…
one day, a big net around one propeller, force4/5: you don’t dive, you go home on the other engine. it took six hours at 7/8 knots at 1600rpm. Sure with a wing, it could have been more difficult…
do you know if nordhavn ask the owners of twin to always run on 2 engines ou they could alternate?
i red a few years ago an article about an owner who wanted to drive on one engine and he had to make modifications on the transmission to make it cool because the propeller on the off engine turn with the speed and get hot.
do you have in mind a bigger one with redundancy ?
Twin engine boats can run with a single engine but, as you read, the limiting factor is usually the transmission. Some transmissions can be run indefinitely with freewheeling, some transmission manufactures allow freewheeling for up to N hours at which point they recommend running the other side, and some give transmission temperature limits above which they recommend shifting to the other side. Some operators I’ve spoken with chose to lock down the prop shaft to avoid freewheeling entirely but most don’t and just follow their transmission manufacturer recommendations.
When we had twin engines we tried running single engine for a few days but ended up not finding the small gains worth it and we were able to get very good fuel economy at low speeds with both engines in use. I’m sure we could have gotten a tiny bit better but I ended up just preferring to have them both running.
You asked “do you have in mind a bigger one with redundancy?” We feel like we have the redundancy needs covered by the wing engine and we continue to really like the Nordhavn 52 so don’t have a near term plan to move to a bigger boat.
James, sorry to double post but I just wanted to add don’t forget both the engines at the same time are drawing from the same source unless you opted for (2) day tanks… I bet that is what YOU would do.
That’s a good point Eric. A day tank doesn’t really work very well for us unless it’s upwards of 60 to 80 gallons and we do like having a day tank and using it like a day tank with explicit transfers to the tank through filtration. So with twins, we would either need to give up the extra security of the wing fuel tank or need space for two at least medium sized day tanks. Some recent builds on the larger Nordhavn’s have elected to delete the wing tank entirely on the argument that fuel problems are very unlikely on boats that run a full day tank protocol and only transfer fuel to the day tank through filters.
From my perspective, it’s a perfectly reasonable option to give up the wing tank and run both engines on the same day tank. The wing tank does provide some additional security but, with a good sized day tank for the rest of the boat, the probability of problems that would have been avoided with a separate wing tank are fairly small. I probably would be comfortable with the single day tank layout if going to twins.
It’s interesting that really between the 6090 Standard and the 4045 is only about 2″ (I noticed the bore is only 10mm smaller so makes sense). I’m curious is there a fuel usage compromise with twins? Also, do you think with twins you could consider elimination of a stern thruster? Just out of interest I’m going to have them send me a CAD of the standard layout with twins. Lot’s of fun thinking about these things.
Yes, there is a slight loss of efficiency in twins over a single. Twins have the drag of two sets of props, shafts, and machinery in the water and the second engine will add some parasitic losses as well. Because these boats are heavy and draw a lot of water, I would keep the stern thruster even with twins but many would argue it’s unnecessary.
As well as looking at the CAD drawings to make the decisions, you should ask about fuel capacity as well.
I don’t know if I agree on your idea on the twins on the 60. I would venture you’ve been in the engine room on the N60 but even with the smaller footprint I think it would be a squeeze to be able to get adequate access to the mains. The 63 (I think that the model) to me with the larger beam is the start of twins. Of course they put larger in coastal boats all the time but who cares your gonna get a tow anyway and your always close to your home yard. I have spent about 3 hours laying about in the N60 engine room to the frustration of my wife and salesman and I can’t see it but I know they do it just not that often. I love the boat and I can’t imagine needing anything larger for a cruising couple for sure.
The point where twin engines fit without access/range sacrifice is certainly open to debate. The 60 might be better done as a single. I was on N60 Jupiter with two John Deere 4045AFM85s and I liked the access to everything and it looked like it would work to me but I agree it’s close.
I gotta say I just looked at the video on the Jupiter and you may be correct. Looks like the mirrored some of the critical components and being able to walk down the middle vs. the sides of the engine might be easier. Not real sure how they handled the tankage as I cannot make that out. But if you reduced the width and increased the length (of the tanks) you could probably get some access to the other sides. They could also increase the size of the forward tanks of the utility room as they didn’t expand that area as we are forcing us to move things forwards. Jupiter spent alot of money in the pilothouse for sure from what it looks like. Nice boat.
It looked great from my perspective but, as you said, the key question is how many gallons is it able to carry? If they haven’t had to give up tankage, it’s a nice looking solution.
Hello from Campbell River, BC. First, thank you for your interesting, informative and thoroughly enjoyable website, I have followed you since your travels on your previous boat.
We need to replace our aging chart plotter that came with our boat and will return to a PC based system. On our prior boat we used Nobeltec and I have been looking at the new Time Zero. Can you elaborate on your reasons for choosing Time Zero and have you been happy with that choice? I did look into Coastal Explorer but it requires an annual update ($99 US) to maintain BC tide and current information. Thank you.
Thanks for the feedback Julie. We used Nobeltec for more than a decade and generally liked it. Our only big complaints with Nobeltec where it does crash occasionally and, when it does, it usually looses most of the recent track. Annoying but not debilitating. When making the decision between all the options open back in 2010, we elected to go with TimeZero mostly because it can share chart data at no extra charge with Furuno NN3D and supports integration with Furuno including RADAR overlay. The ability to share chart data with Furuno means that you can buy charts once and have them available redundantly on two different systems on the boat. This gives us the redundancy we want without forcing us to pay double for chart data. When you cruising large parts of the world, chart data costs can be material.
Had we not chosen TimeZero, we likely would have stuck with Nobeltec. With the subsequent acquisition of Nobeltec, the choice wouldn’t have mattered and we would ended up on TimeZero no matter what. Overall TimeZero is more stable than Nobeltec and the largest weaknesses of TimeZero have been addressed since the acquisition of Nobeltec and we find the newest version to be quite good.
Hi James & Jennifer,
I’m just starting planning a Maretron monitoring network for N6315 and am wondering if you were able to install your own (very comprehensive!) system using micro NEMA2000 cabling?
Either will support the CANbus physical link used by NMEA2000. At the time and probably still, Maretron recommended a midi backbone and micro drops and that’s what I elected to use. More recently when I did the much smaller NMEA2000 system on the tender, I went with micro everywhere. The advantage of larger cabling for the backbone is you are less likely to experience voltage drops or signal integrity problems over long cable runs. The advantage of the smaller micro-cables is cost.
Generally it’s not difficult to debug devices on a properly installed CANbus network. It gets more complex if there are signal integrity or voltage drop issues so I lean slightly towards using the large micro cabling for the backbone of bigger networks.
Thanks! Very useful advice.
James, am interested in the Heatstrip for the cockpit of N47 Segue II. Could you advise the model and size of the unit that you’ve installed.
Regards
Heatstrip sells into many markets and has both 50hz and 60hz systems available and is available in many voltages. It seems that the heater itself is a simple resistive load so the only difference between the 240V 60hz and 50hz system is the plug fitted to the end. We bought the 1800W unit that they sell into the Australian market and replaced the plug with a marine plug of a higher current rating and better waterproof characteristics.
More details are up at: https://mvdirona.com/2018/04/heatstrip-patio-heater/.
James, now that Dirona is taking the winter off, are there any things you do to winterize her and/or the engines, fuel, oil, etc?
We chose to keep the boat always operational so really don’t change anything as we head into winter other than to drain the hoses on hose bib outside the boat so they don’t freeze and crack. Other than that, it’s just business as usual without any changes. Because we live on the boat, the interior is heated if we are on the boat and, if we are off the boat, we still use a greater than freezing set point (around 42F).
If we were in a really cold climate where there were long periods of sub-freezing weather, we would put valves on the external water connections to allow us to drain the water out of the pipes that feed any external hose bibs. This is on my list but hasn’t yet been done and probably won’t need to be for the weather conditions we’ll see in Amsterdam.
Hi, I read that you will spent about 4 month in Amsterdam. Then I can highly recommend to also visit Haarlem, take the train from Central Station, it takes only 25 minutes to get there. From Haarlem Central Station to the center is only 5 minutes walk. Most of the houses are about the same age as the houses in Hoorn and Enkhuizen.
I might step by one day to meet you but will obviously let you know in advance. I work close by, Hotel The Dylan.
Best,
René
Thanks for the recommendations Rene.
Could you elaborate on Dutch VAT. How would VAT be applicable to a foreign flagged pleasure vessel briefly visiting Dutch waters?
Independent of how long the boat is in Dutch waters, if the boat doesn’t leave the EU during an 18 month period, the VAT becomes due. The visiting Dutch officials collected ownership and original purchase documentation showing the invoiced price in preparation for assessing VAT if that were to become necessary. Of course, our intention is to not allow the boat to be in the EU for 18 consecutive months.
Thank you and very good to know.
If you stay longer than the 18 month period you will have to cough up the VAT but then when you leave you can get it back.
Just as you can get the VAT back you had bought a boat in Europe and took it for your use to the US ( and then pay the State Sales tax where you register the boat)
As Jan said, you certainly can get VAT back on equipment brought into the country on temporary import and then later exported. We’re doing that for the pallet of equipment we brought in via sea freight. However, if the boat crosses the 18 month consecutive in the EU, it no longer qualifies for temporary import and VAT will be due on the entire boat. It will not be refunded on exit from the EU.
If you haven’t already, next time you’re in a Dutch grocery store get some speculoos spread (Lotus brand is good, but the others will also be fine). Spread that sucker on toast. It’ll change your life.
That does sound like an unusually good spread :-). Thanks!
Please make sure tou don’t leave the Ortliebs on the bike, they will be gone instantly. Same goes for the bike, look it to a pole or somthing sturdy, otherwise it’s gone.
I am around for some 20 years in Amsterdam and bikes are still high on the list of thieves.
Thanks for the advice René–we’ll be careful.
And thank you also for recommending we visit Hoorn and Enkhuizen–we really enjoyed both. If you feel like dropping by and seeing the boat, let us know.
Jennifer
James – I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Amsterdam over the past 3 decades working for Shell. Check out the NL Museum Card (https://www.museumkaart.nl/). We’ve used this in the past and it is excellent value. It’ll get you into most museums in the country for free and a reduced price for many others. You can purchase it at a participating museum and it’ll be good for 30 days. Then you need to login to the site and fill out the form to have the permanent card (good for a year) mailed to you. Only addresses in NL are accepted so hopefully you can receive mail at the marina.
We’ll do it. Thanks for the advice Evan. Much appreciated. And, if you find yourself planning to be in the Amsterdam area, let us know.
I’m interested in the options when replacing diesel engine oil, since 250-hour intervals can add up. Obviously recycling is desirable and facilities are probably easy to find these days, but I understand that some owners burn waste oil in their fuel, apparently after filtering it? Are there systems to make this do-able? Would burning oil in fuel apply more to older (read: “less finicky”) engines? Does Deere have a position on burning used oil? Or do you?
Fair seas.
At a distance, this sounds like a wonderful idea and I know it has been used in commercial applications in the past. However, modern high pressure common rail engines have very low tolerance to fuel problems, emission standards won’t allow it, and modern oils are very carefully designed with special additives to prevent burning (they are getting better and better at making high quality lubricants that burn very poorly). Engine oil recycling is a more environmentally sensitive approach and most manufacturers including Deere don’t permit burning used crankcase oil.
The approach we take is to have 5 pails of 4 gallons (20 liters) with 4 full of clean oil and one empty. We can pump into the empty one and fill from one of the full containers. This allows us to do 3 main engine oil changes and 2 generator changes while out and when we return to shore, we need to pour off the used oil, discard the pails, and buy new ones. It ends up being a fairly simple approach and allows us to operate with less chance of fuel system problems.
Where are your comments on replacing the black water gage tube?
Good question and I will eventually loop back with the full story of what works and what doesn’t and what I’ve learned over the years. The quick answer on this one is “unsuccessful” — so far I’ve tried just the ultrasonic sensor (there were no focus tubes available at that point), the first generation focus tube, and this enclosed full length focus tube. I’m a bit surprised in that the latest full length, fully enclosed focused tube looks like a very nice solution. It’s better than anything I’ve tried so far but it’s still not a reliable solution. It probably works 60% of the time. What I plan to try next is a completely different system that has been getting good reports. On my next trip back to the US, I’ll be getting: 1) Maretron Submersible Pressure Transducer 0 to 1.5 PSI (PTS-0-1.5PSI-01), and 2) Maretron FPM100. I use pressure sensing for the fuel measurement and I’m super impressed with the accuracy so I know this will work well. What I don’t know is what life expectancy the pressure sensor will have. I’ll report back but I’m optimistic that this one will deliver the stable, reliable results for which I’ve been looking.
James – I use the same Maretron components to measure the levels in my diesel tanks. The only snag I ran into was when using two of the transducers on one FPM100, the reading on the second transducer blinks in and out. Maretron tech support diagnosed as a problem in the FPM100 firmware. They will fix in a future version. Fuel level does not change all that quickly so having it blink out for a second or two every now and then not a problem. Expect it will be much less of a problem for the black water tank!
I like Maretron’s gear in general but they really seem to have a bit of a QC problem with their firmware. I recently bought a MBB-300 black box control head and after weeks of continuous crashes they finally agreed to have it back on warranty. Basically as soon as they got it back, they said, “oh, look, we loaded an entirely wrong firmware on this when we manufactured it” Face-palm.
I’ve spent a huge part of my career building embedded compute systems that ingest massive quantities of analog-to-digital data. There is really not any rocket science at the level of what Maretron is doing. It’s just not that hard.
I hear you Chris and have also seen the odd quality control issue as well. I forgive these issues mostly because Maretron allows very nice automation systems to be built at a tiny fraction of the cost of they systems popular in super yacht applications. They are good value and so I can afford to have a spare on board. With a spare of everything, it’s super easy to work through issues but there clearly is a cost to stocking all the spares. Even doing that, it seems like good value to me.
On the same page with you, James. I really don’t see any alternatives that offer the features, flexibility, and scalability that Maretron serves up. BTW as I write this I am on a N50 heading south on the US east coast. First time underway in open water on a Nordhavn and really loving the boat. Although I admit to becoming completely incapacitated by seasickness the first 12 hours out, I certainly do not blame the boat for this :)
Lots of solutions for sea sickness both medical and otherwise so don’t let that stop you. The other solution is the one that sail boaters learn quickly, don’t run into the wind. Weather that won’t be a problem on the stern causes big pitching and sea sickness in some when on the bow.
Thanks James, we eventually made it to the Bahamas and the ride from Charleston, SC to Great Abaco was beautiful. The gulf stream was a non-event; winds calm and seas nearly flat. What’s surprising to me is that, as you said, the head sea was more sickening than a following sea. I’ve been sailing for nearly 20 years and have always felt worse in a following sea on my sailboat. On this trip on the N50 it was the head sea that got me. We left Beaufort, NC on an ebb tide opposing the wind and it was horrendous – of course, no surprise there, but it was not my decision to leave at that time. Only my decision to go along with it. I think one experiences a much different motion in an aft-cockpit sailboat as compared to the relatively forward and high pilot house of a Nordhavn.
The motion is different and in different boats. Generally, even in boats that are comfortable running to weather, it’s still not a common choice. There is something to be said for having the weakness all going into the weather since it’s always slower and less efficient as well as less comfortable in this hull form.
When in Rome… :)
Yes, we also use the FPM100 and pressure transducers to read my 4 diesel tank levels and I’m super happy with the setup. We’ve never had an issue with the system and it’s remarkably accurate. I have never seen any gaps in the FPM100 transmissions but I do periodically see N2kview have a guage go blank for a second or so. I don’t really notice or mind the issue but it sounds like a similar issue to the one you are seeing.
James, I was thinking about this and in oil water separators which see turbid water with foaming which can cause issues with ultrasonic sensors, we use continuous read analog level sensors. We buy from a company FPI and you can get both 4-20ma and 0-10 VDC options. You can specify the materials of the tube and float and length span, etc. The only issue I can see if interference between the tube and float over time but just use a M12 connector and pull it out monthly or so. I have used pressure transmitters as you said but the issue here is you must have access to the bottom of the tank and the orifice can become clogged. While you could use a gauge protector you risk accuracy although you could span it yourself. I would use a dwyer 628 with M12 connector once again. About $80 and they last forever. I also thought that technically the density of the grey and black water could vary depending upon usage, etc. Overall I think the float I mentioned above is perfect. What input does the Maretron accept?
Generally my take is it shouldn’t be that hard a problem to measure black water levels but, at this point, all I’ve learned is ultrasonics aren’t an especially good choice. Because I have had excellent accuracy with pressure sensors in level sensing applications, I’ve ordered the parts to try that next. If I don’t get the results I like on that approach, I’ll go with the 4-20ma version of your recommendation. Thanks for passing on your experience Eric.
Here is a small interesting article about the Seajacks Scylla that you saw in Cuxhaven.
https://www.offshorewind.biz/2018/09/03/seajacks-scylla-loads-first-deutsche-bucht-steel/
Thanks for your blog. Have been reading it for a few years now.
Good article. The wind farm build they are doing will be 33 wind turbines of 8.4MW each for a total of 277MW. The big crane on the Seajacks Scylla is lifting 1,100 ton pile sections. Pretty impressive. Thanks for the referenced article Doug.
Your blog is extremely helpful. I thought I read somewhere that you had added a system to use saltwater for flushing toilets but I was unable to find a blog post on it. Can you send me to the write post or provide some details on the saltwater flushing system? Did you have Nordhavn do the work or get it done after commissioning?
We have Tecma Silence Plus units and they are truely amazing. In nearly 10 years of live aboard work, they simply never cause problems and never get plugged. Tecma are really amazing. We have both presurized salt water and freshwater so our original design was to put a valve into the inlet line that would allow us to run off of either source. Nordhavn did the research and said the Tecma really wasn’t designed to be run on salt water and it might shorten the life of some components. We thought it over and didn’t elect to put the valve in but, of course, we could add it later if we wanted to try it. We also planned a Y-valve to allow them to be plumbed directly overboard when operating off shore.
In retrospect, neither idea seems that useful to us. We have never felt inclined to run the outlet directly overboard and we have never felt the inclination to save water by running them on salt water. With a 415 gallon freshwater tank and a 25 gallon per hour water maker, we never feel so short of water that we feel like flushing the toilets with it. And, with an excellent black water pump out system and a fairly large tank at 120 gallons, we don’t feel like going in and switching the Y-valves when operating off shore. The system always flushes on freshwater and always into the black water tank.
So you can pump your black water tank overboard when offshore?
-thx, Chris
No, it’s not practical nor legally required to store the black water when off shore. Their are legal restrictions against throwing plastics overboard but not black water. We sort and compress all of our garbage for return to shore-side processing facilities but don’t carry the black water back.
Good to know the Nordies are built with that in mind. Some smaller boats, like my current one, can only switch the discharge from the head between overboard and tank, but whatever is in the tank is staying there until you get back to shore. That kinda sucks. Of course one could redo the plumbing design to pump out of the tank but although I’m a huge DIY person, that’s the kind of project I’d rather not get involved in!
Thanks again -Chris
It’s worth checking around the tank looking for hoses. Most boats are built with both a pump out hose that goes up to the deck fill and second hose that goes to a macerator/pump and then overboard. It’s possible you already have a solution in place. Certainly worth checking for that first.
looks like the file for your ‘k’ line picture got corrupted.
We got that corrected. Thanks for pointing out the problem with the picture.
https://www.varendoejesamen.nl/en
Hi James, you can visit the site and you will see that you can enter the Staande Mast route much earlier than Harlingen. It also brings you to Leeuwaarden, worth visiting!
Yes but we draw 2.1M and prior to Harlingen there are places where 1.9M is all that is available. Were it not for the depth problem, we would start on the Canal earlier.
Hi Guys,
‘Love reading your blog and seeing your videos. One of my best friends bought N52-60 recently. Do any Nordy 52 owners have any special methods for cleaning and waxing the exterior up the stack casing/mast above the wings? Any innovative ideas would be appreciated.
We knew the previous owners of N5260 Stella Maris. It’s a well maintained boat.
There are no real easy tricks for cleaning and waxing the stack. We installed steps on ours to allow us to easily climb up and a couple of padeyes to allow us to tie off using a climbing harness for safety. That gets us up there quickly and keeps us up there safely but, in the end cleaning and waxing remains manual work and we have found any great answers on that one.
Thanks James. She is a beauty. My friend will take great care of her. I wonder about a pad eye at the top and something like a Jumar ascender rig. I noticed in one of your blog
entries that you pulled and inspected your exhaust pipe. What is their life expectancy? I grew up on a boat with dry stacks and in 30 years we never had an issue with a pipe. A dry stack pipe leak mid passage could ruin your whole day! I enjoyed your entry about the Cablemaster leak into the lazaret. I find it odd that they don’t build the boat with a manifolded bilge system too. Have you ever had a leak in the fore bilge. I’d be a ;little nervous about moving the water from there to the engineroom bilge (and pumps) thru the small PVC limber tube fast enough.
We replaced the muffler at 9 years since they have a history of failing at 10 and ours was dumping rust everywhere. But, it actually was pretty solid and likely would have gone many more years.
On a forward bilge leak overwelming a 2″ PVC pipes ability to flow, you’ll be amazed what will flow through a 2″ pipe. At 2′ head, the pipe will flow 111 gallons per minute. When bringing on over 100 gallons per minute, the boat is very close to lost. The only two pumps on the boat that will put out enough to keep the boat afloat is the hydraulic bilge pump and the Honda crash pump and neither puts out much more than that but together. The Honda could be deployed forward in such a case. Generally, if a leak is too big to flow on a 2″ PVC pipe, it’s probably too big a leak to save without very quick action.
Hi, in case the weather on your route to Amsterdam is bad you could choose the “Staande Mast route”. That’s a scenic inland waterway which brings you into the IJsselmeer with lots of historical little villages. Hoorn and Enkhuizen is a must do.
Yes, we do intend to take the inland route from the locks south of Harlingen to Amsterdam. Thanks for the recommendation.
…good old Germany .. welcome ! have a good time .. Looking Forward to see you in Amsterdam this winter… have a save trip !
Greetings, Matthias
Yes, we’re looking forward to Amsterdam.
Hi again! Have had the need, or desire, to make water since your Atlantic crossing?
Many thanks.
Yes, many times. On a big week we’ll use 300 gallons and on a light week we’ll use somewhere in the 150 gallon range. We carry 400 gallons so, if we are away from marinas for more than a week or two, we need to make water. When we aren’t using the water maker, it gets flushed once per week. This approach works pretty well and the membranes seem to last very well. The first set was replaced after 4 1/2 years and this set is 3 1/2 years old and appears to still be in excellent condition and probably will go longer than the original set. The first set lives a tougher life where they get tested but new boats can sit around for a long time before the boat is delivered.
Thank you James. I had wondered if you were making water or relying on marina water when available. I think I would like the consistency of my own water as I am sure shore water is variable!
The water quality in all the countries we have been in recently is excellent so we don’t give a second thought to filling our water tank at marinas. We make water when we are away from marinas for more than a week or so.
Hello James,
I don’t know how thick your exhaust elbow is but if it is otherwise perfect other than a “sand hole” from casting, why not drill, tap and plug it? I’ve never tried it with cast stainless but it worked well with cast iron.
I think I would even be tempted to try JB Weld or something similar.
Epoxy might fail due to heat especially when the impeller fails and the exhaust runs for a few minutes dry. With some research we could probably find a highly heat stable epoxy but, your drill and tap idea sounds like a winner. This time I kept the old elbow rather than throwing it out thinking that I would get it welded up but, the more I think about it, your idea is simpler. I’ll add to my list to drill and tap the elbow and see how much life I can get out of one. I’m betting it’ll be fairly long. There is plenty of “meat” to tap a hole.
Thanks for the excellent idea.
Thirty-five years ago it was a common way to fix sand holes in cast iron sectional hot water, low pressure steam boilers and convection radiators. Most if not all in this area are gone but I would think it’s more about upgrades to a more efficient design than a failure of that particular repair. If the exhaust temperature ever got hot enough to melt a 1/8″ brass pipe plug, I think you’d have more immediate issues and concerns.
I think it’ll work great and I’m going to give it a try. Thanks for the great suggestion Steve.
why not just put a hose clamp over it ( after seeing a few submarine movies closing high pressure pipes). I have done it once on my elbow on one of my crusader engine
As a temporary measure, I agree the hose clamps approach can be remarkably effective.
Hello James,
I couldn’t find any satisfying drawings of your heat exchanger and from the picture I was wondering. How did you go about cleaning the blocked or restricted tubes on it?
The heat exchanger is held in place but boots on both ends so you can get access to the tube bundle fairly easily by taking the boots off each end. The most common form of plugging is the raw water pump impeller failing and some of the rubber impeller teeth end up flowing up to the heat exchanger. Other than that, the tube bundled stays pretty clean and nothing hard or difficult to remove seems to accumulate.
Because Northern Lights supports the tube bundle in place on either end by a rubber boot it doesn’t actually touch the rest of the engine so there is no ground path and, as a consequence, there is no need for zinc anodes to prevent corrosion. It’s an unusual design but seems to work fairly well. The boots require a bit of care to ensure they tube bundle is centered but, overall, it a design that works fairly well.
Yes – you are far north (similar to Mitkof Island) and the waters “indside Skagen” have decreasing salinity as you get closer to the deep indside of the Baltic sea, and can freeze more easily. But both the icebreakers you saw have been taken out of service, and are for sale, should you need a strongly built boat :-)
Ice breakers and available for sale? We’ll take them both :-). Actually, we would love to have ice capability and be able to do the Northwest passage with less constraints but those two are a few hundred feet more than we can afford.
“Glyngore Harbour is full of sailboats, most without masts. Perhaps this is for travelling through the inland waterways, or their masts have been stepped for the winter.”
It is mandatory according to insurance to have your boat out of the water by Nov 11th
“We were surprised to see an AED (Automated External Defibrillator) mounted outside on the street. Good idea.”
The emergency services then have locations of these AED’s i order to tell a caller where to find one to use before help arrives.
It’s pretty smart to deploy AEDs. Thanks for the background.
https://www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/en/
I saw Dirona from my window when you passed Egholm – but when I got to the marina you were gone :-)
Too bad. We’re sorry we missed you at the Marina. We left fairly quickly for a day of walking around Aalborg and then got back underway the next morning. If you do find yourself near Dirona in the future, drop us email. I’m almost always online. We’ll be in Amsterdam over the winter.
https://www.visitsamsoe.dk/en/
https://www.moesgaardmuseum.dk/en/news/
Thanks Lars-Henrik.
I’m liking your doppelganger, James. He’s even got the same commitment to “where there’s a will there’s way” :D
James:
We all know you like the odd brew!
So I had to smile at two of your notations on the Limfjord map for breweries. Have you thought of applying to the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest pub crawl by private boat !!!???
Yes, you gotta do your research. When on a long trip, it’s important to know where your nearby brewpubs are before you need them. It’s unwise to wait for the last minute and hope you are going to find one :-).
Forgot:
https://www.hancock.dk/kontakt.aspx
https://thisted-bryghus.dk/produkter/
Hi
I hope you did get to se the “Sea war museum” – Unlike Norway you heading into the fjord has unlike in Norway bridges that you have to request the watch on the bridge to open. And BTW there is no chance that the satellite connection will be covered by a mountain ;-) as I’ve found i Norway with my car gps.
Yes, we did go to the Sea War Museum and really enjoyed it. In fact, the reason we decided to take this route through Denmark and stop to enjoy the Sea War Museum was your suggestion posted here back in July 9th. Thanks for the passing along the good ideas.
Right now you are close to the island of Fur – famous for its ancient sediments with organisms that lived a very long time ago
Thanks for passing that data point along.
Hi, guys–
Been cruising for years and yet just found all your material. Incredible work.
Been trying to get some information from satellite internet companies for some months now but no responses.
For instance, we have a tracker for DirecTV, and it works fine, even when our boat is rocking and rolling.
So, why can’t a tracker of similar nature point at the appropriate sat that does internet, just like happens with a fixed location on land?
Yet it seems no one is making that service available.
Am I missing something?
Yes, there are many options for satellite communications at sea. We use a KVH V7hts system and really like the combination of reliable phone calls without dropped calls and other annoyances coupled with high bandwdith data. This is our current system: https://mvdirona.com/2018/03/kvh-v7-hts-twice-the-speed-more-coverage/
The KVH is very high bandwidth and covers just about the entire globe except extreme latitudes and some parts the south Atlantic and south pacific oceans. If you need high speed connectivity and/or are moving a lot of data, the KVH system is hard to beat. We use Imarsat BGAN as a backup but it is 10x the bandwidth cost so we only use it when we have no other options.
Our overall strategy for communications at sea is written up here: https://mvdirona.com/2015/08/communications-at-sea/. There are less expensive options for low bandwidth communications like the Iridium but, for our use case, it’s just too slow and we only use the Iridium as a last ditch backup system.
We have had the KVH V7 satelite system on Dirona since early 2012 and so far, haven’t seen anything that would serve us better. If you are sea and continue to work, I would especially recommend going with the V7. It’ll give you both low cost telephone connections and high bandwidth data.
James, was just reading Secret Coast, you had written about your deck washdown system on the 4087 in the step from the cockpit, where did you plum into, fresh water or did you have a new thru hull installed? Thanks for the advise,,,
Hi Ian. It was a salt water washdown rather than freshwater. We plumbed into an existing through hull. I’m pretty sure it was the aft head raw water intake hose that I teed into.
Thanks, next winter project, cheers
Hi James,
How do you handle insurance for Dirona? My wife and I are Canadian and about to do the Great Loop and the Bahamas. We would also like to travel to Cuba but so far I cannot get any insurer to cover the boat for that area. I am sure it would be just a big a problem if we were to get even more adventurous and travel to far away places.
Thanks very much…………….Paul
Thanks………….Paul.
Sounds like a fun trip. For insurance we use, the IMIS Jackline program: http://imis.pro/jackline.htm. The insurance underwriter is Markel and both Markel and Jackline have an excellent claims handling reputation.
Hello James & Jennifer!
Just a quick tip in case you are up for yet another hike in the Norwegian mountains. The Pulpit Rock is very famous, but in my opinion the Kjerag rock on the opposite side of Lysefjorden is a nicer trip. The walk is longer, but it is in general a lot less crowded and you get a ~1000m drop down to the fjord instead of the ~600m. And if you are not afraid of heights, you can take a leap onto the Kjerag bolt and get a nice photo shoot.
I hope you get OK weather, this time of year the autumn rain and wind is infamous in Rogaland.
Regards,
Jostein
We had a great hike out to Pulpit Rock. We had a lot of very long hanging clouds, much as you expected we might, but still got some good views and had an enjoyable time. Thanks for the pointer to Kjerag.
Ah.. I did not know that you were already on your way to Pulpit Rock. Good to hear that you had a good trip. The upside at this time of year is that you avoid the huge summer crowds. As you probably noticed, the path is kind of paved due to all the heavy traffic the later years.
You are 100% right. Even the “off season” is about the limit that we can put up with when it comes to crowds. It’s amazingly busy. In the middle of the summer, it must be crazy.
Thank you James for the 10,000 hours update. I’ve been following your blog for two years and have found the level of detail you go into for both technical and cruising, fascinating and engaging.
Jennifer and your blogs have certainly been one of the motivating factors in my wife Jenny and l signing a purchase agreement for N5279.
The time and quality is appreciated.
Peter and Jenny, congratulations for getting a new 52. You know how much we have been loving ours. Thanks for the blog feedback and, if you have any questions, we’re happy to help.
Absolutely stunning pictures of Norway and the amazing facilities which they have in that country! In many ways they put us to shame here in North America.
I was thinking exactly the same thing Peter. Norway doesn’t every seem reluctant to take on a big engineering project even when serving a small population center. In large country of only 5 million people there is cellular service just about anywhere we got to. Its impressive.
Hi!
I sent you a Mail with some suggested places to vist on your route from Bergen.
Thanks very much Stig. We spent yesterday in a car trip to visit to Hardanger Fjord where we went to Tyssedal and to the Voringfossen falls. A really enjoyable trip. Norway is amazing.
Thanks for the advice in your note yesterday. We appreciate it.
James, WRT the photo and comment about the asphaltenes in the fuel transfer filter and the possible need for inspection and cleaning of the fuel tanks: I had similar concerns with our 8 year old, aluminum tanks in our Kadey Krogen 42. I opened he port aft tank and found only a few traces of asphaltenes in the tank. We don’t generally draw fuel from these tanks, while running, only using the aft tanks for storage. We transfer fuel to the forward tanks using our ESI polishing system while on shore or generator power while at dock or anchor. I when I replaced this filter after several years, we found it quite clean, even though the Racor 900’s would be quite black. I concluded that polishing fuel whilst at the dock to be inadequate for removing contaminants as there is no agitation which would serve to lift up such materials for subsequent filtration. I hope to switch the ESI system over to the Inverter side of the panel so I can polish fuel while running in moderate seas. It might be best that this is done when tanks are about 1/4 full to maximize mechanical agitational the remaining fuel.
Good approach Jim. We’re set up similarly to what you plan where we can run the transfer pump at any time and, since we run off a small supply tank, we transfer fuel to that tank every 4 to 6 hours when underway. We can run fuel polishing 24×7 at dock or underway if we choose to and that was the intended design point of our fuel polishing design but we have never had fuel problems and don’t do it as a preventative measure. It’s probably a good idea to run it periodically to at least delay needing to clean the tanks.
Over here in Bergen for a holiday from Australia. Wandering along in front of Bryggen today, pushing our stroller, I knelt down to do up my shoe lace and when I stood up I found myself looking at the side of a very nice looking boat with a familiar looking name on it. “That can’t be” I said to myself. a quick look at you tube then this site and yup, it is you guys. I guess it’s just unexpected to see something in real life that I have seen on YouTube quite regularly! And on the other side of the world. I took a quick photo, chuckled to myself and we wandered on.
That’s a loooong trip David but you chose well. We’re loving Norway — hope you are enjoying it as well.
If you feel like having a look around Dirona, feel free to drop me a note at jrh@mvdirona.com.
Ulriken Steps…when we were in Bergen, installation and maintenance work was being done by crews from Nepal. I guess they know their mountains. And speaking of mountains, we are currently enjoying the Dolomites. Maybe our paths will cross one of these months….
Hi Karen! The steps look like they were a massive project. It looks too steep for heavy equipment and I can’t see tracks but the rocks are way too big to move by hand. Interesting that the work was done by crews from Nepal. As you said, they do have some experience with steep slopes.
It would be fun to have our paths cross. We plan to winter in Amsterdam and will be there from November through end of Feb — the plan is to make use of the great rail and flight options and see some more of Europe. If you find yourselves flying through Schiphol on one of your trips, it would be cool to catch up. In the mean time, enjoy your time in the Dolomites.
Karen is right. The steps were made by sherpas from Nepal. They spent 2 or 3 summer seasons. As far as I know, no heavy machinery was used, except for portable winches. The construction work was completed in 2017.
Impressive. It looked like recent work and I couldn’t see any evidence of damage from tracked vehicle operation. The stones are massive. It wonderful engineering to be able to precisely place stones of that size and weight without heavy equipment help.
Hi James,
You mention a few times how power-hungry the Dirona is. One thing I’m curious about is why you elected to go with an AC water maker, given the availability of DC options that draw significantly less power per gallon generated. What do you see as the benefits of an AC water maker?
Thanks!
Alec
Water makers put water under 850 PSI pressure and force it through membranes. Given DC motors are not fundamentally more efficient than AC motors, I would think that it would take roughly the same amount of energy to make a given amount of water since all the other parameters are the same. Low consumption DC units I have seen are lower output so really don’t appear to be much different but I’m interested if you have seen something unusually good.
Generally we only make water underway with the main engine running so we have lots of power available but, in the end, regardless of the source, making power consumes diesel so there is a cost so efficiency is always of interest.
Well I ask because I have the Spectra Catalina 340 on my sailboat today. It reliably generates 14-15 gallons/hour drawing only 18 amps at 12VDC (working out to 15 watts per gallon of water made). Even when we aren’t being abstemious with water (showers every day, fresh water head, etc), we end up running it for 3-4 hours every 2-3 days whilst cruising. Between the solar panels and underway time, the power demands are easy to keep up with, and since water makers like to be run there are certainly more underway hours we could run it if we needed to.
When I look at AC alternatives, I come across things like the FCI AquaMiser, which could certainly generate more water, but the model that generates 33 GPH draws 12.5 amps at 120 VAC, working out to requiring 45 watts per gallon of water generated, or 200% more power required to generate a gallon of water than the 12 VDC version.
For our next boat we’re planning to go to a power boat with a sizable generator, so we certainly could go with an AC version if there were a benefit. What I’m wondering is aside from volume of water produced, is there a benefit? If we find that the DC models give us the volume we need, curious if there are other things I should be considering.
Thanks!
Alec
I think our Water Maker is roughly 6A at 240V so just about exactly matching the AC pump you are looking at. I can’t think of any reason why a DC pumped system would be more efficient but the your numbers are considerably better. Typically DC motors require more service than AC motors but water makers aren’t used anywhere close to continuously so I have no idea if that would be a factor. If purchase price and parts prices aren’t disadvantaged, then I can’t think of any reason why your DC alternative isn’t a good choice.
Guys, it’s watt-hours for energy, not watts. But the math is right otherwise in Alec’s comparison of the Spectra and the FCI. And extra points to Alec for use of the word “abstemious” :). James is correct that the power consumption of his machine is roughly equal to the FCI but we don’t know the amount of water produced. What’s your machine able to do per hour, James? I have to agree with James on the question of efficiency in general. I would think in practical terms you should only see the additional conversion loss going through the inverter to run an AC machine on battery power vs running a DC machine directly on the battery. The apparently huge difference between the Spectra and the FCI must be due to some mechanical design difference… perhaps at the higher output rate there is something that causes the efficiency to fall off dramatically; perhaps their stated power consumption is worst-case and we would not see that on a continuous basis under normal conditions. Gotta be something like that. No way can a DC motor be 3x more efficient than a same-capacity AC motor, all else being equal.
Finally, keep in mind that even when you run a DC machine on battery and avoid the inverter conversion loss, you will take that loss during recharge if you are recharging from a shore power battery charger.
We’re running a 25 gallon per hour Village Marine water maker and, yes, I do know that watts are a measure of power and watt-hours a measure of energy.
I know, it’s actually the spec sheets of those machines say “watts” and started that whole thing :) So your machine is doing 57 watt-hours per gallon… and I’m sure you’re getting excellent power factor out of your inverters.
I didn’t use the water maker spec sheet when I looked up the draw of the water maker. I just looked at the PH ammeter and just read the power draw. What I was quoting is actual amps at 240V.
Our power factors aren’t wonderful on the boat. We drive the inverters pretty hard and make them do very ugly things like run the SCUBA compressor where the loads are very non-linear and the startup current is way off the charts. The water maker is far better but I suspect it’s still far from unity. The inverters just drive through it all without issue. I’m pretty impressed with Victron. The overall load on our generator is also pretty unfriendly from a power factor perspective. Most of our big loads are chargers and they are high frequency switching systems with power factors far from unity. The net result is our 50A generator (12kW) is actually closer to 41A (~10kW) but, other than the slight derating to just above , it also runs reliably.
And then there’s the whole power factor issue with AC machines. AC and DC are only comparable at unity power factor. These AC machines may be rated at terrible power factors… but still, a 3x difference? I’m looking at the Village Marine LTM series: they seem to be spec’d about the same as the FCI. Interesting to note that the Village LTM-500 at 21 GPH and the LTM-800 at 33 GPH both claim 18A at 110V (1980 Watt-Hours for their respective outputs which are differ dramatically). So it’s probably the same electrical machine in both of them, and maybe the spec is written to cover motor start current…
Hey James, Hopefully you remember me from when you were working on the ForeFront acquisition in Exchange. I happen to live in Oslo, Norway now. If you make it to Oslo (either in the boat or on the train), reach out. I would happily make you dinner. We live about 1 Km from the main port areas in Olso (and quite close to main central station).
Hi Chris. Nice choice of places to live. Norway is incredible — we have been here for 6 months and we continue to be amazed.
If we do make a run to Oslo this year, I’ll let you know. One option we might take is to go there at the end of next summers cruising in Sweden since we want to visit Oslo and the boat needs to leave the EU every 18 months.
Notice that since Norway is included in Schengen, visiting Norway is included in the 18 months. A day in England will reset the 18 month Schengen clock.
The restriction is taxation rather than Schengen. More than 6 months in 12 appears to be sufficient to become a taxable “resident.” We’re it not for that constraint, we would be here for two summers and the winter in between.
James: Reading your comment about Propane, have you considered switching the stove top and BBQ to electric before switching the US Propane tanks?
Yes, both Jennifer and I have talked that over. For sure if we were to build another boat, we would not put propane on it. Electric BBQs work quite well and with a 240V inverter, there is no need to start the generator for a quick use of the stove top. Retrofitting feels like more work than I’m up for but we haven’t completely ruled it out. My current leaning is to buy whatever steel container is standard in whatever country we happen to be in and then buy a hose pig tail that would allow me to remove my US hose and put on the other countries hose. If I can find or make a hose that will fit the bottle and can be adapted to our manifold, changing tanks might not be that much hassle.
Looks like you will have excellent opportunities for indoors boat projects the next days.
Forecasted huge amounts of rain next week. (Up to 50-70 mm/day)
I’m stiff from all the hiking so I’ve really looking forward to a break from all this fun. Yesterday was great and we’re not planning to move the boat today either. Time to catch up a bit.
Catching up is good too. Some hiking opportunities are waiting for you in Bergen, when you arrive here :)
Did you get the new nav computer up and running?
Yes, the nav computer is up and running well. The “new computer” picture in this series shows the finished product: https://mvdirona.com/2018/09/trondheim-projects/.
The only issue that remains is both the old computer and the new one have a rare problem with the CANbus device driver where once every month or so the CANbus device driver is confused by Windows to be a Mouse driver and the CANbus signals start to drive the mouse and the cursor flicks all over the screen. It doesn’t happen frequently and a reboot always solves it but it is annoying.
I use the CANbus to USB adapter to interface with the proprietary Masterbus network. I use the Masterbus protocol to turn the chargers off and on under software control. This works super well and has been in use for 3 or 4 years with no issues other than the device driver problem described above. But, I don’t like the driver issue and so I’ve been working on a design that will take over charger load shedding in addition to supporting a second up to 16A shore power connection. This is a simple design that completely eliminates our need for the CANbus adapter and instead uses a Raspberry Pi to turn the two chargers off and on. This system was recently put into production and yesterday I had some time so I removed the CANbus adapter. Here’s a picture of this system: https://mvdirona.com/trips/norway2018/norway9.html?bleat=9%2F3%2F2018%3A+Dual+16A+Control+Box.
The CANbus adapter is now gone, the chargers continue to be under software control, and the only navigation system computer issue is the screen fluctuates or flashes when the gen starts and stops. It’s not really much of a problem but I’m pretty sure that the problem is caused by me using a low quality monitor cable. I’ll order a good one and I expect the flicker will be gone. The new computer appease to be an across the board win — it’s working very well.
Driver issues can be a pain to figure out. Nice to see you got a solution for the CANbus issue.
Is it maybe one of these cables you need:
https://www.komplett.no/category/10166/datautstyr/pc-tilbehoer/kabler/hdmi
(This is a good online store in Norway).
If needed, I could order one for you, so you could get it while you are in Bergen. If so, just send me an email with a link to the cable you need.
Thanks for the reference. They do indeed have the cable we’re looking for. Thanks for pointing it out Trond.
Here is an alternative routing from your current position to Bergen. (I have marked it via the island Fedje, but that island is just an option.
Also you can see I have made a short “side routing” into a very calm and protected anchorage, at the island Toska. This one I have used many times myself. If you choose to enter, notice the very shallow area you have to go around, about half way to the anchorage. Take a wide turn around it. The anchorage is about 7-10 meters, and very good holding in clay and mud.
South of this anchorage, you will pass the island Herdla. This was a German fighter airbase during WW2, and later a coastal fortress for the Norwegian armed forces. Today it is a museum, open a few days a week. The guest harbor at Herdla, is small, accommodating only 3 boats, unless rafting up.
https://kart.gulesider.no/m/fA6cK
Thanks Trond. Both those stops look like fun. We’ll do at least one of them. Thanks for drawing up both options and we’ll see you next week in Bergen.
James and Jennifer – I know it is early in planning for The Netherlands but I highly recommend a day or two visit to Utrecht while you are there. Easy train ride from Amsterdam and a wonderful Historic town. Just the origins of the city name are wonderful! Make sure you do a walking tour and one or more canal boat cruises.
Looking forward to it. Many years ago I spent a few weeks in Utrecht doing an acquisition and really enjoyed my time there but it was 25 years back and I was pretty busy so didn’t get to explore much. Thanks for the tip John.
On your way south, just east of the Stadt peninsula, is an island called Kvamsøy. A friend of mine is often there, filming otters, deers and sea eagles, and it is a nice island for hiking.
If weather and time permits, maybe it could be an idea to stop by.
Also, after you pass the Stadt, on the south side, is a small village called Selje. This is also a place worth visiting, if time permits. Including the small island just outside Selje.
The 3 places are marked in this map:
https://kart.gulesider.no/m/0aYqT
Good morning Trond. It’s 5:40am here and we are we’re on the north side of Stadt in excellent conditions. Should be fully around in a couple of hours. Thanks for the things to do in the area.
You have a picture from August 29, named “Mountain cabin”.
In the western part of Norway, there are several small, old farms like this. Some people still live in those farms, but many are abandoned.
The house in your picture, is most likely an old farm, and not a cabin.
Nice to see you got a chance to explore some of the most spectacular scenery of Norway.
Fun fact: If you feel it’s time to replace your Ekornes Stressless recliners on Dirona – then you have come to the right place. The Ekornes factory where they are made (and Ekornes Marina) is situated just in the middle between your latest anchorages (in Skodje and Norangsfjord).
We knew the factory was in the area somewhere but had no idea it was this close. That’s directly across the Fjord from where we anchored two nights back. If we had known, we would have taken the tender over there. In fact, if the weather stays good today, we may go on a longer site seeing run in the tender and could easily end up in the area of the Ekornes Factory. Thanks for passing that along.
Honningsdalsvågen – the village of Glomset – is by the way the same place that another computer-guy from Seattle choosed for his norwegian holiday a couple of years ago – mr Bill Gates. He stayed at the small log cabin style Storfjord Hotel in Glomset.
I see you had a nice trip to Geirangerfjord. Those mountain cabins you saw on the mountain-sides overhanging the fjord is actually old farms, populated from the middle-ages and people lived there until just a couple of generations ago. I myself got ancestors that lived on Skageflå, the farm you can see on the right side just above the seven sister waterfalls on your picture. It was a hard life – but at least: when they heard that the tax-collector was travelling by in the region they just pulled up the ladder on the trail to the farm, and nobody could reach them… No wonder many norwegians emigrated to the flat farm-land in Minnesota, it was a dream come through for them.
Seems like you also hiked the mountain Slogen, now you earned some serious respect as mountain-hikers! Congratulations.
Certainly Bill Gates and family can go anywhere they want for some time away from Seattle so them choosing the Geiranger Fjord area says a lot about how beautiful the area is. It’s kind of cool we both ended up choosing the same small town at different times.
Those old farms look like a tough way to make a living but the view from their cabins was certainly world class.
We did hike Slogen but, admittedly, our legs are feeling a bit stiff today :-). We had a nice clear day and, wow, the view from the top is amazing.
Hello
I am Wendy Swalm Shore’s «Norwegian» . She send me our adress. Are you coming to Oslo .
Good morning. Thanks for the comment. We are just loving Norway and will continue exploring and sight seeing as we head south down the coastline. I suspect we’ll run out of time on this trip before we get to Oslo by boat but Jennifer have been talking about possibly taking the train Bergen to Oslo train but we’ve not yet made firm plans.
I really enjoy following you on your website, but could you speak more about your abilities to stay connected to internet and wifi and the cost? Thank you
That’s an important question. Our goal is to always be connected. It’s important to us in general and is required for my job. The longer version of what we do is written up in this article: https://mvdirona.com/2015/08/communications-at-sea/.
The short version is we use WiFi when it is available. cellular when it’s not, and satelite otherwise. We get local SIM cards for cellular wherever we go. For satelite, our primary system was a KVH V7 recently upgraded to a KVH V7hts described in more detail here: https://mvdirona.com/2018/03/kvh-v7-hts-twice-the-speed-more-coverage/.
Hi James, the whole steering pump saga is great info to keep in mind when looking at Nordhavns for my future boat. Do you run the pump off the inverter or DC?
Thanks
Chris
Hi Chris. Both steering pumps run off 24VDC on Dirona.
Hi James. I’ve been following the story around your steering pump. Is this part of your autopilot or does the Nordhavn have a pump that assists when manually steering from the helm?
Safe travels.
It’s the autopilot pump. Nordhavn hand steering is 100% manual and so we always have that as a backup. The autopilot steering pump is used by the autopilot system to drive the boat and, when in close quarters, I use a follow-up lever to swing the rudder. The follow up lever allows you to swing the rudder to 30 degrees with a slight movement of the fingers rather than cranking on the steering. It’s nice when working in close quarters but it does mean that we essentially never hand steer the boat. The only reason we have a manual wheel at all is for backup in case of autopilot failure.
Hello James,
It would be interesting to see how your aluminum focus tube works in blackwater. Aluminum is more reactive than iron so you’d think it would corrode quicker however, I suspect it will quickly form a black coating of aluminum oxide on the surface which when intact for all practical purposes seals and stops corrosion.
My guess is if you can keep yourself from wiping the coating off if you ever pull the tube it could last a lot longer than steel.
Do they not make a focus tube out of some form of plastic?
I’ve encouraged the manufacturer, Maretron, to make a focus tube out of some composite material but, at this point, all they offer is Aluminum. I hope it develops a surface corrosion that seals it off as you expect it might. Early accuracy/reliability results are quite good.
James and Jennifer
What are your plans for the 3 Raspberry Pi’s you had in your luggage?
Spares. I like to have 1 for projects or experiments I have under way and then a couple of spares. The old “spares” have been deployed in the boat or are about to be. We now have 4 Pis deployed and 1 that will be soon. I should write up what they all do these days — they have implemented more than 50 digital inputs and outputs, around 15 temp senses, a voltage sensor, a 4×4 matrix keyboard, and a 1×4 matrix keyboard.
The Pis have been super stable and never reboot, never fault, and don’t cause problems. My bench system was recently damaged so it took one of the 3 I brought back. Two of the system I brought back where defective which sounds bad but Raspberry Pi quality control is very good and they are reliable. I suspect that a couple of warranty returns found their way into ready to ship box. That’s never happened before. Those two will need to get sent back.
I loved the dishwasher shot, now if you could just get spitfire to hand you tools, or retrieve that bolt that rolled just out of reach.
Yeah, if he handed me tools, he would definitely earn an extra meal or two.
He did the same thing when I was back installing the new steering pump. He just loves to climb up to my shoulders and have a good look down at whatever is being done.
You should fasten a head torch on him :D
Love it! We’re going to get some work out of that little feller yet.
Hi I hope you are both well and enjoying. I would appreciation tapping into your experience. Trish and I are at the planning stage for our first blue water passage 200 mls 30 hrs. I am looking at options to make watch keeping safer, there will be the two of us. I have not been able to source a non commercial product in the uk. Talking through options with my son he has suggested building us a Raspberry PI or Arduino solution. I wondered if you are aware of any existing products or perhaps an apple app, it would seem a perfect fit for an app if we do not require too much control of other systems such as sounder. If there is not an existing product perhaps someone may be interested in developing one?
Save cruising and best wishes Mike & Trish.
I think that’s a good choice Mike. We originally used a product called Watch Commander distributed by Lunde Marine Electronics. They have stores in Seattle, Tacoma, and Dutch Harbor Alaska (www.lundemarineelectronics.com). Maretron has a very nice solution available in N2kview (https://www.maretron.com/products/N2KView.php). N2kview is one of the foundational components of our navigation and monitoring systems and we really like it. Furuno has an offering as well: https://www.furuno.com/en/merchant/bnwas/. The latter example is of a commercial Bridge Navigation Watch Alarm System. If you search for BNWAS, you’ll find many but, from my perspective, Maretron N2kview is a nice, general solution.
Ship ohoy Hamiltons! – I stumbled across your boating story a long time a go…maybe I looked for engine info for my own Selene 49…which also have a Deere 6068…anyway – since then I’ve sometimes checked in here to see what you guys are up to…and I saw that you’re actually in my country now :) But looking at your trip so far in Norway you skipped one of the best parts from Stadt – to Kristiansund on your way north…but guess you’re doing a stop or several on your way south again? I’m also living on my boat – I’m now back in my “home” area (Aalesund) after cruising the fjords a bit further south. If you like I could recommend some places in this part to visit. Check out this small film I did last year to show how beautiful my neighborhood around Aalesund really is :
https://www.facebook.com/boatingerika/videos/1771808873109495/
Would be cool to see Dirona in Aalesund – Feel free to contact me or ask any questions
Fair winds!
Erika Krovel :)
That’s a really nice video Erika. Particularly the drone video work. And the scenery really is incredible. Our plan for Norway was to run fairly hard north wanting our time up above the Arctic Circle to be during the best time of the year from a weather perspectivce. And it allows us to explore some of the more popular parts of Norway when it’s less busy. So, our plan is fast north but slow south.
I’ve been back in Seattle for a couple of weeks at work and, since this is the busiest time of the year at work, I’ve got some catching up to do before we can start south again.
Always interested in suggestions for places to visit. On our around-the-world tour, some of the best locations we’ve been to have been from recommendations from people local to the area. Always appreciated.
Love the videos, especially taking the time to document how things are done like the fuel blatters.
What I am really wondering though, if you do an Atlantic crossing or any large crossing for that matter, how do you make that journey? Given that you are only a crew of 2, do you split up day and night? Do you keep night watch at all?
Thanks and keep up the great work!
Leon
We keep someone at the helm all the time. Over the years, we tried many different shift divisions for overnight passage. In the early days we did the classic 4 hours on 4 hours off and it works fine but over time we ended up always feeling a bit behind in sleep. We tried slightly shorter and slightly longer and ended up concluding that longer actually was more comfortable.
What we didn’t like about this system is we didn’t really get to spend much time together and I found it hard to keep up with my job at the same time. We ended up evolving to an unusual watch keeping system where I take the helm during the day and jennifer sleeps 6pm to 10pm and 5am to whenever she wakes up. I sleep 10pm to 6am. Jennifer has the disadvantages of two sleep periods but she can sleep as long as she likes on the second one so she finds she can do it and she stays caught up. I get pretty much my normal sleep period so I’m fresh and feeling fine all the time. If anything needs to be done on the boat, I can do it during the day. And I can keep up with my job during the day as well. Jennifer has the more difficult time during the night but we get to have lunch and dinner together which we like.
On this shift system, we both feel safe at the helm and arrive fresh. For example, after 28 days at sea travelling the 3650 nautical miles from St. Helena to Barbados, we arrived at 7am plugged in the boat and went downtown for a day of exploring. It’s really nice to arrive without feeling sleep deprived. I get the easy end of the shift system so I’m always fresh to fix things if we have problems. This has the upside of, when we arrive, the boat is fully maintained so rather than needing to be caught up, we’re done and can go enjoy our new destination. We both really like getting both lunch and dinner together and it feels less like work and more like an adventure to us both. It’s an unusual shift system but we have really come to like it.
We also have a backup system to ensure we don’t make a mistake and fall asleep at the helm, or get busy answering email and just forget to search the skyline, we have an watch keeping system in place. It will alarm if you don’t press a button that can’t be reached from the helm chair periodically. The reason we have the button placed such that it can’t be touched from the helm chair is I’ve read about commercial boats that have run aground with watch alarms where the watch keeper fell asleep and just kept pressing the button by habit but really wasn’t conscious. The watch alarm schedule has evolved over the years to be less intrusive. There is a yellow light that goes on it 8 min, a red light at 9 min, a short beep at 9:45, and a gentle alarm at 10 min. At 11 min without the button being pressed there is a very loud, full boat alarm that would wake the dead. There is also a graphical display on the dash showing a rising green bar so you can see from a distance roughly how much time is left in the watch period. All these warnings make the system less inconvenient and less intrusive and, more important, neither of us ever gets preoccupied, falls asleep, or accidentally gets inattentive.
Oh wow, thanks for the detailed reply.
That watch alarm system sounds like a great idea, learning a lot here. I am also going to implement fuel blattlers myself after reading upon it here.
But first I am going to finish the reinvent 2016 speech, learning some stuff there as well ;)
Thanks again and safe travels
Leon
On the fuel bladders, they are a great addition to get more range or more speed when doing long crossings but our boat doesn’t need them. It can do 2,500 nautical miles on internal tanks. My recommendation is to wait and see what you end up with and get fuel bladders if you need or want them. Depending upon what boat you buy, you may not need deck fuel.
Clicked too fast haha. I was also going to ask; since you mentioned work, do you use SAT internet or only roaming while close to shore? I didn’t see anything on the equipment page so I am wondering what you use. I am an ITer myself and would like to equip my boat with internet while underway. SAT is quite expensive, at least for bandwidth if you want to do more than emailing, and I am reading that wile at faster speeds it is hard to maintain a stable connection.
Thanks again,
Leon
For communications we use 2 different types of satelite system, cellular, and WiFi. More detail here: https://mvdirona.com/2015/08/communications-at-sea/
A few years back we added a highly hacked router that we have modified to have 4 WAN ports: 1) WiFi, 2) Cellular (whichever local provider we are using), 3) High Speed Sat (KVH V7hts high speed channel), and 4) low speed sat (KVH V7hts unlimited channel). The router can auto-select the least expensive or you can request that it manually use a specific connection.
When we are near to shore in built up areas, we almost always use cellular. In Norway, they seem to have cellular just about everywhere but, in most of the world, you will only find it near built up centers. We are often away from cellular availability for weeks at a time and use satellite exclusively during these periods.
The KVH V7hst is 1/10th the bandwidth cost of our other system, Inmarsat BGAN, but the V7hts is still far more expensive than cellular. Both the BGAN and V7hts systems are stable and work reliable with no connection issues. With the BGAN you have to be very careful with how you use it at $6,000/GB (1000x cellular). The KVH V7hts system is far better at $200/GB (10x cellular) and we use it for everything aren’t particularly careful other than not streaming videos or updating computers. In most of the places we have traveled there is no cellular once you are off shore or away from civilization so, in those regions, satelite is the only option.
Hi James,
Is the watch alarm you’ve described implemented by only using N2KView? We’re looking for such a system for our new build. Thanks.
Hi Van. Our watch alarm was implemented before N2kview came out with there BNWAS (Bridge Navigation Watchtander Alarm System) so we use our own. But, what N2kview has looks pretty good to me. We have played with it a bit. The only thing I didn’t like is movement of the mouse or any input into the computer is enough to cancel the alarm. To many users this is a valuable feature but I worry that an operator could signal awake when not fully awake — we like to have something that is not quite in reach when sitting down and leaning back. I also worry that rough seas can move the mouse even if the operating is not awake.
The Maretron N2kview BNWAS is amoungst the most flexible I’ve seen
Hi James and Jennifer! I’m a long-time reader and first-time commenter. I can’t help but wonder how you protect Dirona from theft while away from her. I know I would probably get anxious as soon as she was out of sight. I understand that revealing information about this can be counter-productive from a security perspective but it would be really interesting to hear your thoughts about this topic.
No theft deterrent is perfect but we always keep the boat locked and well lit and try not to leave it unattended in places where it’s not in sight of lots of people. It also helps that Norway appears to have lower crime rates than much of the rest of the world.
When you are staying in Trondheim, maybe a roadtrip to the old mining town Røros (south east of Trondheim), could be worth a visit for you.
Thanks for all the local tips Trond. You’ve been super helpful.
I noticed in your recent “freshwater” picture that you are moored just aft of MY Spiti. I was hired as Master when the owner brought the boat home to Norway. I know the owner has been following your blog as well, and he could probably provide more local knowledge about what to do and see.
Yes, I had a brief chat with the owner of MY Spiti shortly after arriving and he mentioned he had been keeping an eye on our blog. I’ve been attending to invite him over to Dirona for a drink but we’ve been out of town for the last 2 weeks. I’ve been back at work in Seattle and just got back to Norway on Monday. It’s great to be back.
Welcome back! Always great to get out of the office and back out on the water.
It’s true. We also brought home a new laptop for me so I’m getting it operational today. And we brought back a replacement main navigation computer — we were running a 2012 unit that has begun to be very troublesome so Jennifer is getting it running. We have a new steering pump coming this week via air freight. We currently have one failed pump and one that is leaking oil. Changing it will be a bit of work. Finally, for some larger items that we don’t need right away, we’ll be setting up a sea freight shipment from Seattle to Amsterdam. Hopefully we’ll get it sent this week or next. I also fell way behind at work over the last two weeks — its super busy when I’m in town so I’ve now got catching up to do. So, some overhead items need to be worked through but what better place to do it than Trondheim this time of year.
Seems like you have some work waiting for you. Hope you get the nav computer quickly up and running, and fixed the steering pumps.
The computer is going like most IT projects, late!
This project is a big change from a complex, integrated computer with all internal disks and devices to a simple computer with all USB attached peripherals. The goal is to get the computer to “disposable” where we can drop in a new one on failure and just plug in the USBs without so much customization. It’s getting close to done.
James do you alternate your engine on long passages and how often?
I may not have your question right Mick but it sounds like you are asking if we alternate between left and right engines when underway. Our boat is a single engine so that tactic isn’t an option for us. My preference would be to have twins for improved redundancy and better maneuverability. On a 60’+ boat, we would have gone with a dual engine configuration. But, on smaller boats, twins take more space which reduces the space for fuel and reduces range. Twins are just a tiny amount less efficient reducing range yet again. Small boats need all the fuel they can carry to get the range that gives good flexibility in routing and maximizing ability to cross faster or to redirect to avoid weather.
As a consequence of all these factors, Dirona is a single engine boat. To protect against the unlikely event of engine failure, we also have a small emergency backup engine, called a get home engine that can keep the boat safe and allow it to finish the trip at reduced speed (roughly 3.5 to 4 kts). The main engine is a 266 hp John Deere 6068 and the backup engine is a 40 hp Lugger L644.
Along this theme I remember reading that on your boat selection (with maintenance in mind) you and Jennifer purposely selected the smallest vessel that could comfortably meet all your needs. Maintenance is a big item on a boat and I think this was a good strategy. Things like maintaining fixing something like a third or fourth head that rarely gets used would become tiresome. My question is with all the experience you have now if you were to buy another boat at this point would you go any larger? Or would you stick with the same size?
Hey Jamie. If we were to buy a boat today we would end up in a very similar place. We would look hard at each of the N52 and the N60 and we would look speculatively at high speed catamarans. The cats are a wildly different boat and there are so many unknowns, we would be unlikely to end up there. They also don’t scale down to smaller boats all that well — the best layouts are upwards of 55′ or 60′ but a 55′ to 60′ cat is gigantic and really is way more boat than we want. The most likely outcome is another 52 or a 60. The advantage of the 60 is it will support twin engines without giving up fuel and we likely the floorplan but it is a lot more expensive than the N52. Technically the 60 is more boat than we need.
The N52 continues to work out super well for us and, from a size perspective, it can do all we need.
Hello James and Jennifer,
I came across and interesting article today you’ve probably seen but just in case :)
https://www.panbo.com/mv-dirona-deep-cruising-deeply-shared/
Yes, it was great having Ben Ellison on board Dirona. He has an excellent eye for detail and his site Panbo (www.panbo.com) is one of the best.
Hi James,
How have the various spare Spitfires adjusted (or not) to the midnight sun?
How many hours do you have on your main engine now? Are you considering a specific blog post to comment on 10k hours of running?
Yes, we are currently 9,974 hours do 10k is not far away. Good suggestion to do a 10,000 hour blog. Thanks we’ll do it.
James,
Any progress on that 10k hour blog post, or have you been having too much fun traipsing around Norway?
This is a super busy time of year at work and I need to spend a few weeks in Seattle and it limits the amount of cruising we are doing during this period. So, we’ve not yet got to 10,000 hours and probably won’t for another 2 to 4 weeks.
Fair enough, it will happen when it happens. Didn’t know you were busy enough to simultaneously depart stage left and arrive stage right.
Hello again,
An interesting link for you today, called Phantom Islands, which I think you, and your fellow followers may enjoy. Its a maritime sonic atlas of islands which have been charted as fact but remain historically unproven, maritime folklore etc.
So if you want to escape it all, here it is. http://www.andrewpekler.com/phantom-islands/
PS: I’m thoroughly enjoying my armchair Norway trip :)
The phantom island web site is an interesting read. Thanks Paul.
I really like the picture with the Princess 20 M in front of the ice breaker. We do not see any of those euro yachts here in the US. They look like river yachts and have a sleek profile!
The princess is a fairly common boat in Europe and, as you said, they are not that frequently seen in the US. You will see the odd one and Viking did sell some into the US market under the Viking brand.
I had no idea that Viking made them here in the US. I searched and see they are expensive over here. Different topic, are you going nuts with the extended daylight or getting a lot more done on Dirona?
We run pretty much the same schedule as normal. Perhaps staying up a bit later sometimes and getting up a bit later but, generally, the 24×7 light isn’t leading to any changes. And, there are lots of upsides. It’s nice when on a long hike not to worry about making it back before nightfall.
Hi have been following your trips for a couple of years now and find the quality and quantity of your reports very interesting and highly envious! Just a couple of points since you’ve recently been do in our neck of the UK (SW,Devon and Cornwall) the original Mayflower Steps are buried under the pub opposite their current position! And Hayling Island is near to Portsmouth not Plymouth some 250 mile apart approximately! Keep good wok best wishes and stay safe!p
Thanks for the Hayling Island note — we made that change. In the original note, we didn’t say anything about the Mayflower steps but you’re likely right on their location.
I guess at some point you will head south and pass the south tip of Norway. The you could head SE toward the Baltic sea or yo could continue to the entrance of the Limfjord in Denmark at Thyborøn. The fjord crosses the peninsula into Kattegat towards the Baltic. Very beautiful scenery . 2 good breweries :-)
In Thyborøn you find this: https://www.seawarmuseum.dk/en
Both the museum and the breweries sounds excellent. Thanks for the local tips.
Our current plan is to slowly work our way south and enjoy the Norwegian Fjords and, as the weather cools, work our way south to Amsterdam where we will winter. We’ll likely makes some stops in Denmark on our way south. Next year we plan to go to Sweden.
James,
How are you finding the costs in Norway? I have family that live there and have traveled there and found everything from food to accommodations to be extremely expensive. How do the cost for marine items/fuel compared to other countries who have traveled?
Thanks
-Michael
Generally, we agree. Food is quite expensive and dinning out is as well. Accommodations costs seem somewhat high but our read on that is less accurate since we have only booked the one room in Svalbard with little advance notice at a high occupancy time. Fuel is also right near the top end of world prices. Moorage is very inexpensive. Overall, Norway is pretty expensive when compared to most other world markets.
Norway is known to be expencive, and it really is, compared to most countries. Especially anything related to cars and boats! About 60-70% of the gas/diesel price, is taxes. We have a saying that “1 boat money” equals 1000 Norwegian kroner. Makes it sound less expencive.
Most marinas sell diesel fuel complying to the EN590 standard, which is required by the commonrail engines. But some marinas still sell MGO (Marine gas oil), which is cheaper, but has more sulfur.
EN590 is without any bio fuel, while the diesel sold at regular gas stations has some bio fuel, I believe it is around 7%.
In Sweden, diesel is around 50% more expencive than Norway. In Denmark roughly the same as Norway, or maybe a little higher. Don’t know any other European countries with higher fuel prices than Scandinavia.
The last fuel load we purchased in Tromso, Norway was MGO with 500 ppm sulfur. Fuels complying with EN590 are cleaner burning and somewhat better for the engine but, as Trond said, even more expensive.
Hi James & Jennifer. Had to laugh at that picture of Jennifer at Storsteinen viewing platform. Not too hard to figure out who is the tourist and who is the native to the land.
John
Totally true John. Apparently when June arrives, many Norwegians jump into shorts and a T-shirt independent of the weather. 40F with 20+ kts winds? No problem!
Hello, James-
I am interested in understanding a bit more about how you manage the balance between full time work and cruising. Would it be possible to contact you offline for some advice?
Larry O’Keeefe
N5012 Miss Miranda
Seattle, WA
Sure absolutely:jrh@mvdirona.com.
My strategy starts with maintaining a high bandwidth connection as close to 100% of the time as possible. I really depend on our KVH V7hst and we don’t make an effort to conserve.
Hi. I hope everything is going fine. I was just wondering if you could tell us your feeling of both world the boats you had. You had for ten years a bayliner and now 10 years a nordhavn. I know the nordhavn is more than double the price of a bayliner. But can you tell us the good side and dark side of both. In my mind nordhavn is one of the best machine on sea just like a fleming, marlow or selene… but i noticed that you had indeed a few things to change or repair on nordhavn like the cooling hoses under your engines that was not premium access or the shaft you had to change and so on… you made 4000h with the bayliner and the double with the nordhavn so what is your highlights difference ? ( except speed and range of course..)
As a Bayliner owner as we were, they really are completely different boats. The Bayliner was a very good value — in fact incredibly good value — but it can’t cross oceans with only 220 gallons of fuel whereas the Nordhavn can carry 1750 (6,650l). The Bayliner is fairly light at 15 tons vs the Nordhavn at 55 tons and the relative strength of the two boats appears roughly proportional to the weight. The Bayliners is close to 1/5 the price of the Nordhavn and comparatively lightly equipped but it allowed us to go on multi-week trips when we couldn’t have afforded a more expensive boat. The Nordhavn is a tank from a build quality and robustness perspective. The Bayliner is fairly lightly constructed.
We loved the Bayliner in that we could afford it and it brought us to some amazing places but the Nordhavn is a fundamentally different boat and can go anywhere in the world. We don’t regret buying either boat but the reason we moved to the Nordahvn is we wanted a stronger boat, with more range, more capacity, more comfort and more open ocean safety.
As an owner of a Bayliner 4788 (and previously a 4087), I completely agree with James. The Bayliners are sturdy boats. Much sturdier than what they are generally given credit. But even if I could figure out the fuel capacity issue, I would never cross an ocean in one. The weather is too unpredictable and the boat is not really built to take a serious ocean-level pounding. There’s no problem traveling in an ocean along a coast though. I’ve taken both my boats out into the Atlantic and crossed the Gulf of Mexico. Just need to wait for good weather.
Nordhavns are rather rare here on the south Texas coast but there are three Selene trawlers on my dock ranging from 48 to 57ft. Two of the three have never left the dock in the past year except to go to the yard about a mile away for maintenance. That’s a real shame. In contrast, I’m away from the dock just about every week.
100% agree. Boats need to be used.
And after 10 000hours, you know a nordhavn 52 better than anyone, what are the things you would like to improve, replace, delete, move, change…about reliability, comfort, cosmetic, trust and so on.. and does nordhavn company try to have info back from you ?
We aren’t alone in winding up the hours on our Nordhavn but, yes, Nordhavn does pick up on some of our suggestions and ideas. For example they have done a very nice power system design including some of what we have done. And they continue to help us with ideas when we want to make changes or tackle a challenging service item even though the boat is now more than 8 years old.
James –
would you say the Vengsoy is an ‘x-bow’ design?
https://ulstein.com/innovations/x-bow
How is Spitfire liking the additional hours (continuous) of daylight?
Yes, it does look a bit like an X-bow design but the ferry predates the invention of the X-bow by Ulstein. It does look like an early exploration of the principals behind the X-bow.
Spitfire sleeps great during the day and he sleeps great during the night. 24×7 sun doesn’t slow him down a bit :-)
On November 12, 1944, 30 Lancasters from 9 and 617 squadrons attacked and sank the Tirpitz with 12,000 lb Tall Boy bombs near Hakoy, just a short distance from Tromso. The Tirpitz has since been scrapped and was an important source of low-background radiation steel (i.e. pre nuclear-era steel). Bomb craters are still visible on land. The ship is gone but it might be an interesting dinghy trip.
Incidentally, If you visit Bergen on your way back south, you could visit the U-boat pens there. My father was the pilot of a 419 Squadron Lancaster that was part of the force to bomb the U-boat pens there (October 4, 1944). Dad died 24 years ago, but the U-boat pens remain, still used by the Norwegian navy for their own submarines. His 1,000 lb semi-armour piercing bombs were useless against the 10′ thick concrete roof.
Jim
https://www.bismarck-class.dk/tirpitz/miscellaneous/tirpitz_tromsoe_then_and_now/tirpitz_tromsoe_then_and_now.html
Dirona anchored very close to the Tirpitz wreck site when they arrived here a few days back, and there’s not much left to see other than perhaps the craters.
And welcome to Tromsø, btw ! We finally got some sun today, summer has been cold and wet so far. I went by the harbour just now and saw Dirona, she looks great ! : )
Thanks for the historical notes Jim and Rauo.
Its surprising that 1,000 lb semi-armour piercing didn’t level the U-boat pens. That’s a lot of explosive power. We’ll check it out when we get back south to Bergen.
Rauo, if you feel like dropping by and looking around Dirona, drop me a note and we’ll set up a time.
Svalbard…land of the midnight sun this time of year. Looking forward to the photo’s :)
Hey Paul. We’ve already got 24×7 sun this time of year in Tromso at 69.4 degrees north but Svalbard is another 550 miles closer to the pole up at 79 degrees. We’re really looking forward to it.
Thanks for sharing the continued journey as always.
I was hoping you may pass through the Norwegian ship tunnel on your travels. Impatient for sure, I looked it up to see where it was in relation to where Dirona was and then it became evident as to why you didn’t try it – it isn’t built yet! At least according to this article. Looks interesting.
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/06/norway-to-build-315-million-ship-tunnel-in-world-first.html
Yes, if that was open, we would ABSOLUTELY do a trip through it. That’s a really audacious engineering project. Unfortunately, construction hasn’t yet started but apparently funds have been allocated.
James, going of your last comment that pump has got to have 4 or 5 chambers with diaphragms within them taking up the expansion. The pump will also pulse deliver hot water depending on the requirements. You could fit a separate expansion vessel :-)
Paul, what you are describing is a very common marine freshwater pump design. I use several of these on Dirona — one on the pressure salt water system. However, for the house freshwater system, it’s a 24V centrifugal pump where the impeller runs on the pressure side, pulling water in through a check valve and running the pressure up to the desired 60+ PSI. It has a pressure sensor on board and when the water consumption stops, the system pumps up to max pressure and turns off. This stops the impeller but the input check valve stops reverse flow and the system stays at the design pressure. When water is consumed, the pressure drops and the impeller is turned on to again build the pressure back up. This pump design doesn’t pulse. It’s a single check valve system with no means to flow back to the fresh water tank and no means to relieve pressure.
I suspect you are right that a separate expansion tank may be where I end up. Thanks,
PS: Personally I wouldn’t fit an expansion vessel if Dirona wasn’t originally spec’d with one. In doing so you’d be sidestepping the fault, issue.
This evening I had a chat with a family member who works in the hydraulic valve and pump industry, he assured me that system pumps that require no accumulator for thermal expansion are in use on marine pressurised water systems and have been commonplace for years!
This makes me think, and gives credence to your extensive experience and knowledge about Dirona that the pump you have is one of these.
How these pumps deal with thermal expansion is a mystery to me but, if it’s a microproccesor controlled flow sensor of some sort, and drawing just the right amount of water required from the potable tank for constant delivery to the outlets then feeding the back pressure caused when the outlet is turned off back into the potable tank in someway a one way venturi springs to mind? All being done silently and without generating water hammer, it becomes plausible that the sensor has gone out of spec or scaled up. This excess pressure which the system isn’t expecting is then slowly being discharged at the safety valve?
This is just my hypothetical theory about how these pump’s operate, one which goes against my background regarding the need for adequate thermal expansion.
Hi James – have been following Dirona’s path for several years . The track NW of Andenes Friday June 8 has perplexed me. Can you enlighten me as to why the many changes of direction. Did the steering finally pack it in ?
Whale watching. That strange course you saw us weaving is us working our way around the sharp ledge of the continental shelf where the water depth goes from a hundred to 200 feet nearly straight down to 1500 feet or more. It’s a favorite place for the commercial fishery since fish tend to feed in this area. And these same characteristics attract squid which attract the whales that feed on them. Whale watching trips are popular here. We did see a few whales but they seem to be fairly busy feeding and are only coming up for a quick breath before returning to work. Perhaps they are diving deep for food but, whatever the reason, there was no frolicking at the surface, just a quick blow with the whale barely visible and then back under. There really wasn’t all that much to see and we didn’t end up with any interesting pictures from this expedition.
Paul, I went through the pump manual this morning since this theory sounds the most likely to all of us. However, there is check valve in the inlet of the pump that prevents any flow back into the freshwater tank. It appears that once water is forced into the pressure system, it’s staying there and the only exits are consumption points and the T&P valve. If there isn’t an accumulator in the system, I think there should be :-).
Thanks for the advice.
Hi James, give the (free) predictwind app a try. It gives you a direct comparison of the gfs and ecmwf forecasts, plus a couple of other models. The graphics are nice too. Just watch out for the file update times to make sure you are looking at the latest forecast. All the best, Stephen
I did use PredictWind a bit prior to and during the last Atlantic crossing so I’m somewhat familiar with the app. I hadn’t considered them for coastal weather reporting and we’re pretty happy with Windy but another source is almost always worth consulting. Thanks Stephen.
Insulation and secure mounting will probably solve your problem with contactor hum however if it doesn’t. It’s probably rust on the armature or “pole” disassembly and cleaning deals with that. Chattering is a broken or shorted shading coil.
Thanks for the additional suggestions Steve. I’ll go with insulated and secure and see how it goes. I do have a spare so, if needed, I can take it down but it’s a high quality Schneider relay so it’s probably fine.
A question for you Steve: my hot water tank T&P valve was changed 6 months back because it leaked. The new one dumps water on heat cycles. I would think the plastic lines throughout the system should be able to absorb pressure changes but the T&P valve is pushing out water on heat cycles. When running the engine it’ll get quite hot (around 160F) and it normally runs in the 120F to 135F range when electrically heating. I suppose the new valve could be faulty but it’s definitely pushing out water. There is a plastic soft drink container below it and it’ll fill in a week or two. Any ideas or suggestions?
Regarding the T&P valve. I presume it’s a pressurised system, if so, check the expansion vessel air pressure with a tyre pressure gauge. Usually these were schrader valves on the gear I used to work on. You need to drop the pressure down to zero and ensure the temperature in the system is cold.
The required pressure may be stamped somewhere close by, but as a general guide…
The water pressure in a hydronic boiler shouldn’t be over 12- to 15-psi. It should have only enough pressure to raise the water a few feet above the top of the highest point in the piping system. A 12-psi setting will lift water 28′ above the fill valve. A 15-psi setting will lift the water to 34′.
Low pressure or lack of, can cause valves to weep, discharge due to overheating and lack of resistance.
If I’m on the wrong tack here, please ignore.
Thanks for the ideas Paul. I agree that most boats run relatively low pressure water pumps and many also have an air pressurized expansion tank. However, Dirona has neither. We don’t have an expansion tank and we run close to home water pressures. We’re using a Headhunter Xcalibur XRS-124 which, at the low current setting, still runs up to 50 PSI.
Our hydraunic boiler even lower than the 15 PSI you’ve seen — ours runs down around 7 PSI on the coolant loop and this is independent of house water system so it won’t influence the pressure in house water supply.
Thanks for the suggestions Paul.
I concur with Steven’s comment. I used to change the Schrader valves on expansion vessels (aka as accumulators / bladders in the USA) as a routine service item. If water leaks out when the Schrader valve cap is removed, the vessel is knackered and will need to be replaced. I’ve since Googled that Headhunter Xcalibur XRS 124 and the company provide a YouTube tune-up for the pump, which you may find interesting.
https://youtu.be/DNT8hBoN1Xw
Thanks for your suggestions Paul. It certainly seems like an expansion tank would be required but I know the boat pretty well and it would very hard to hide an expansion tank and have me not find it. I’m pretty sure there isn’t an expansion tank on Dirona.
Hmm. I’ve been going through my mental archives and giving this issue of yours some further thought – in my working career I have worked on pretty much everything from domestic to industrial installations both sealed (pressurised) and open vented – installed, commissioned full systems with expansion vessels in all manner of sizes from them being as small as an orange to the size of that Twizzy car you posted up.
Thing is, I’ve been retired 20 year’s now so I’m out of the loop in advances in technology and system design etc. However, in my time there’s been some faults that I have discovered that can cause safety pressure valves to discharge, despite the expansion vessel proving to be in good condition and having the correct PSI for the system!
I believe you when you say you cant find any form of vessel:) The first place to check for a vessel is inside the actual boiler (water heater) casing. Now, given my mental picture of Dirona’s overall size, I would imagine this vessel to be sized in comparison to lets say a gallon of oil container and could be a round flat tank or the size of a washing up liquid bottle.
You say Dirona’s now 8 years old, so things are beginning to wear out, and up to now has been running and operating to within spec! Ruling out the things Steven has already mentioned like the temperature control thermostats not causing the system to overheat and the replacement valve possibly being faulty. We’ll assume for now taht hese are all in good working order.
Here’s a list of things that I’ve discovered being the guy sent to kill problem jobs that’ve had serious money already spent on them with no resolution of the issue.
1: The humble shower mixer valve found to be passing water from the cold side into the hot side when not in use, causing it to over pressurise the system and trickle discharge on the safety valve.
This has happened on the thermostaic cartridge and bar type of mixer valve.
2: Wash basin mixer taps, especially those with hoses for washing vegtables etc are prone to cause the same as number one.
3: Washing machine (laundry machine) solenoids controlling the flow of water into the machine passing water through the block when off. Quite rare that one, but it was in inferior quality machine and no longer on sale in the UK.
4: Calorifer (water to water heat exchanger) with a minute hole in it caused by cathodic corrision. A manufacturing defect which the company wouldnt admit liability for but, the replacement I fitted was a completey different design and spec. This caused water that should never meet, to meet, and gradually over presurised the sytem when in use (thermal expansion) with a resulting dsicharge.
5: Filling loop passing water. A simple one to fix and test, just disconnect the filling hose.
The others, like the mixer valves etc, if these have service isolating valves, which they usually do, just turn them off one-by-one and monitor the situtaion.
A bit long winded James but these are actual events and things worth checking but, 99 times out of a 100 its simply low pressure in the vessel :)
Hope this helps in some small way,
Thanks for the useful list of problems you have seen Paul. Many of your examples include leaks between the hot side and cold side via mixing valves, mixing taps, washing machines, etc. In looking at the system in Dirona. We have what looks to me to be a single closed system where the cold water connects to the bottom of the water heater and everything after the water heater is hot and everything before it is cold. But, there is no valve that I can find on the boat or in manufacturer manuals. The system is 100% open with water entering the system through a one way valve in the bottom of the water pump, and leaving through taps or consumption valves. Between those two points, I can’t find any accumulators nor can I find any way to relieve pressure of water expansion and there doesn’t seem to be any valve between hot and cold. In a system like this, I don’t think I can have any of the failure modes you outline below but I appreciate the ideas.
I am assuming two things one is the water never gets hot enough to trip the thermal on the relief the temperature would be stamped on the valve tag. The other is it the valve seals drip tight when not in the heating cycle.
That being the case all hot water systems have thermal expansion devices installed. Either in the form of multiple air chambers at the point of use which can be covered up and hard to find or, a simple bladder expansion tank which is now the most common method.
It sounds to me like you have lost thermal expansion ability either through the individual devices filling completely with water, or loss of air charge on top of the tank bladder.
If you have a tank you can drain the system enough to inject 6-12 psig into the fitting on top of the tank. If you have no tank you can completely drain the domestic hot water system so air will move to the individual devices on refill.
In either case it means you have a slow leak either in the tank or one of the individual devices.
Reading through other remarks and your reply, if you never had a problem with the old relief valve until it failed there is a tank or multiple air chambers installed somewhere you just haven’t found them. PEX piping does not do good as an expansion device and thermal expansion on hot water is the most common cause for failure. The most common air chambers used with PEX look like a very large CO2 rifle or pistol canister and while they could be mounted many places they are normally near the point of water use.
If none were installed I really can’t imagine why it wouldn’t have been apparent when Dirona was new.
It is within the realm of possibility the new relief is defective however I see exactly what you describe quite frequently and 99 times out of 100 it’s lack of thermal expansion capacity.
The other time it’s the wrong valve for the application.
I suppose there is another possibility since I’m not familiar with the potable water system on Dirona. While I still believe what you describe is a lack of thermal expansion capability, homes until around the mid to late 1970’s depending on region did not require expansion tanks on hot water because they used the actual city main for thermal expansion. After modifications to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act water purveyors began installing swing check valves in all branch lines to prevent back flow situations which then required thermal expansion be dealt with by the building owner. While I am assuming your system has what I would consider the normal foot valves and swing checks, maybe not. It could very well be that your system is designed to use the potable water tank for thermal expansion. That would be the only logical reason I can think of for lack of a expansion tank on Dirona and being self contained, there would be no regulation or law I can think of preventing the practice. I’d go over your system drawings and look for possible restriction points there.
Nordhavn does an unusually good job on getting the details into their owners manuals and, if there is an expansion tank, they don’t mention it. After 8 years on the boat, I’ve seen most nooks and crannies and I think it would be hard to hide an expansion tank that I’ve never seen. As much as the logic makes sense that I would need an expansion tank, I’m 99% sure I don’t have one. It would seem like I would need an expansion tank unless there is some other form of pressure relief valve allowing flow back to the water tank as the water is heated. I don’t think the Headhunter Xcalibur XRS-124 will let it flow back to the tanks so there is essentially nowhere for the expanding water to go.
It’s possible I do have an expansion tank and just haven’t seen it. One solution is to just put an expansion tank on the system — based upon all you have said, it would seem like a functioning expansion tank would solve the problem.
I do believe a functioning expansion capability would solve your immediate problem. It was also silly for me to even suggest with as much work as you have done on Dirona, that if there was an expansion tank installed that you wouldn’t have seen it.
Since you’ve not had constant problems with the relief or broken PEX flitting on the hot water thermal expansion had to be designed into the system. That leaves the potable water tank as the only possibility I can think of.
I couldn’t find anything in the way of drawings on the internet but I did find a picture of a Torrid installation on a Nordhavn that showed an adjustable 3 way valve near the heater that while the picture wasn’t good enough for me to identify the purpose, it didn’t have a sensing bulb leading me to believe it’s not there for convention mixing of water for temperature.
Installation of an expansion tank while not hard or expensive would require room I’m sure you’d rather not lose.
If you have good drawings of the potable water system I would start there first and try to identify what could have changed. Or it sounds like Nordhavn has excellent tech support, I’d probably talk with them and see how they intended to do it.
I was reading about your freshwater pump. I’m leaning toward were Paul was going in his comments and it may be worth looking hard there. It could be the sensor driving pressure that has gone off or, when you installed the new relief valve or anodes the system simply over-filled. Over filling is easy to check if your relief is piped in a SAFE direction. The next time you catch it in a heating cycle with the engine running as that is when it is the hottest, manually trip the relief holding it wide open for a couple of seconds. When you let it go it should close drip free and if the system was over-filled be the end of the problem. If the relief was leaking while heating in the electric mode, you could use the same process and if it deals with it, repeat when the engine was running.
If the relief is sealing drip free and only leaks during the heating cycle I don’t suspect the relief valve and would look harder at the pump and whatever sensors tell it to maintain pressures. The spec. sheet I read was short and to the point but I believe it indicated you can change the output settings at the pump. If the relief continues to leak on heating after tripping the relief my next step would be to lower the pump output. If that solves the problem, it’s probably a sensor going out or needing to be cleaned or another part you might be needing to order down the line.
Since you’ve (more likely than not) used hot water since the relief and anode change the chances that the system is over filled are extremely slim. The key is whether or not the relief seals when not in the heat cycle for determining where to go next and it would be nice if you had pressure gauges on your freshwater supply.
Steve, the challenge to chasing down the leak is that it’s super slight. I dump it into a plastic soft drink bottle and it’ll half fill in a week. Some days it doesn’t leak at all and other days a bit but never much. I’ve never caught it relieving but the bottle slowly fills.
You are right that a pressure sensor on the water system would be a very nice addition and it would help answer this question quickly. I’m leaning towards buying an accumulator and putting a pressure sensor in at the same time. Thanks for your thoughts as always.
Steve, the three-way valve that you saw is possibly an electrically controled valve that select water from the Everhot (the water heater in the hydronic heating system) and the A/C powered water heater. On Dirona, we take from the hydronic heater when it’s running and from the A/C heater when it’s not.
The system appears to have 1 inlet at the inlet to the water pump from the water tank. And, it has hot and cold outlets all over the boat. In between there are no valves and so the system will have a single pressure throughout the full system. The pump has a spring loaded check valve at the inlet so it won’t relieve pressure. It appears the only way to get pressure out of the system is the T&P valve. I can’t find any air pockets or designed accumulators. The Torrid MV20 hot water tank appears to have the outlet a few inches down from the top so it could form it’s only accumulator but the Torrid manual cautions on not turnning the outlet fitting to ensure all air is out of the tank which sort of implies they don’t intend to act as an accumulator.
Nordhavn support is excellent so, as recommended, I’ll ask them. Failing that, I’ll probably install an accumulator or try another T&P valve. Thanks for the help with this.
Hello both of you. first, forgive my mistakes, English is not my mother tung.
As i am in my sofa since 4 weeks now after a back surgery, i found you on youtube and after your blog. I must tell that your way to share your boat adventure with us is really amazing!!! What i love is your technical report on the side that most magazine doesn’t show or explain. My favorite mag is motorboat&yachting which i receive every month and they should let you write a couple of pages each month in it! they make good reports on refits or used boat but a step back from you.
I love your nordhavn and the way you improved it but when i discovered that you had a bayliner before, it made me something…
With my father we have a 3988 bought new in 97 with the 330 cummins so your articles on your 4087 spoke to me !
As you are in Europe and if you pass by Nieuwpoort Belgium i’ll be glad to have you on board.
Thank’s for sharing your dream, it makes me dream also.
Be safe.
Aymeric.
It’s good to hear your enjoying it — we’re having an excellent time in Norway. Thanks for the feedback on the blog.
Have you noticed that the Finnamrken had a variable pitch propeller?
And that it could be set to a 0° pitch ?
Why would that be needed?
Unlike an airplane, I don’t see the direct benefit of feathering a boat’s prop, except of course when towed…?
I’d speculate that the prop could then be used as a sort of a paddle wheel , working a bit like a stern thruster?
Good observation Jacques. The Finnamrken is capable of zero pitch operation.
Variable pitch equipped boats often don’t have a reverse and just pitch the prop the other way so there is a neutral pitch as a consequence of having both a forward and reverse pitch capability. And, a common operating mode for variable pitch equipped vessels to to put the boat in gear before leaving the dock with the pitch neutral. Then the engine is brought up to a speed appropriate for maneuvering prior to getting underway. The boat is just sitting there at zero pitch. Then the helmsman can dial in some reverse pitch to pull away from the doc, and then switch to forward pitch to continue to pull away from the dock. It’s possible to set RPM and leave it alone and run the boat on pitch but it’s better to adjust engine RPM to that needed for the desired speed and then add pitch to appropriately load the engine.
Fixed pitch boats have the correct pitch at full rated RPM and are actually under-pitched at all other speed. Since most boats seldom run at full rated RPM, most boats run under-propped most of the time. Variable pitch props allow a knowledgeable operator to always have the correct pitch for a given load.
This is exactly how I was thought to operate boats with variable pitch propellers.
The school vessel I did my practice for my master’s license, was an old ice breaker tug, with twin main engines connected through one gearbox to a 6ft single variable pitch propeller. The stern pulled the same direction regardless of selected prop pitch.
We set the appropriate rpm, and the rest was done by adjusting the pitch.
Worked very well.
Hello. On the way south you should go by Stamsund in lofoten and Kjerringøy just north of Bodø
Thanks for the recommendations for places to explore. Much appreciated.
5/30/2018: At 900ft (275m) up, we could see climbers scaling Svolværgeita (circled in red at bottom right—click image for larger view). I showed this photo to the domestic authority (my wife) who said, “you’ll be going on your own.” She gets all panicky stood on a dining room chair! :D
One of the places we ended up backing out of on the way down was a fraction of the steepness of the one in the picture but, at least for me, working near a steep edge without ropes is even more scary than even a sheer face with ropes.
Hi James & Jennifer, are you going to Tromso to visit the Artic Circle?
Yes, we are definitely going to Tromso but we have already crossed the Arctic Circle a couple of days back. We’re currently at 67 degrees 56 minutes north so 6 degrees closer to the pole than on any of our previous trips.
If you are interested in something to test “sockets” which I take to mean receptacles, this is a gives a little more information than a non contact tester. Although you do have to actually plug it in. This link is for one that will test GFIC’s however the one’s that don’t are only about 3 bucks less.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Pro-sKit-GCFI-Receptacle-Tester-400-030/206303237?cm_mmc=Shopping%7CB%7CBase%7CD27E%7C27-11_TOOLS_%26_ACCESSORIES%7CNA%7CPLA%7c71700000034367365%7c58700003948993028%7c92700032009050996&msclkid=ad828f08b9dd1cc1371fd40ea412b5a7&dclid=CJKCk6ShndsCFQ6zTwodZREO8A
Yes, thanks Steve. I also have a pigtail that plugs into my international cord adapters to do this. I happen to use a UK device aimed at 240V but, otherwise, it’s the same as what you have referenced. Where there are issues I sometimes bring this tester our but I always use the non-contact tester as a quick verification that we actually have power at the shore power cord. The near instant results are appealing.
Blimey, I’ve never seen a Twizy before, and I must say, it looks like a quad bike with enclosed body panels. Do they have a steering wheel or handle bars?
Breath taking photography, too!
You are right Paul. A Twizy is essentially a quad bike with a steering wheel. But, I was kind of impressed with it. They are fairly inexpensive and, for many errands around town, the two hour charge would be more than adequate.
Long time reader of your blog. Thank’s for taking all of us along on your trip! Haven’t read any mentions but since you’ve crossed the Atlantic have you had any issues with bugs?
Bugs haven’t yet been much of a problem in Europe so far but it depends upon time of year, nearness to shore, weather and location. We expect we will see them in Norway at some point. We have seen some minor quantities of bugs in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides Islands but not much anywhere else.
There was a similar thread on bugs in the comments section of the St. Katherines dock posting: https://mvdirona.com/2018/05/st-katharine-docks/. The speculation was the overall bug density has decreased world-wide.
James and Jennifer,
Loving the pictures and descriptions about Norway. Thank you.
Our new N68 is in the mold, finally, and we’re now deep into choices and decisions including really simple things such as the BBQ – electric or gas? We’ve decided to go with gas because we like the results much better than with electric. At least one other new 68 is going with an electric grill thinking that getting propane in the middle of the Pacific or Europe might be a challenge. You guys have been everywhere, what’s your experience with trying to find propane here and there? Or maybe you went with an electric grill, I can’t remember?
Tracy says hello.
Van
Van, it’s good to hear from you and Tracy. When we specified Dirona back in 2009 we went with propane stove top and BBQ because we didn’t want to have to start the generator every time we wanted to do something quick. We since put in a 240V inverter that will support any load in the house so we can do fast jobs on battery and, on longer jobs, we would start the generator. We can start the generator from any web connected device including mobile so starting the generator is pretty easy as well. In retrospect, we would go with electric on both the BBQ and Stove Top.
The Advantage of gas is the control of heat and not having to start the generator. The big downsides are explosion risk and the difficulty of getting tanks filled in international locations. To mitigate the former, we have well designed storage areas that drain via through hulls overboard. To reduce the frequency of filling, we carry 4 20lb containers and only fill them every 2 years and sometimes longer. We filled in NZ which was technically not allowed but some operators are willing. We next filled in St Lucia. Then Again when we returned to the US. The last fill in the US was a big hassle because the person filling them had a real hard time getting the vent to operate correctly — not sure if that was an operator error or an aging valve assembly. Now that our Aluminum tanks are 10 years old, we will not be able to fill them in the US without re-inspecting and I suspect they might fail.
I’ve been giving some thought to just replacing the aluminum tanks with steel tanks that we get in each country and just discard when used up. This would force us to get new adapters for each country but at least we would be buying a part that is normally available in that country. Another approach is to buy another set of aluminum tanks or go with the newer composite tanks (they were not looking safe enough at the time we last bought tanks 10 years back with recalls and explosion problems). Another more radical approach is to go electric — I suspect it’s just too much hassle to put in new 240VAC circuits for these new loads. I suspect we’ll move to the approach of buying local tanks and new hose connections every couple of years but we won’t likely face that for another year or so.
We would recommend electric for your 68.
Hi J & J,
Pretty simple questions if I may. I saw the lettering you were applying to your new tender and wonder what the type of material & source are. I have a hypalon tender that I need to re-mount a name on and lettering I’ve used in the past hasn’t held up very well.
Also, in a few pictures I noticed you have aft-facing cameras mounted under the overhang of the cockpit. I’m assuming they’re weatherproof and wondering if they’re infrared/night viewing as well as type/source and if you’re happy with their performance.
Very much enjoy seeing the pictures of your travels (and repairing Dirona in exotic places :). Continued safe travels.
Thanks
Karl
The graphics are amazingly durable. These graphics appear to be an Avery printed film installed on 3M SCPS-2 Prespacing tape. Looking at the 3M page on the applications of the pre-spacing tape, they list the various film printing systems they support. The right approach is to find a sign company that prints Avery or 3M films. Here’s a link to the 3M SCPS-2 prespacing film that both 3M and Avery use:
https://www.3m.co.uk/3M/en_GB/company-uk/3m-products/~/3M-Prespacing-Tape-SCPS-2/?N=5002385+8709314+8709363+8710674+8711017+8721832+8729456+3291629821&rt=rud
We have two generations of cameras on Dirona. There are some very old analog cameras that are used by the Furuno NN3DBB system. In this system we have a Flir forward looking Infrard Camera mounted on the forward edge of the lower RADAR support on the stack. In addition, we have an engine room camera and aft looking camera. Both of these are Raytheon bullet cameras which are surprisingly durable but certainly just generic cameras rebadged by Raytheon.
The second generation of cameras are Reolink 4 megapixel cameras and we use a combination of dome and bullet cameras. So far we haven’t had any failures so these cameras appear to be very durable. We have a forward looking camera above the PH window, an aft looking camera on the stack, two side looking dome cameras on the stack, and two dome cameras in the ER, one looking forward and one looking aft. These cameras are remarkably good quality for the price and can be had on Amazon.com for only $60.
*Bullet: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01B4BKJOK/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
*Dome: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010LH48F4/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
We use a Synology DS416 central file server on Dirona
*https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016EWTC7E/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The DS418 is the current version of this product:
*https://www.amazon.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS418-Diskless/dp/B075N17DM6/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1526877388&sr=1-4&keywords=synology
On the synology we use Surveillance Station which is a Synology product to acquire multi-channel video from IP cameras. It comes free with 2 licenses and you can get 4 more for $199:
*https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001JD8J8W/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The Synology is wonderful, Surveillance Station is good value and works well, and the Reolink cameras are amazing price/performers.
Hi James,
Long time follower, first time commentor. Great blog.
What type of (US) bank account do you have. I see Jennifer and you withdrawing funds directly from ATMs in most of the countries you visit. This would be a great tip for US travelers who want to rely just on ATMs for local currently.
Kamal
We’re actually using our Citibank Australia account which has no foreign transaction fees and works well just about everywhere. We also have a Citibank US account and it works in the same places and also doesn’t have a foreign transaction fee. These days most cards from large institutions seem to work all over the world. It’s rare when we find a bank machine that won’t accept our card and, when that happens, there is almost always another bank machine in the area that will.
Hi, Ylvingen is a nice island just west of Brønøysund.
( googel translator)
Ylvingen looks beautiful on Google maps. We’ll keep it in mind for a visit on our way north or returning south later in the year. Thanks for pointing it out to us.
May be too late for you now…but Tromso has the world’s most Northern botanic garden. It is lovely. The blue Himalayan poppies were out when we were there (June).
Hi Karen. I incorrectly figured in Northern Norway we had a shot at being somewhere you haven’t already visited :-). You and Gord do travel an amazing amount.
Thanks for the tip on the most northern botanic garden.
Velcome to Langøysundet. Nice boat! :-)
Right now You are stopped in «Ellingvaagen». (12. Mai 2018 kl. 18.40). Hope You have a nice stay in Norway! Remember our national-day 17. Mai. You must see it on-shore in Kristiansund og Trondheim. :-)
Thanks for the hospitality. This looks like a beautiful stop and, wow, we have been loving Norway so far and we’re really only just getting started. It’s nice enough we might be able to eat outside this evening.
I dont know how much You know Norway, but I recomend to experience the 17th of May, Norway`s national day. It is more like a childrens day as they marching in the streets with Norwegian flag and singing national anthems. Highly recommended! :-)
Thanks for the recommendation.
James,
Wanted to add my thanks to you and Jennifer to the legions of others for your willingness to share your hard earned knowledge. Electrical has been a knowledge weakness of mine and even as I build a land-based offgrid system I refer to your design work often. I have no need for frequency conversion and am putting off solar to the future so it’s amazing how much what you have done is instructive to me. Again, my thanks and appreciation.
We appreciate you passing on the blog feedback Larry.
James and Jennifer
Sadly my travels to the UK did not coincide with yours!
If I read your personal tracks correctly it seems that you have been giving the new tender a good work out.
As always thoroughly enjoy the blog – a must daily read!
Just curious, with your hectic maintenance projects/schedule if you ever plugged that cable pipe in the aft Glendinning locker?
Glad you are enjoying the blog Rod. Yes, we did make many changes as a consequence of the “Alarms at 1:15am” issue. I’ve written more detail on the extensive set of changes here: https://mvdirona.com/2017/12/alarms-at-115am-follow-up/.
Welcome to Norway! I have been following you since you were in the Pacific, and I see you are heading to “my area” now. I live in Bergen and do my boating in the western and southern parts of Norway.
On your way northbound, passing the area “Jæren” south west of Stavanger, it is recommended to have at least 100-200 meters depth. Closer to shore, it can be more rough sea conditions. I would then take the “Karmsund” fjord north to Haugesund. A few miles south of Haugesund, there is a reconstructed viking farm, based on archeological findings several places in Norway. Worth a visit. Also on the west side of the island Karmøy, in the village Visnes, is the old copper mine where the copper for the Statue of Liberty is from.
Further north, the village Espevær might be worth a visit. Even further North, in the middle between Haugesund and Bergen, the village Bekkjavik is worth a visit. A popular and good restaurant there.
Feel free to ask if you have any questions.
Trond,
To ensure we do get as far north as we plan, we’re going to run relatively directly north to Tromso as the weather allows. We’ll then work our way slowly back south, exploring in more detail as we go. So we will save Haugesund and Bekkjavik for the return trip. Conditions in the North Sea right now are excellent, with less than 10 kts wind, but the wind is predicted to pick up from the north a bit tonight and more tomorrow as a small weather system passes. So we actually are planning to stop and anchor in the inlet on the west side of Espevær tomorrow and wait for that system to pass before continuing on. We’ll be there for a couple of nights so definitely plan to visit the village.
Thank you very much for the advice and suggestions. A lot of the best places we’ve been to come from recommendations.
Jennifer
In that case, I would suggest that from Espevær, you can take the “inshore” sheltered route northbound all the way to Måløy. This route can be done in almost all weather conditions, and is well marked and easy to navigate, day and night. It is used by the high speed passenger ferries as well. Then you need a good weather window to cross the Stadt peninsula.
When passing the “Sletta” between Haugesund and Espevær:
If the wind is between south west and north west, it is recommended to stay away from the shore, due to confused seas. Northern part of this area is usually the worst, with currents often coming from 3 directions.
That was super useful Trond. We hadn’t noticed that we could stay mostly inshore when heading north. That looks both more interesting and more sheltered. Thanks very much.
Please see the link for a route suggestion, beginning south of Haugesund, and ending at Måløy, where you can wait (if required) for a weather window to cross Stadt.
The chart can be used for navigation planning, as it is taken from the official Norwegian map authority.
Haven’t any personal boating experience further North than this.
https://kart.gulesider.no/m/BaJUt
Thanks Trond. We just spent the last couple of hours studying your recommended route and it looks excellent. We plan to follow it. Thanks for the welcome to Norway and for sending us the trip planning ideas.
Conditions continue to be excellent and we should be in Norway Tomorrow morning.
Glad I can help. I have learned a lot from your technical info/blogs, so the help goes both ways. :)
You should check out the website Barentswatch, for wave forecasts along the most exposed parts of the Norwegian coast. It is a government/ official service:
https://www.barentswatch.no/en/
For winds (and sea) forecasts, I find Windy.com the most accurate.
The Norwegian yr.no is not reliable enough, especially for winds, which at least for the west coast, is double compared to the forecasted. But the weather radar they have, is pretty good.
You probably already know, but the official Norwegian pilot guides, can be downloaded for free here:
https://kartverket.no/en/Maps–Nautical-Charts/Nautical-Publications/The-Norwegian-Pilot-Guide/
Sorry for your comment not appearing immediately. We get 100s blog spam comments per day and they are just about 100% removed automatically. We need to deal with the odd one that gets through and occasionally a note gets flagged for administrative approval. That’s what happened to your posting and I just approved it.
We’re “enjoying” a Norwegian ride out here with 30 knots of wind right on the bow creating short, steep waves. We’re currently pitching 17 degrees and rolling 8. An hour ago we did a 22.5 degree pitch cycle. I’m just glad we’re not in shallow water.
We’ve used Windy.com in the past and like it although it’s currently under-estimating our wind conditions by a fairly large margin. Thanks for the reference to Barentswatch and the Pilot as well.
With the wind you have now, you might want to follow this route, which ends where my first route begins. It is a few NM longer than the direct route, but is worth it if the seas are rough.
Notice the start point, which should be at least 0,5NM W of the YBY light buoy at “Jærens rev”. It is important to keep this distance, to avoid potential breaking waves. (Warnings in the pilot books)
https://kart.gulesider.no/m/o32cL
Also, from your current position until the beginning of this route, it is recommended to keep enough distance to shore, that you have at least 100-200m water depth. This area, called Jæren, is one of the roughest ocean areas in Norway.
Well, this body of water is definitely living up to it’s robust reputation :-). The winds are averaging 30 kts, gusts to 35, our 5 min max pitch is 17 degrees, and because of the heavy pitching, we’ve slowed down to the 6.0 to 6.5 kt range. We won’t be at the buoy that marks the start of the route you suggested for 6.5 to 7.0 hours in current conditions. Hopefully conditions will improve slightly but, if they don’t, it’s good to have some options. Thanks again.
I see you make good progress. Hope you enjoy the scenery along the route.
After passing Stadt, you may choose a more or less sheltered inshore route almost to the city Molde, and there you need to head out for the open ocean. Notice that you need a good weather window to cross the exposed Hustadvika. (Beginning at the village Bud. This is another of the most rough ocean areas in Norway. Never use the narrow route close to shore in rough seas!
Further north, an ocean area called Folla, must also be respected.
In this chart (see link), I have roughly marked the 3 areas I know of, where you want a good weather window to cross:
https://kart.gulesider.no/m/3lq83
Have a nice and safe trip.
Thanks again for you local experience Trond. We’ve been enjoying the relatively sheltered inside route you recommended and have been finding the scenery incredible. In fact, so good we were drawn into the Sogefjordn Fjord. We’ll visit the rest of the Fjords on the way south but we decided we just had to explore and enjoy one now while the snow is still on the mountains.
Sognefjorden (the world’s longest fjord), is mostly avoided for cruising. Reason is very few (if any) sheltered anchorages, and few guest harbors. But I agree, the scenery is spectacular!
On your way south, when stopping in Bergen: Spend a day and take the “Norway in a nutshell” tour: Train from Bergen past Voss to a tiny place called Myrdal, then change train down to the village Flåm, from there boat/ferry to Gudvangen and buss to Voss, and finally train back to Bergen.
https://www.norwaynutshell.com/original-norway-in-a-nutshell/
You’ll laugh but many of the reasons we’re heading down Sognefjorden are the ones you mentioned. Our interests here are: 1) it’s the biggest one, 2) many boaters don’t even go down it, 3) long time blog reader Jacques Vuye recommended the Flam Railway so we’ll definitely spend a day with it, 3) we want to visit the narrow Naeroyfjord, 4) we want to visit the Glaciers, and 4) the scenery is extraordinary. Your right that there are very few anchorages in the area but, as long as it’s not crowded (and we’re not expecting it to be) we’re fairly confident we’ll find anchorages that can work. We have a 70 kg (154 lbs) anchor with 500′ (152m) of chain rode so we can often find locations that work well that are passed up by others. But, I agree it Anchoring looks more challenging than usual in this area and we may have some adventures in front of us :-).
At least you will be seeing some of the most spectacular scenery of this part of the country. A crowded anchorage there would be one boat only, and yours is definitely equipped for the most challenged anchorages. Adventures is what makes boating extra nice. Have fun!
By the way, it is often cheaper to buy gas for your dinghy engine, at regular gas stations than marinas. Also you hardly ever need cash in Norway. Most people use cards for everything. But if you need cash, get it from grocery stores instead of an ATM: You can ask for up to about 1000 kroner in cash when you buy groceries. (No visa/ mastercard transaction fees then). It’s an arrangement the grocery stores have with the banks. (Some stores only accept debet cards, though)
We need you with us on all our trips Trond! Thanks very much for the steady stream of ideas, thoughts, and well timed suggestions. We certainly owe you at least a beer. If you ever find yourself in the vicinity of Dirona, let us know. It would be great to meet you in person.
Thank you! I will definitely get in touch if we are in the same area. Hopefully the chance comes when you are heading south again.
Here are links to the Coast Radio (Kystradio) VHF radio channels in Norway. They can receive distress calls/ be the link between the resque center and the vessel in distress, provide weather forecasts on request, in addition to the scheduled forecasts, ship to/from shore phone calls, and a lot more… They should be contacted on the working channels, instead of 16.
https://telenormaritimradio.blob.core.windows.net/tmr/1747/kanalplan-vhf-soer_norge.pdf
https://telenormaritimradio.blob.core.windows.net/tmr/1742/kanalplan-vhf-2018-nord-norge_final.pdf
Thanks for the radio references. We are currently anchored in what will certainly rank in our world-wide top 10 list of great anchorages. We’re anchored in Indrefjord surrounded by tower peaks and waterfalls! Sognefjord overall is a gem.
Here is a scanned pdf of the harbor guide for Flåm. Hope you have a great time.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wo1wh9v817et47t/Harbor%20guide%20-%20Fl%C3%A5m%20-Norway.pdf?dl=0
GREAT! We have an online version of that book and it’s very good. Wow, what a great spot we have here in Flam. It’s really beautiful here. What a country!
Good to hear you do well. Hopefully there aren’t too many cruise ships (and loads of tourists) there at the same time.
We took the Flon to Myrdal railway yesterday on the recommendation of long time blog reader and railway buff Jacques Vuye from France. It was an excellent trip. Lunch at AEgir Bryggeri and a great dinner on the outside deck of our boat enjoying the great weather. Today we’ll rent an electric car and head up the Stegastein viewpoint and perhaps do some exploring by tender as well.
It’s a good thing it’s the off season. Even now there are a surprisingly large number of tourists. I can’t imagine what it would be like with 2,000 tourists descending on the tiny town from a cruise ship arrival. We’ll be safely further north by that time :-).
That railroad is spectacular! Have taken it a couple times myself. It is also very popular to do that trip on bikes, all the way from the Finse railway station at 1222 meters above sea level, via Myrdal down to Flom. But the first part is not available before the snow is gone, usually not recommended before late July.
We did ask about the bike option but, as you predicted, they said it was too early in the year for that one but we could walk.
About 8-10NM NNE of your current position, is a place called Selje. A nice place to visit, if you are waiting to cross Stadt. (Looks like tomorrow will be a good day for the crossing.)
Yes, we were thinking of going around Stadt tomorrow and continuing North. We really enjoyed Sognefjord but want to see the Lofoten group and other Norwegian gems but I suspect we’ll be back in the Fjords earlier than originally planned. We just love them.
Agreed! Lofoten is a “must see” area. Also, if you stop in Bodø, a guided RIB-tour to the Saltstraumen, is an adventure. This narrow fjord/ passage has one of the strongest currents in Norway. (Don’t go there with Dirona!)
A friend of mine is working as a RIB driver for one of the companies offering tours, and it was great fun when I did it 2 years ago.
Sounds like fun. We did something that sounds similar to the Saltstraumen adventure you described in Australia. The Horizontal Waterfalls: https://mvdirona.com/2015/07/horizontal-falls/
The horizontal falls in Australia looks similar, on a smaller scale. The link is a wikipedia article about Saltstraumen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saltstraumen?wprov=sfla1
You’re right, the Norwegian version looks even bigger than Australia’s Horizontal Falls. We’ll have to check it out.
Trond Saetre said “if you stop in Bodø, a guided RIB-tour to the Saltstraumen, is an adventure. This narrow fjord/ passage has one of the strongest currents in Norway.”
We took our tender there last night and had a GREAT time. The rapids are amazing. We took some interesting pictures of the depth of some of the whirlpools and shot some video through the fastest flow.
It was a really cool experience. Thanks for recommending it Trond.
Very cool you got a chance to experience the Saltstraumen.
From all your pictures and blog entries, I see you have seen a lot of the spectacular scenery Norway has to offer.
We keep thinking we’ve seen the best and then finding more. We’re really having fun and could easily spend several seasons here. It’s a wonderful place to boat and enjoy nature. Thanks for the helpful tips along the way.
Hi James and Jennifer, I hope you are enjoying the Netherlands (I finally caught on that you have moved on from the UK).
I am looking to replicate your work on struts for lifting the base/mattress in the master (on our 47 which should be essentially the same as yours I think). I wonder if you can share your experience for the characteristics of the struts and your location for installation.
BTW, I have also had to replace my strut on the floor in the main salon down to the engine room. Seems like the original spec was a bad choice!
Thanks in advance and I really enjoy your blog with all of the details. I am looking forward to trying to replicate some of your projects on Home Free.
Hey Don. Congratulations on the new boat. You can always see where we are in real time at:
*https://mvdirona.com/maps/
What we used to lift the master stateroom bed were a pair of 120 lb gas struts designed for heavy pickup truck box covers. The the structs are only $17 each at Amazon:
*https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007MUY656/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage
You’ll also need these as appropriate for each end:
*https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004713BR2/ref=od_aui_detailpages01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
*https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BRF38Q/ref=od_aui_detailpages02?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It’s a really nice addition that makes using the wonderful space below the bed much simpler and somewhat safe to access.
Hi,
on your way further east you might want to stop at Helgoland. Taxes especially on Diesel are reduced.
Regards
Achim
Absolutely. That is the plan. We will pick up around 4,000 liters there before heading north to Norway. Thanks,
Why is Harlingen your first stop in Northern Europe?
They are picking up their new tender.
Stephen is right. This is the new boat: https://mvdirona.com/Trips/britishisles2017/britishisles15.html?bleat=4%2F12%2F2018%3A+AB+12VST
Great looking new tender. Are you going to transfer your equipment over to the new one or buy new electronics for it? Hope the three of you are doing well!
Hey Timothy. The only electronics we have in the tender is a $100 depth sounder so we’ll leave that with the boat. As another act of partial craziness, I plan to install NMEA2000 depth, GPS, and even connection to the Honda 50. I’m not sure when I’ll get time to do all that work but we’ll get to it and I’m really looking forward to seeing that new tender next Wednesday.
Since you are going to Harlingen to pick up the tender, enjoy navigating the Waddenzee. it is a great place to find a spot to dry out with low tide and check the hull.
This boat isn’t stable on it’s keel when dry so I wouldn’t want to intentionally ground it in a non-emergency situation. We’ll be careful on the way into Harlingen.
Good luck with the tender today. I look forward to seeing the upgrades in the future. I hope all three of you are doing well.
Got it as scheduled first thing this morning. It’ll do 42mph in open water with three people in the boat. I think we are going to really like it.
We have a bit of a fuel pressure issue, I need to chase down but I doubt it will be challenging to solve. Otherwise, all good.
James – was reading about your NMEA network crashing due to low battery voltage. Curious to know why you have a separate 12v system when you could easily install a 24v-to-12v converter and power all of your 12v devices from your monster 24v system. Is there any significant advantage in having a separate bus?
I do have a 24 to 12v converter but there is also a battery on the 12V side to ensure that convert faults don’t take down the 12V bus. I screwed up and accidentally shut off the 24v to 12V converter. It’s easy to alarm on faults (or human error) and I’ll make that change so it doesn’t happen again.
Hi James:
Looks like you are enjoying the British Isles!!
On your Maretron I see you monitor battery state of charge, as do I, but separately for all four house banks and the start battery banks. As you know, the BSOC is a calculation from other parameters that the sensors measure. When we are at the dock, or in anchorages, the BSOC is working fine and moving up/down as it should during charge/discharge cycles. But when underway and the charge to the batteries is provided by the main engine alternators, the BSOC just declines till it hits zero. Maretron says it has to do with the charge efficiency setting, but I don’t think so.
The main engine alternators are attached to the same bus as the batteries and chargers, and provide the charge to the batteries, as needed, depending if we are leaving the dock fully charged or exiting an anchorage with the batteries depleted requiring charging. However, once the batteries are fully charged, while they go into float condition with very little current going in/out as the alternators keep them fully charged (as noted by the voltage remaining steady in the 26.3V range with amperage fluctuating around zero on the house battery banks), the alternators DO NOT go into float as they are still generating power as required to fulfill the AC system demand through the inverter. As these components are all connected to the same bus, I am wondering if the four house bank current sensors are somehow sensing this load requirement to the AC through the inverters and assuming it is a draw on the house banks, therefore resulting in a calculated decline of battery state of charge, even though the batteries are fully charged and in float.
Do you have this issue or have any thoughts on this?
Tim
Hi Tim. Good hearing from you. Yes, I recognize those two problems. They are both a bit challenging but both are addressable. Unfortunately, neither is a simple topic so this can’t help but be a bit longer than ideal for a blog question. I’ll answer it here but will end up filling it in and posting as a full blog entry.
On the first question, battery State of Charge (SoC ), the best solution is not to use it. You are right that I display a state of charge in our system and I have invested quite a bit in getting a more accurate SoC report but it’s been a hassle and I’m pretty sure it’s not worth the effort. There are some proxies that are quite accurate and far easier that I’ll cover below. I’ll start with what I use instead and then we can circle back to why SoC is inaccurate and what I have done in an effort to get a more accurate reading.
I use voltage and current as a proxy for state of charge when the system is discharging. The relationship between voltage and current is a complex surface (I’ll return to this below) but most of the time your boat is at a fixed, and not particularly heavy discharge rate. When there are no heavy, intermittent loads on your batteries and it’s just the steady background discharge rate, the voltage will closely match the discharge curves shown on page 34 of the Lifeline Technical Manual (http://lifelinebatteries.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/6-0101-Rev-E-Lifeline-Technical-Manual.pdf). Of course, if you are using some other battery manufacturer, you must use their data but I’m using Lifeline as an example as they are a common choice and I use them on Dirona.
If the batteries on your boat would need to be charged twice a day (likely) then you are on an approximate 24hr discharge cycle since they need to be recharged at roughly 50% charge. Assuming that you are on a roughly 24hr discharge cycle, you can use the 20 hour discharge cycle curve from that graph to get the relationship between voltage and state of charge when you have no big loads on your system.
Of course the absolute most accurate approach is to disconnect the batteries and use the State of Charge vs Open Circuit Voltage on page 33 of the Lifeline manual. This is highly accurate but not practical on a boat during use. What I do is have battery voltage prominently display and learn to look when the system has no abnormal loads and the state of charge is a fairly accurate function of the voltage level with 24.2 to 24.3V being roughly 50% on a 24V boat and half that for a 12V boat.
Why not just get SOC correct? The short answer is its really hard and every manufacturers SOC indicator that I’ve looked at measures the same things and has the same inaccuracies and these inaccuracies are so large under some circumstances that the SoC reading is close to valueless. What all commercial SoC calculators that I’ve looked at measure is the current leaving the battery and the current going back in. They know the charge efficiency (entered by the user) so they know how much extra current must go in to achieve a 100% charge. Just a bit more than what came out.
Generally these systems are very accurate through a small number of charge/discharge cycles. But batteries are complex chemical systems and they transitions they are going through change over time and so the charge efficiency and, more important, battery capacity isn’t fixed and will change over time. Because they are tracking current in and out, even small errors become additive over time and the inaccuracies can mount quickly.
The system can be reset by charging to 100% but the inaccuracies will creep back in as you go through charge/discharge cycles. You can work hard to tune the charge efficiency and you will get the commercial systems far more accurate but they will never be great. Consequently I use voltage at a known discharge rate as a proxy. It works well and is fairly accurate but it won’t work when the kettle is on (not the steady, background discharge rate you have calibrated for) and it won’t work when charging (not on the steady discharge rate).
The voltage as a proxy for charge levels works fairly well and it works far more accurately than any commercial SOC measure I’ve seen so this is my primary tool. For generator autostart, I automate the finding of the fixed, background discharge rate by averaging voltage over 15 min and this works very well and yields a very precise generator start signal. In many ways, this completely solves the problem in that, if the generator starts when needed, I don’t have to worry about SoC.
But, I couldn’t resist doing my own SOC calculations since I would like to be able to display that data accurately. If I display the SOC computed by using the 20 hour discharge curve from the Lifeline manual. This is wonderful and works very well but has a few issues: 1) it won’t show SOC during charging, and 2) it will not produce a reliable number if you are going through a prolonged heavier than normal discharge cycle.
Since the data in the Lifeline manual appears fairly accurate, I decided to program not just the 20 hour curve but to also use the 1hr, 2hr, 4hr, 8hr, 20hr, and 120hr curves. I then curve fit the data to produce a 2 dimensional mathematical surface that returns SOC from current discharge rate and voltage. I implemented this and it mathematically worked fine but the Lifeline data at deeper discharge rates on used batteries is not accurate and ends up producing unstable results. My simple system of averaging voltage over 15 min and looking it up on the single dimensional 20 hour discharge curve actually worked better so I reluctantly ditched the complex multi-dimensional curve fit.
But, I’m a sucker for punishment and I couldn’t leave SoC alone. Even though showing the function computed using the 20hr discharge curve and the voltage averaged over 15 min works very well, I still wanted to get a better SOC number. Clearly I should have left it alone but I would love to have accurate SOC even when charging and the discharge curve won’t help you under those conditions.
I’ve invested some time in refining this and it is better than commercial systems I’ve looked at but the complexity wasn’t worth it. In this model I note that the commercial SOC calculation systems are very accurate at a few charge/discharge cycles but the errors mount over time and get less accurate. Once the batteries are returned to 100%, the SOC is re-calibrated, it again is accurate. Understanding this, I decided to use the commercial SOC number but calibrate it more frequently.
Rather than just calibrating it at 100% charge, I use the 20 hr discharge curve and, since we know it is accurate when the boat hasn’t had any recent discharges, my automation waits until the discharge rate has been very stable for a long period of time and then corrects the SOC to match the 20 hr discharge voltage curve (actually a modification of it that slightly more closely matches the background discharge rate on Dirona). I then use this SoC bias to recalibrate the commercial SoC and report the commercial number with my bias. This combines the accuracy of the commercial SoC system computing current in and current out but corrects the system error that creeps into these systems over charge/discharge cycles.
This synthetic SOC calculation is still not perfect but its good enough that I again show SOC in the N2kview display. The generator still is started on the 15 min averaged voltage which is simpler and seems very accurate but I display the SOC using the calculated bias as described above. Because I had a solution for the generator autostart years ago that works well and I’m used to reading voltage myself, it’s certainly not worth the work of trying to get SOC to work but that’s what I did.
So, with that background, looping back to your question, should your state of charge be incredibly inaccurate? No, it should produce fairly accurate results for a handful of charge/discharge cycles if set up correctly. Make sure the Peukert function is correctly set for your battery type. Lifeline recommends 1.12. Make sure the capacity of your bank is set correctly. It turns out this is both very important to accurate SOC but they are also hard to get right. Bank capacity will fall slowly over time as the batteries are used. But, capacity will also fall somewhat more quickly as the system is taken through partial charge/discharge cycles. You eventually will need to equalize (Lifeline calls this “conditioning”) and, after each equalization, you will return more closely (but not quite) to your original capacity. The battery bank capacity is always changing and it’s very difficult to know what the current capacity actually is to accurate report SoC.
As I said previously batteries are complex chemical systems that are changing all time so, if you get all these parameters right once, they will again be inaccurate sometime later. But, yes, you can get them right and get acceptable results for a period. I personally don’t find it worthwhile so just use voltage as a proxy and continue to work on the accuracy of my synthetic SOC calculation. Where I end up on this is recommending not to invest time in SOC and just use voltage with knowledge of the background, steady-state discharge rate. It’s a “good enough” data point and I find it’s actually excellent for driving our generator start signal.
The second question you asked Tim was “Once the batteries are fully charged, while they go into float condition with very little current going in/out as the alternators keep them fully charged (as noted by the voltage remaining steady in the 26.3V range with amperage fluctuating around zero on the house battery banks), the alternators DO NOT go into float as they are still generating power as required to fulfill the AC system demand through the inverter.”
It’s a great question. The short answer is that this can be “easily” solved by the charger and, for the alternators, the voltage regulator suppliers. If they measured the current going into the batteries then, with the voltage, they will know exactly the state of charge of the batteries and could fairly easily know the difference between supplying 75A to the house with the batteries taking nearly no current (high house draw with charged batteries) and the same 75A charge rate where 50A is going to the battery (Batteries nearing full charge but not yet there).
However “easy” this might be, manufacturers of alternator voltage regulators and chargers don’t measure the current at the batteries and instead just measure the current output at the source (the chargers or alternators) and use this data as an estimate for what the batteries are consuming. For the reason you mention and I outline above, this often doesn’t work. A high house draw will look very similar to batteries still charging. I suspect that charger manufactures don’t like the installation complexity of measuring the current at the batteries so instead using the current at the source as a proxy for current at the batteries. In actuality, as bad as that is, most alternator regulators don’t even measure output at source. Instead they measure field strength in the alternator and use that as a proxy for current produced which is a proxy for current being sent to the batteries.
Naturally, this approach doesn’t work well. It’ll work fine if the boat is just charging but if there are large house draws, it will compound the calculations. Some chargers like Victron Centaur (https://www.victronenergy.com/chargers/centaur-charger-12v-24v) use a time driven algorithm and run for 4 hours in bulk and absorption. These fixed time schedule approaches are a disaster and need to be avoided. Some like Mastervolt provide a vast number of parameters that can be changed but they essentially leave the problem up to you. This is not idea but, in the absence of measuring and using the current going into the batteries, this is best you can get and, although current isn’t known, voltage is known and this actually does give an accurate view of how close the batteries are to full charge. So, the data is there is get the system working right so if enough flexibility and tuning is offered, the system can be setup to work correctly and not abuse the batteries.
On Dirona, we use a Balmar MC-624 (http://www.balmar.net/product/regulators/regulator-mc-624/) to control each alternator and Mastervolt 24-100/3 https://www.mastervolt.com/products/chargemaster-24v/chargemaster-24-100-3/) battery chargers. Neither measure the current heading into the batteries but, since the voltage level goes up during the absorption phase, you can still tune these systems to use voltage as a proxy for charge level and get the behavior you want.
What I did was reads the short Lifeline Technical Manual (http://lifelinebatteries.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/6-0101-Rev-E-Lifeline-Technical-Manual.pdf) and program the Mastervolt and Balmar systems to deliver the closest match to what Lifeline wants under our usage patterns. I can share the configurations I’m currently using on Dirona as a starting point. It’s not quite as good as measuring the current flowing to the batteries but seems to work fairly well. The important thing is to not allow the system to go into bulk or absorption during high current consumption in the house and stay there for long periods on charged batteries. This is very bad for the batteries. Your two goals are to: 1) fully charge the batteries, and 2) back off to float and just feed your battery recommended float voltage the rest of the time.
Hi James:
Thanks so much for the response and detailed information. There is a lot to consume in your reply, but the jist of it is that I am likely correct in my assumption as to why the BSOC is not reading “correctly” while underway with the alternators providing the charge. I agree with you in that I use voltage and amperage as the proxy to ensure that things are working as they should an my experience over three years on the boat tells me that it is. I ran over this information with Lifeline and they concur. Like you say, without spending an inordinate amount of time on something that can be achieved in other ways, I will look at a few options before moving on to other issues.
I will also take into account your comments on the other response related to Maretron for the ongoing management of the system. While I agree that spares can allow the system to get up running again quickly, some of the components are not cheep. For example, the one favorite that everyone seems to be having an issue with, the WSO100, is $1000. That’s not cheap for a chunk of plastic (I know there are some intricate things inside the plastic). Now I am up to three failures in three years, so I have you beat.
PS….what are you doing up all night?!?!?
Thanks
Tim
I agree that the Maretron gear is not cheap but it actually is relatively inexpensive compared to competitive monitoring systems. Your WSO100 at $1000 prices seems way high. You can have them for $566 on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Maretron-WSO100-01-Ultrasonics-Weather-Station/dp/B00K3S4QXG/ref=sr_1_1.
I generally get 2 to 3 years from them. I took the last one apart to understand the failure mode and it was water leaking in between the top and bottom covers. I suspect they might last longer if nobody touches them when working up on the stack. I’ve been careful and it may make a difference. I’ve been told that the Airmar NMEA2000 weather sensor is more reliable but I’ve not seen it for less than $1,000 so I haven’t yet headed in that direction.
Hi Tim, as to your battery monitor perceiving constant drawdown while underway, are you saying that the current shunt that provides battery current to the BSOC is seeing the current provided by the alternator as battery discharge current? What I do is monitor current on the battery independently, so that if the alternator is supporting loads while the battery is in float and not asking for much current, the BSOC only sees the that tiny float current as charge (+) current to the battery and does not see any load current that is not coming out of the battery as actual discharge (-) current. i.e. it sees only the true charge and discharge current on the battery. Is that what’s making the difference for you?
Chris
Chris raises an excellent point. For battery SoC to have even a prayer of working the current transducer has to be between the batteries on one side and the charge source and house loads together on the other side. If the current transducer is between the load and the charge source, it’ll be almost random. And if there is load that doesn’t flow the transducer, the readings will be a mess.
Thanks James. I got the feeling that Tim’s current information was coming from the inverter or the alternator controller or something that wasn’t purely battery in / battery out. Tim, if we understand you correctly in this, this can be solved pretty easily.
-cb
I read “chunk” as “junk” three times before I got it right. Or did I have it right in the first place?
James, I couldn’t have said it better myself, with 30 odd years in the industry including a lot of hardware and software involved in BSOC!
From Falmouth: “The weird things is zinc life has been improving. They started looking good after 2 months, so we want to 3. Then they started looking great at 3 months, so we went to 4.”
Is there any risk something else in the system has taken on the role of sacrificial anode?
Sean
The zincs are to protect the hydraulic heat exchanger. Since it’s not bonded or connected to other systems so I don’t think they can be protecting other components or other components can be protecting the heat exchanger. I suspect the reason the zincs are lasing longer is the boat has been underway less recently but it might also be the colder water.
Hi James, I am having trouble sourcing Lifeline batteries in Australia for our sistership to Dirona. I believe that you may have had a similar problem when you were in NZ. Your advice would be appreciated please?
Thanks
Getting the batteries from the US will work fine for you but you will likely need to pay duty so you need to check on that cost as well. I strongly suspect buying the batteries from the US will still be a big win for you but you should check. When we were in New Zealand there was no duty since we were a visiting yacht.
We bought the batteries from DC Battery Specialists (https://www.dcbattery.com/). Great company.
My (everyday) morning reading before the sun’s up starts with your site. Thanks for all the effort it take.
Love your input if you have the time. I don’t think there’s anyone else I know that has the Maretron knowledge you guys do.
Knowing what you do now, if you were building your Nordhavn now, which Maretron parts would you use to measure levels in all tanks – fresh, grey, black and fuel? I plan on leaving the standard measuring systems in place as backup and using the Maretron as primary.
Also, there must be several options for installing these transducers. Given we’re able to place where absolutely ideal, where/how is that? Are they all installed on the botttoms of the tanks or on the access plates and lowered down? There must be a difference between installs on a new build and after market?
All of our Maretron sensors were added post-build. It’s probably easier and cheaper to do at the yard but they can be added anytime.
For sensors, the WSO100 fails once every two years. Others reports the Airmar NMEA2000 part is more reliable. I continue to use the WSO100. The ultrasonic (read from above) tank level sensors don’t work well for fuel sensors and don’t work at all for black water. I’ve move my fuel level indicators to pressure sensors and the FPM100 and this works incredibly well. I’ve not yet moved the black water sensor but Maretron has a drop in submersible pressure sensors that is reported to work well. I’ll make that change when I next get an opportunity get parts from the US.
Like you, we left the standard level sensors in place.
We chose to have spares for all sensors on the boat to make it easy to deal with failures. Maretron is inexpensive enough that this is not very pricey and it makes managing any faults super easy. We also have an N2kmeter on board to detect physical NMEA2000 bus problems. It was useful in the first few years but we haven’t seen any problems for a long time.
I live vicariously through you and others! I just watched your YouTube video tour of Dirona and your automation of it. Amazing. Techies rule! (I am *not * one). I’ve spent the last two hours on Nordhavn’s website and reading about many of their boats in service. All I need is $$$,$$$. Safe travels—you’re living a dream.
This video is great: https://youtu.be/-hC490NTIJM
Thanks Patrick and best of luck on you plans.
Baofeng UV-5R+, I love mine, the band coverage is amazing. Are you using Chirp to program yours? (And for some reason I thought you were a ham)
Yes, I’m using Chirp to program the Baofeng UV-5R+. It’s a really nice and easy to use program. Thanks to Andrew Dickinson who pointed me to both the Baofeng UVC-5R+ and Chirp.
Hi Jennifer & James, Glad you seem to be enjoying London. We walked past Dirona on the evening of March 9th, she was looking great even though it was a horrible evening. For your information, the column in Trafalgar Square is Nelson’s Column, the statue being Admiral Lord Nelson not King Charles. Hope you enjoy the rest of your stay, and looking forward to following your travels this year.
We’ll get that changed. Thanks for the correction Rob.
Since you are obviously in the area, if you would like to see Dirona on the inside, let us know.
Hi James,
Thanks for the invite. We were in London for a seminar at the Cruising Association in Limehouse, we actually live in Leeds, Yorkshire. We had a good bar meal at the ‘Prospect of Whitby’ which also has a hangmans noose outside, overhanging the Thames. There is another quite good Italien restaurant near Limehouse, La Figa on Narrow St ( E14 8DN ). If you haven’t been there yet the Limehouse Basin is quite interesting, and quite a nice walk from St Katherines Dock. The basin connects the Thames with the inland canal system, and, as with St Katherines, has an odd mixture of seagoing and canal boats. If we are back in town while you are still in London we will be in contact – it would be lovely to meet you and Jennifer.
We’ve been to the Prospect of Whitby and liked it but haven’t done La Figa yet. We should do a walk down to Limehouse basin as well. Thanks for the pointers Rob.
We were quite quite amused this morning to see one of our beloved weather presenters doing the forecast from St Katherines Dock – Disappointed that Dirona wasn’t in shot though!! Have you made any plans for your trip to Amsterdam yet?
Cool. We figured it might be the local news. We’re loving London so have delayed our exit from here by two weeks. We’ll now be leaving around the 15th and heading to Harlingen Netherlands. We’ll pick up a tender we have on order in Harlingen and explore the area. From there we’ll head north to Heligoland Germany where we pick up a load of fuel and explore the island. After that, we’ll spend the summer in Norway and plan to winter in Amsterdam. We’ll be in Amsterdam for 4 months and plan to both enjoy the city and make use of the excellent rail and air service there.
On the reliability of your Maretron system – have you experienced any runtime errors/crashes? It looks like you’re using the integrated display units rather than their black box system with separate monitors. I’m presently building a system around their MBB300 and the unit I have is spectacularly unreliable. it reports hard drive problems at boot up, and when displaying a page with a chart it will run for at most a few days before throwing storage errors and asking for a reboot. I had really high hopes for Maretron until I actually got my hands on one.
I’ve been trying to work this through their tech support but not making much progress. I’m only posting about this here because I’m curious about your overall experience as a reference point. Mine could be an anomaly.
Thanks!
I use N2kview on a PC as the primary display for NMEA2000 data with IPG100 as the server and the combination is rock solid, never blips, never crashes, and never fails. I also use the DSM250 and DSM150 and soon will have a DSM410 in use. None have ever locked up or crashed. I use N2kview on numerous Android devices and, again, it’s solid and reliable without crashes or hangs.
I have no direct experience withe the larger displays or the black box but I have heard reports that these systems have less capable processors so displays as complex as I use on my N2kview displays may not work on these devices.
Based upon the level of frustration I sense you are having, I would try N2kview on a PC. I’ll just about guaranty you’ll have a good experience and will like it. This will allow you to know that the system can do what you want to do. Then you can scale back what you ask of the MBB300 to what it can reliably deliver without issue.
Overall, I’m super happy with Maretron so, based upon the severity of the problems you are experiencing, I would suspect that you are either asking more of the MBB300 than it can deliver or you have a problem unit. I recommend trying a PC running N2kview and an IPG100 as a way to see the system running without issue and then you can work on the MBB300 specifically and narrow down the problem knowing the rest of your system is working well. The system on Dirona is stable, doesn’t crash, doesn’t hang, and there is a lot of gear interconnected. On that basis, I’m pretty confident you can get your system the way you want it.
James, great point on running N2KView on a pc. For sure it will always come down to the quality and capacity of the hardware. Good to know your system has been solid; I can’t believe that the near unusable state of the MBB is “as designed”. One page with two temperature charts crashing after a couple of days of recording. I’m going to keep pushing on Maretron. They’re probably hoping I’ll give up and go away so they don’t have to send me $1500 worth of new hardware. I was initially reticent to depend on a Windows PC for a significant and critical shipboard system but in this case… :)
There will be tasks for which your MBB is excellent but, it appears, you have found some limitations of that component. I personally would be tempted to return the MBB or use it in less demanding applications on your boat and install N2kview on a small Windows system. The PC/n2kview combination is known to work in more demanding applications and will avoid further frustration on your end. Life is too short.
And an undocumented one at that. If they’re really just running out of storage or failing to wrap a circular buffer (my personal guess considering the chart data is supposed to drop oldest for newest) then, well, I really would be left speechless. So far Maretron’s still giving me the silent treatment. Time for a phone call.
BTW, have you seen these micro PCs like the Intel NUC? Most of them are Celeron procs, maybe some have better cpu, but super low cost with a lot of capability, and super small. examples here at amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=intel+nuc
We currently use an Intel mini-ITX motherboard which is a fairly small package and it will accept quite powerful procesors: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007W1KDRU/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1. Generally being sort of processor resources on a nav computer leads to poor operation and can cause instability. Our system is also running a bit database and lots of control processor code as well as an N2kview display with lots of graphs and complexy. More processor resources really helps avoid problems that waste your time.
Were I to buy again today I would go with the Lenovo Tiny Desktop systems like this one: https://www.amazon.com/ThinkCentre-M710-i5-7500T-PCIe-NVMe-Computer/dp/B0751B5G6Z/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1521524011&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=lenovo+tiny&psc=1. These are super small like the intel NUC but can equipped with Intel I5s or I7s which are more capable than the Celerons.
The Intel NUC is available with i3:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/boards-kits/nuc/kits/nuc7i3dnhe.html
i5:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/boards-kits/nuc/kits/nuc7i5dnhe.html
or i7:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/boards-kits/nuc/kits/nuc7i7dnhe.html
These models with the latest Gen 8 Intel CPUs begin shipping 4/6; according to simplynuc.com
Great options all around – thanks to both of you for the links!
Seems like a pretty good option. Thanks for the additional details Drew.
I just RMA’d the Maretron MBB after trying everything I could think of without sending it back to them. I just heard from them last night that my unit had been misconfigured when it was built with an 8GB SSD and loaded with a version of their software that does not support the 8GB SSD. So thumbs down for their ability to pay attention to what they’re doing, and thumbs up for figuring it out quickly once I returned it. They told me that the 5.x builds of N2KView do not correctly support this storage device (presumably this would apply only to versions of the software running on their hardware, not the PC version of it). They said it needed to have 6.x on it for the 8GB SSD.
Maretron support is pretty thorough and they generally get to the root issue. I’m glad to hear they got this one solved for you.
Chirs…this is Tim on Piredmus, a Nordhavn 63. I have a medium density Maretron system, that is not as intense as Dirona, but fairly loaded. I am running an MBB200 and had been experiencing many hangs, freezes and other issues which I thought were related to the processor. After 2 years of Maretron blaming the installation, they finally started listening to me and worked with me for over 2 months as I collected data when the issues occurred to send to them for analysis. Previously I had changed the storage card as you suggested and listened to them complain that I had too many graphs writing to the MBB. That is what the system is built for!!!! While it is important to see instant data, data over time to track trends is just as important. After sending them this data and letting them dig into it they finally acknowledged an issue deep in the code. They rewrote the code and issued me a beta version to try before finally releasing the updated MBB software live. I have been running that steady now for about 6 months with NO issues that I was previously experiencing. With that said, I have had my share of component failures such that while I like the concept of the system, I debate its dependability. My failures in 2.5 years of operation include
Coding issue causing display freezing
DSM250 computer screen failure was replaced
DST transducer defective
One fuel tank sensor defective and replaced
Two DCM100’s replaced
A few temp sensors replaced
WSO100 repaired after failure (and failed for a second time)
Like I said, I like the concept of the system, but there appears to be a quality issue with components or something. I have a red phone hot line to tech support and am working through a few other issues now.
Thanks for the posting Tim. Over the years, I’ve come up with a few simple approaches to managing the Maretron system without needing to call support and some of these ideas may help you as well. My first observation is that the boat monitoring, alarming, alerting, and reporting world has been around for a very long time. Superyachts have helped develop this market and there are some very nice systems out there but they all have one common thread: they are very expensive.
Some of these superyacht systems end up requiring a lot of skill to set up and can be service intensive. What Maretron has done is open this market up to folks that don’t want to spend $50k on a solution. I appreciate them doing that and, because their system is fairly cost effective, I can afford to have spares of all components on the boat. Everytime I purchase a Maretron component, I factor in the cost of the spare as part of my consideration. Even doing this, the cost of Maretron is still far less than the competitor and it sure makes correcting problems easy. If you were to replace any componnent on Dirona with a faulty unit, I could find it and fix it in minutes and without calls to support.
At that point, it’s a solved problem from my perspective but, on more complex NMEA2000 systems like ours, I also recommend you get N2kMeter (https://www.maretron.com/products/n2kmeter.php). The meter will find physical network problems and, once they are eliminated, then finding a faulty component is easy. In actuality, most don’t need the meter. Once a physical network is installed and working well, you aren’t likely to see any issues but I still like having the meter.
Almost all of the Maretron equipment on the boat has never had a problem and I fully expect it’ll work for the life of the boat. There have been a few components that cause problems and, on those, I find a different solution. For example, the smoke detector that Maretron initially offered as an accessory to the SIM100 can produce false alarms in a hot engine room. I replaced that part with one from a different supplier. Maretron didn’t have some of the pressure sensors I wanted with the FPM100 so I get what I want from Setra. The WSO100 fails every 2 years and I really should find a different supplier but haven’t yet. I’m told the Airmar NMEA2000 part works very well.
Generally, the technique of not continuing to use those parts that aren’t producing sufficiently reliable results and having a full set of spares on board has worked fairly well for us. After 8 years of operation, I’m still happy with the system and view it as good value even though I still do replace the WSO100 every 2 years :-). Using the tricks above, you can fix any problem in the network in minutes. I’m quite confident you can get your system stable, reliable, and easy to manage and yet still keeping it cost effective.
And fortunately most, if not all, endpoint sensor functions can be found from multiple sources. It’s the processing nodes that we’re stuck with from Maretron. Running N2K view on a PC is very wise; I didn’t think so at first and bought into the black box solution seeing it as most cost effective. I’m not so sure of that now but I have to agree that it would be difficult or impossible to find equivalent functionality elsewhere for even money. As a software guy, I can easily conceive of writing all of my own apps from network layer to UI to run on top of the device network and bail on N2KView completely but I also know that the value of my time to do that would make the cost of N2KView and it’s hardware look like a trip to the Dollar Store. Even so, I was so pissed last week that I started building an app to catch and display all the N2K traffic from my USB interface. Like you, I’m a glutton for punishment!! :)
Yes, I agree, there are lots of ways of getting data including using embedded computers like Raspberry Pis that can monitor non-NMEA2000 sensors. I have a bunch of DHT22 temperature sensors deployed throughout the boat. But, as you said, if you value your time, just go with the packaged solutions from Maretron. They work well, the are economically priced, the N2kview display system is incredibly flexible and easy to use, and boating should be about enjoying the boat and where you are rather than programming embedded systems and PICs :-).
Hi Tim,
Wow, I really feel for your frustration! Thanks for the war story on this and it sounds like our “new and improved” version 6 is the direct result of you exposing the weakness in version 5. For sure, software which is built to log data needs to withstand the rigors of that job. It needs to comprehend and manage its own limitations in capacity, throughput, etc, and communicate this effectively to the user. Running out of storage or blowing out of the end of a circular buffer or whatever and just running off the road is not an acceptable design. I’ve spent most of my career designing hardware and software for embedded system much like what Maretron uses for their rig and I think I have a good perspective on practical design. I commend you for pushing on Maretron until they finally got it.
Chris
We currently live on our Spindrift 43 sailboat. But, do to my wife’s back problems, which are exasperated by constant healing. We are seriously considering exchanging our beloved Chrysalis for a trawler. We especially love the Nordhavns.
Not that any of that has anything to do with this comment.
Anyway, I just wanted to tell you how much I love your informational posts. So clear, easy to understand and thorough.
Really enjoyed your latest Fender Post.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and insights, and your logical “WHY’s” behind how you approach and solve problems.
Keep up the good work.
Sorry to hear that it’s a medical issue that leads you to lean you towards considering a trawler but, whatever the reason, our experience has been that a Nordhavn isn’t a bad choice and we have ended up covering a lot of “ground” and really enjoying it. Thanks for the feedback on the blog and good luck on your “next boat” selection.
Hi James & Jennifer: I stumbled onto your site when reading about aws datacenters. Great writing, great courage and great seamanship !!
The link text:
“The economics of sea freight” pointing to “http://localhost/MVDironaBlogTestSite/2013/12/21/TheEconomicsOfSeaFreight.aspx” on page //mvdirona.com/Topics/Nordhavn.php is broken.
All the best,
aniruddha apte
We’ll fix that link. Thanks for pointing it out.
Hi James and Jennifer,
Can you remember how much fuel was in Dublin when you filled up last year please?
Many thanks,
Colin
The fuel was sold by Karen Brady of Campus Oil (https://campusoil.ie/) and delivered by truck to a commercial dock. They produced the best price by far in the region and delivered good, clean fuel on time. Karen is at karen.brady@campusoil.ie. Fuel prices swing all over the place over time and taxation position but, back when we made this purchase, we paid something just under 0.60 euros per liter. I recommend checking in with Campus Oil.
Thanks James,
I am approaching the Dublin area so that information is very useful. I will be in touch with Campus Oil and fill up.
Thanks again, Colin.
Sounds good Colin. You’ll be happy with them. You’ll also need to contact the Harbour Master, get a fueling location in the harbour, and arrange to pay a 100 euro bunkering fee.
Thanks James, I did wonder about the bunkering fee.
I’ve never had to pay a bunkering fee before but, at least in this case, the fuel was still a good deal even including it.
Hi James
Thanks for your advice on how to add Maretron Temp monitoring of the hydraulic fluid reservoir.
A couple of other queries, how and where did you attach the TRK3 probe to the reservoir. I see the sensor cable is 10ft and that adding an extention cable to get to the pilothouse where the TMP100 is will affect the accuracy of the probe at upper temp range. How did you address this issue or is adding 25ft more feet of low impedance cable not going to make much difference to the high end temp.
Lastly, I will fit a maretron display (just a small one as dont have much console room left) that is always on due to the importance of data like this temp reading. Are the DSM150 and the DSM250’s rock solid in reliability in your experience.
Regards erik
We ran a NMEA2000 cable through the boat and have Ts spread throughout the boat: 1) at the back of the ER, 2) front of the ER, 3) hallway between staterooms, 4) PH, 5) fly bridge, and 6) bottom of stack. I put the sensor/actuator units close to what they are operating upon. In the case of TMP100s I have 1 at the back of the ER and one at the front (only need two because I’m using all the channels). If you put it in the PH, you might need to run 8 wires to support the 4 sensors on a TMP100 (and more if you are using the thermal couple connections). I wouldn’t recommend runing 25′ of cable down to the hydraulic reservoir.
I use both DSM150s, DSM250s, and I’m about to start using the new DSM410 that has replaced the now discontinued DSM150. All have been reliable. I strongly recommend that you put a IPG100 in your network. With an IPG100, for no extra charge you can run N2kview on mobile devices and, if you chose to at extra cost, you can run n2kview on your navigation computer.
I attach the TRK3 to the hydraulic reservoir by unscrewing a single bolt holding a fitting to the tank and putting the TRK3 under the bolt and washer to get a good mechanical connection for accurate temperature sensing.
Ahhh, your idea of placing TMP’s close to where they are needed is a good idea and i wish that had happened on my boat alas, it didint so now I will have to workout how to deal with this. I have a NMEA2000 backbone down the length of boat so no problem there and I see a maretron labelled box in engine room whidch I have yet to open and see what that does but it isint a sensor termination box. Adding another TMP100 to the engine room as you have done solves this issue.
I have an IPG100 and using a Samsung 10″ tablet with N2KView and it works great but I also like the idea of the dedicated maretron displays in critical places like PH and one in master cabin. Less to go wrong than with a PC. I looked at specs of the new DSM410. From what I can see, they do the same as the DSM250. Why would you go with a DSM410 over a DSM250 James?
For what it’s worth, I have both the DSM-410 and the DSM-150 displays. Other than the size, there is very little difference. The DSM-410 buttons are not traditional buttons and their tactile feel is a bit less than satisfying. The DSM-250 is a bit larger than the 410 and quite a bit more expensive. Not sure the price difference is worth it.
I bought the DSM-250s before either the DSM-150 or the DSM-410 came available. I agree the DSM-150 is better value and it’s a nice overall easy to use package. I just got a DSM-410 that I intend to use in the new tender so I haven’t yet any hours on it but screen looks very nice. I think it’ll work well.
Thanks guys. That help me make my decision on what to order.I thought the DSM 150’s looked good value too but difficult to find now so may have to contend with the 410.
Good plan. I have 2xDSM250s and 2xDSM150s on Dirona and I just bought a DSM410 for our new tender that we’ll be getting soon. We’ll soon have some experience with the DSM410.
I have often wondered when I see charging adapters plugged in for your electronic devices why you don’t install some of these, or something similar. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BTC5I5O/?tag=thewire06-20&linkCode=xm2&ascsubtag=AgEAAAAAAAAAAJJsAAAAAHSEcRQAAAAAWppFtQ. I’ve always wondered if they weren’t as good an idea as I think they are. I’ve got some Leviton receptacles in the house that “seem” to work fine for the cellphones (Android) and the I-Pad used for work. They aren’t cheap, probably more than an adapter, but I installed them in our master bedroom so I could charge our devices without giving up one of the duplex outlets on the receptacle.
Nice solution Steve. I’ve got a location in the PH where one of those would work super well. Unfortunately, 1/2 of our devices are now USB Type-C (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB-C) which is not compatible with that socket. There are adapter cords so I might give the socket a try anyway as a nice way to clean up the cabling a bit. Thanks for the suggestion.
Well, this receptacle is 1/2 and 1/2 https://www.amazon.com/TOPGREENER-TU21558AC-Resistant-Receptacle-Interchangeable/dp/B074KNH1JS/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1520114132&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=usb+c+receptacle&psc=1
There does appear to be a wide range of pricing though so you might look and decide what you are willing to try. I didn’t dig deep to find out of any of these are “specification grade” which only is a measurement of how much force is required to disconnect the male cap from the contact points of the receptacle. A $16.00 receptacle could very well grip as well as a $32.00 one and simply not have undergone testing. I haven’t placed much thought into how that would effect a charging cable or if they even rate that.
I’ll place an order from Amazon and pick it up on the next trip back to the US. Probably not until the summer but I’m looking forward to giving the proposed receptical a try. Thanks Steve.
Hi James
I’ve reviewed your electronics diagram and am impressed by your redundancy. I have a couple of questions. One in regard to your choice of a class A AIS given the price difference. The other is how to contact your electronics person. Finally, do you have an SSB radio?
Thanks
Emerald Harbor Marine in Seattle did the original electronics installation on Driona back in 2010. It’s still operating well today. Contact Larry Schildwachter (cell phone 206-793-7950, larry@emharbor.com) and feel free to ask questions here.
We chose a class A AIS rather than class B primary because these targets are paid attention to whereas class B is sometimes, hopefully rarely, ignored. In busy ports some commercial operators only display class A targets. It’s not a huge concern for us but, for a small added bit of protection, it felt worth getting the class A.
We originally intended to get a SSB radio but eventually decided not to. What pushed us towards not bothering is we have a business need to be connected all the time so we have a KVH V7hts mini-VSAT system that is connected 24×7. If it is blocked, out of range, or develops a fault, we fall back to Inmarsat BGAN as a backup. As a third level of defense, we have an Iridium handset as well. With all this satelite gear we felt well connected and, friends of ours have had lots of trouble getting electrical interference problems solved on their SSB — modern boats can produce a surprisingly large amount of interference. It’s all solvable but it can take work and, in the end, we just felt we had the connectivity we needed without SSB or HAM radio so we ended up not installing a HF radio.
A wee bit of useless trivia regarding the freezing conditions. In February 1814 the river Thames froze and the ice was thick enough to hold a frost fair on the river. They even had an elephant walk across the frozen river at Blackfriars Bridge!
That would have to be an extended period of very cold conditions. As much as we enjoy seeing a bit of snow, once the novelty wears off, warmer would be nice.
The period is known as the Little Ice Age.
James & Jennifer,
Looked at the weather for London because my son is headed there with his university class. Wow…cold and snow. Looking forward to some pictures.
With reports of sea ice at Cowes on the Isle of Wight and frozen canals elsewhere in London, I wondered if you have had ice forming in St Katherine’s dock?
No ice around here but lots of snow. The water is 43F (6C) and the air temperature is 29F (-1C). The combination of low water and air temperatures has our reverse cycle heat systems on the verge of not operating. A couple of the 5 units won’t heat the air until the air temperature in the boat gets up into the 60F range. Once they “catch” they work fine but they aren’t reliable first thing in the morning so we switched to the diesel furnace.
This morning we took the tube to Kings Cross station planning to take the Virgin train north to Leeds and then continue to Carlisle. We thought it would be a great trip with all the snow on the ground but the train was canceled. We could have made the next train work but the weather report continues to deteriorate so we decided to put the trip off until the snow stops.
As I write this, it’s lightly snowing at St. Katherine Docks and we’re surrounded in snow. It looks just great.
I was advised by the first (inept) Yanmar mechanic I had work on our boat that the reason for the black smoke and oil pushed out from our Yanmar wing engine, a 3GM30FV, is that it is overpropped. However, I have asked a propeller specialist to size a propeller for our boat with this engine and he essentially has calculated what we currently have. Our engine specs are: Cont Rating 17.7 KW @ 3400 rpm, Max Output 20.1KW @ 3600 rpm, Transmission is a KanZaki, Model KM3V, Gear ratio 2.61.
At revs lower than 2500 rpm the engine sounds and performs great. Because the engine produced copious amount of smoke and oil slicks, at revs above 2650 rpm, we limit our revs to 2500 rpm. As the engine appears to be able to rev higher I suggest that changing the prop would be premature and that we should have the engine looked at.
Before I enlist another diesel mechanic to look at our problem, could you suggest what areas could be responsible.
The easiest test is to see if you can turn above rated RPM at full load in gear. In this case, that would be 3600 RPM based upon what you have said above. You need to be able to attain at least 3600 RPM in gear and you would prefer to see a bit more. If you can’t get this RPM, you are likely over-propped. On Dirona, we have a lot of gear on board so we reduced pitch in both our main engine and the wing engine to be able to achieve full rated RPM.
In what’s above I said “likely to be over-propped” because it is by far the most common problem but, to be complete, there are many engine problems that can prevent full output. For example a plugged air filter, restricted fuel system, or a stuck turbo. If the engine is operating correctly and you can’t get full rated RPM in gear, it’s over propped. Boats usually get heavier as they get older and engines can slightly lose power over time so it’s quite common to need to reduce the pitch of a prop during the life of the boat. I did it twice on our previous boat and it’s been done once on the current one.
The tables that allow a prop expert to tell you the pitch that should work are a good starting point but they are only a starting point. The reasons why props often need repitching is the tables are only a starting point. It’s not uncommon to find these estimates off by a 1/2″ of pitch and even more is possible even when working with a very experienced prop shop specialist. In the end, the “right” pitch is the one that allows the engine to reach full rated RPM underway in gear when the engine is in good tune (clearly if the engine isn’t running properly, repitching isn’t going to help).
That’s the quick summary. More data here: //mvdirona.com/TechnicalArticles/DieselEngineOverload/AvoidingDieselEngineOverload.htm.
I’ve got a picture in this article that you might recognize: //mvdirona.com/2008/04/transom-diesel-soot/.
It’s super important that you get this condition fixed before extended operation. Black clouds from a diesel are often the precursor to large repair bills.
Very good reference articles James, thank you. Our existing 18″ 2 blade propeller has a 9″ pitch. This is already getting very fine. Although one engineer recommended a 18″ x 9.75″ (larger pitch), another has recommended machining the blades to 18.5″ x 7″. However, I am hesitant to change until I can have someone look into the oil, not just the black smoke, that is being thrown out above 2650 rpm. One engineer I spoke to thought that a seal or gasket could be leaking at these higher revs and pressures.
I just about guaranty you are over-propped if the boat still has the original pitching. However, as you are thinking, getting the engine right is the correct first step.Once you have the engine running well, you can do the wide open throttle test, find the pitch needed and make the change. I was able to get the blades on our Gori prop repitched by Kruger Props in Seattle rather than having to replace the individual blades of the folding prop. They did an excellent job.
Tell me more about the oil being sprayed out. Is the oil comming out in the exhaust water or leaking from somewhere on the outside of the engine?
oil or fuel oil? Sounds like the injector pump might be a problem?
Definitely, oil coming out with the exhaust leaving an oil slick beside/behind the boat. Finding a good diesel mechanic that is available is proving very difficult. I spoke to Martec In the states and as a result, I will get the blades set to 17.5″ x 7″ and work from there.
You will get a bit of oil on the surface of the water when some diesels are cold and, in some engines, there is always a small bit of fuel on the water at idle. Lots of fuel on water indicates the fuel is not fully burning. It might be over-fueling caused by overload or there might be an engine problem like a bad injector or a bad cylinder. I would make sure the engine can turn up to fast idle (full RPM without load) and, if it can, I would put the engine under high load (doesn’t have to be wide open) when under way when under way and check the temperature of each exhaust runner. What you are looking for is to ensure that each cylinder is contributing and around the same temperature. A dead cylinder will read cool. This is a rough test but it’ll tell you if all cylinders are firing and contributing.
A film of black carbon on the transom/surface of the sea with rainbow staining is likely to be partially burnt particulates and unburnt fuel, indicating an overloaded engine.
An easy way to check for engine overload is to slowly increase the throttle, if at some point the engine revs cease to increase but you still have some movement (forward or reverse depending which gear you’re in) left on the throttle then the engine is overloaded indicating a prop / engine power band mismatch. Possible causes are fouled bottom affecting hull speed through the water, partially blocked engine breather, air filtration or exhaust. If the exhaust is clogged with sooty gunge due to the engine being run at half load for a prolonged period (like a bus going uphill throws black smoke under heavy load) this may show as temp increase, I’d wager it could even throw an alarm light. James has covered the injectors but I’d check the simple stuff first.
Thank you James and Paul,
With the information you have provided, now, I feel much more confident in the diagnostic avenues to take. The blades have been sent to Sydney, NSW for machining. I expect them back late next week. I will keep this blog posted.
I use a lot of storage boxes on my service van. One I like is this style by Plano https://www.academy.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_10051_12167_-1?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI76ypmtvB2QIVF7jACh1coAnGEAYYAiABEgJR7fD_BwE. They come in a variety of sizes and the actual latch is perfect for my use. I’ve dropped and cracked them but I’ve never had one come open and spill. Probably the only drawback is the dividers are removable and can come out or shift letting small parts shift but superglue deals with that.
We have a few Plano boxes on the boat and like them. They seem durable and work well. The one you pointed us to is pretty low cost as well. It’s about 1/2 of what we paid (things are a bit more expensive here in the UK) and it looks a bit stronger. As always, thanks Steve.
James and Jennifer, I’m enjoying your blog very much. It helps to shorten the winter and brings the new season around a little faster. I just wondered where you are heading after London? Thank, Chris
The plan is to spend this summer in Norway. We haven’t decided yet if we’ll head north on the UK side or on the continental europe side but, either way, Norway is the destination.
Excellent. I will watch with interest. I’m based in the UK but our boat is currently inFrance, but we intend to do the fjords some day. Keep up with the interesting articles.
We plan to be in the Fjords this summer and we’re really looking forward to it. All the best Chris.
James: Hope all is well. We are getting ready for our shake down cruise and I am trying to get the snubbers ready. What size lines are you using and what length.
For anchor snubber, we ordered an Ultra Chain Grab UCG13 with 30′ of 3/4″ 3 strand. I think we may be using a shorter snubber now but I’ve not measured it. Likely around 20′.
Good luck with your shake down cruise Tim.
James are you using one or two snubber lines. We received the UCG last week and I am trying to set up the bridle. Did you get/use the snubber rubbers?
We played around with using dual snubbers (a bridle) and ended up concluding that one line was adequate and it takes less time to set. We use only the stretch of the line without snubber rubbers.
Ever thought of using an automotive style tire pressure monitor to let you know one of the inflatable fendors deflated? Seems like you could Bluetooth them to a Pi and have an alarm go off.
It’s a great idea but these systems are designed for tires that run at 10s of PSI whereas the fenders run at 2 to 3 PSI. If the sensor was sufficiently accurate it would work and is a good idea. Thanks Brian.
Well, there are some available for motorcycle tires that are sensitive enough but you are talking 100 bucks for two. I’m not sure how they’d last in the environment either.
What is the spherical structure forward on Libertijn of Alphen?
It’s a sun deck for the residents to relax “outside” but out of the cold.
Nice ;-)
so you finally saw some good Dutch barges…many more to see and go when you go to Holland…
They look super comfortable to us and it’s hard to argue with the downtown London location.
James, thank you for the muffler prices. Sounds like you got a good deal.
The work was done by Nordhavn Europe Ltd. in Southampton.
How did you think of having a door gasket and soap dispenser for a GE profile dishwasher on board as a spare?
I don’t think I’ve ever had a similar problem to entice me to even think of that.
Have you had similar trouble in the past, or read about people having trouble?
Most manufacturers will provide a list of recommended repair parts if you dig deep enough but, I guess I’ve never really read the paperwork on our dishwasher.
The lower gasket had been cut early in the life of the dishwasher and a spare is under $9 so we decided to carry one. When we ordered the gasket we decided to go for the soap dish as well only because it looked fragile. It’s a bit more expensive at $56 but it seems worth it.
So the gasket was an issue you knew could possibly turn up down the road, and the soap dispenser was a intuitive guess?
I spent last night going through the parts list for several appliances that we own, things like elements or were a easy choice but without getting one of everything I would have had no idea where to start.
Even things like belts I had to wonder as belts do go bad sitting on a shelf. They would get you going but service life could be much shorter if they were old enough.
I should be careful I don’t oversell my prescience. We had the dishwasher apart to change the damaged lower seal many years ago and were kind of amazed at how flimsy many of the parts where so we ordered the parts that looked mostly likely to fail. We don’t have the same level of backup for the washer and dryer which quite likely also have some weak components. On the refrigerator which we consider very mission critical, we didn’t need to take it apart but did a pass through the parts book looking for candidate parts that might fail.
On home appliance you can get parts quickly and easily so there is less value in predicating failure and being ready. Even here in the UK, when we are spending some time in one spot, we can get parts fairly quickly from the US (but with customs and duty issues).
Since you’re fairly close to it, I would recommend checking out a pub called “Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese.” It’s kind of hard to fine, tucked in an alley, but I believe it’s one of the oldest pubs in London, going back as far as 1538. My wife and I visited a couple years back and had a great time. If you do go, be sure to head down to the bottom floor, which I think is 3 floors underground. No windows, feels much like a cellar, super interesting atmosphere. We had some beer and meat pies which were excellent.
Cool. We’ll check it out. Thanks for the pointer Robert.
Hi James
My wife and I enjoy your blog immensely as a source of practical information as well as adventure. We are planning to purchase a Nordhavn 475 and wonder what minimum electronic package you would consider appropriate for this boat.
We have also looked at a 2009 52 that we really like but it lacks a flybridge. How important do you find your flybridge?
THanks
The 2009 52 would be Stella Maris. The previous owner took excellent care of her and it’s a nice boat.
On electronics packages, there really isn’t one choice and there are a wide multitude of opinions out there. On our previous boat we had Raymarine and they were OK but the service in the Seattle area wasn’t great. Most of the professional fishing boats sailing out seem to use Furuno so we decided to go with them on Dirona. Simrad is another reasonable choice but we decided that we wanted to go with what was most common on commercial boats that depended upon their gear to be able to make money. I would prefer to go with individual components rather than integrated systems since integrated systems don’t allow you to chose the best in each component but all the electronics companies make integrated solutions and, although it’s possible to use separate components, they make the integrated solution so much more cost effective you are just about stuck going that way.
Our pragmatic approach to dealing with the problem of integrated electronics was to buy the current Furuno NavNet3d system knowing that warranty will solve problems in the early days. As the system aged, I bought a used one to use as a spare that was being replaced with the latest and greatest so we now have a full spare on board as well. This is important on aging systems where parts prices are high.
You would think that if you bought an integrated system everything would “just work” but, no matter what you chose, you will find some teething problems and it’ll take time to get the system stable and working well. Once you do, it’ll likely stay that way but you will almost certainly see early problems.
We chose to use standard computer monitors rather than marine monitors because they are far better price/performers: //mvdirona.com/2010/05/night-running-monitor-covers/. We been pretty happy with these monitors and have 6 in use.
We want redundancy so we have one MFDBB controlling two monitors and a PC driving two other monitors. If you use Furuno, you can run Time Zero on the PC and they can share the same navigation data. Chart data can be expensive if you range long distances so sharing is very nice. Either system is capable of showing all data and we have spares for both.
For RADAR, we really like high quality systems so we spent bigger than strictly necessary there and bought a Furuno 25kW 6′ open array that we just love. We are also big believers in AIS so have a class A system (Furuno FA-150).
Overall the system has performed very well and 8 years later we still aren’t longing to upgrade it.
James got focused on electronics and missed your flybridge question. We wouldn’t view a flybridge as a showstopper, but were we to buy again we would get a flybridge. We like having it. On our previous boat we used the flybridge heavily, particularly for docking, but only dock from the pilothouse in this boat. We generally use the flybridge for entertaining and sometimes for riding up top in beautiful views such as in Alaska or for fun when out in the middle of an ocean. We do really like the storage space in the brow though—it’s quite large on the 52. The second picture in //mvdirona.com/2010/11/really-useful-boxes/ shows the port side.
Jennifer
Hi James and Jennifer – is your NavNet system sending NMEA 0183 position data to a VHF radio? If so, what brand/model, please? We have your system on N4066 but our Standard Horizon radio is not receiving position data. As usual, thanks for the adventures.
We use Icom M604 VHF radios. In our case we use a Furuno NMEA2000 to NMEA0183 multiplexer to send the needed data to the Nav computer, both VHF radios, and to one of the input channels on the AIX. All but the VHF are fed position data in other ways and I use the multiplexer as a backup channel.
Sending NMEA0183 from the NN3D MFDBB requires that you go into configuration mode on the MFDBB and enable position data to be sent out on the NMEA0183 connection.
When working with NMEA0183 from any device, you can configure a laptop to read NMEA0183. It’s a hassle to setup but, once you have it working, it makes debugging 0183 much easier. Get a serial connection to USB accessory plugged into your laptop. Take a serial connection pigtail that you can plug into the USB serial interface. Take the send and receive wires and put aligator clips on them. Connect them to a known good NMEA0183 connection (polarity matters) and using a terminal interface like Putty, you can read the NMEA0183 data. It’s a bit messy to set up but the configuration makes debugging 0183 much easier.
Ideally, you should just be able to go into the MFDBB setup program, enable position data to be sent on the appropriate NMEA0183 interface, connect that to your radios and be done. Make sure you look up the expected baud rate (transmission speed) your radios expect and set that appropriately.
Thank you James!
If you enjoy steam engines, you could check out the Crossness Pumping Station while you are in London. It is quite impressive!
They used to power up one of the steam engines but seems to only be open for tours now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossness_Pumping_Station
http://www.crossness.org.uk/
The Crossness Pumping Station looks like a great stop. 1,500 gal (6,800l) per revolution — they must be massive. Thanks for pointing it out Drew.
Hello Jennifer and James,
Is there another Nordhavn in front of you at St. Katharine Docks?
Best Regards
Horst,
Yes–that’s Nordhavn 55 Shogun in front of us.
Jennifer
Hi James,
On your time zero you show the CPA with the blue crosses. I am surprised the 2 crosses ahead of you appear well north of your track as you will never be in those positions? is this because the sytsem is using heading data rather than track data? I did wonder if the system was showing where you need to be to achieve your 2nm CPA but this does not correlate to the closer 2 crosses.
Your first guess is correct, the system is taking speed and heading data to extrapolate where the CPA will be. It would be better if they were using course made good rather than heading. In most cases it doesn’t matter but, in the the picture, the strong currents against us are causing the autopilot to head to the north in order to maintain the desired course made good path.
The approximation of just looking at where the course line crosses the dark blue CPA indication lines is a pretty close to the CPA.
I believe you mean the Tower Bridge. The Tower of London is the royal residence north of the river, NW of your berth.
Thanks for the correction Walt. We’ve updated the text.
Your post regarding your ProStock fenders was timed perfectly for us. We are tired or lugging around are large standard fenders and are going to switch to inflatable fenders. At this point, would your recommendation be the Aere or ProStock fenders?
I think we would be looking at the same size as you have – 18″ x 42″. Our boat is a 54′ Choey Lee LRT (about 42 tons fully loaded).
Thanks,
Jim and Rosy Addington
M/V Sea Venture
On fenders, four recent incidents over the last two months have caught my attention and caused me to feel less confidence using only inflatables: 1) A super yacht in Falmouth had all of it’s fenders blow up on dock in 53 kts winds. The boat was saved by the Marina staff installing large conventional Polyform fenders that really weren’t that big but, since these non-inflatible fenders are much higher mass to area, they didn’t blow up on dock and protected the boat, 2) in the same 53 kt wind in Falmouth, we had our stern-ward fender blow up on dock but were saved by other fenders along the same side, 3) we had the double fender failure in Dublin where two side-by-side fenders failed. In this case the boat was saved by the size of all the other fenders just barely keeping Dirona off the dock in around 35 kts of wind, and 4) in 73 kts of wind in Portland, we had the front three fender all blow up onto the boat walkway. In this case, the boat was saved from damage only by the fact that the wind was blowing off the dock rather than on.
One technique I’ve heard works well is to weight down the inflatable fenders. Another is to get a couple of large Polyforms to augment the inflatable set. We’ve decided to do the later and have ordered two Polyform F8s to augment or inflatable fenders. It’s easy to to store two non-inflatables but storing the full set would be a challenge so we will stick with mostly inflatables.
On deciding what inflatables to use, we’ve not really found the right answer yet but here is what I’ve learned so far: Aere in the early days used a very heavy fabric that would last forever. I don’t think anything would wear through the Aere fenders fabric. It is at least twice as durable as the material used by Prostock. But, the Aere’s wouldn’t hold air. The glued seams leaked and, for all their fabric durability, they wouldn’t stay inflated. Aere sent repair materials and was very nice but, in the end, it didn’t work. Attempting to fix them was a waste of time and never stopped so we replaced them after 2 years and having spent $2,000 with Prostock Marine. The Prostock Fenders have dangerously thin material but with welded seams that shouldn’t leak. The good news is the Prostocks don’t leak but the bad news is the material is quite thin and, after three years, we have had 2 fabric failures and it looks like more failures are coming soon.
The cost of sending back either an Aere or Prostock marine fender for warranty service and getting it back from a world location makes the warranty, if they are willing to stand behind the product and Prostock isn’t impressive on the customer support end, effectively useless. It cost as much to send a fender two ways as it does to just replace it. We really need fenders that work and, if you are away from North America, it’s not cost effective to send them back for warranty service. Given the cost of a set of inflatable fenders is around $2,000, replacing them every 3 years doesn’t seem cost effective and, so far, we have gone through more than $4,000 in 5 years so we are looking for a better solution.
Aere has moved from a welded seam from the previous glued seams that didn’t work so that product probably now works. I’ve seen the new Aere in use on super yachts and it appears they are back to competing with a solid product. Without having tried Aere, I suspect they are now as good as Prostock Marine and you could chose either.
Given I spent $2,000 for 2 years of Aere use and $2,000 for 3 years of Prostock Marine use, I don’t feel like either makes good economic sense so we’re looking for other answers and will write up what we find. Our current plan looks like this: 1) buy 2 Polyform F8 for high wind conditions where inflatables fly away (could also weight down inflatables) and for very high load and high abrasion where Prostock’s don’t have the fabric thickness to give good durability, and 2) we’ll start sampling lower cost inflatables on the argument that, if there really is no warranty on Aere or Prostock and neither is sufficiently durable to last the 7 to 10 years we would like, then buying a lower cost product and replacing more frequently might be the right answer.
For sure we are going with 2 Polyforms and feel good about that decision. On our plan to buy 1 low cost inflatable fender and see how it does, it’s a low cost experiment. I can buy a low cost inflatables of the same dimensions as the Aere or Prostock fenders that have failed for less than 1/2 the price. Let’s see if they work and last as long and we’ll write up what we learn. Generally, our goal is to either not replace the fenders in 3 to 4 years or, if we do, not to spend $2,000 each time. All we know for sure at this point is we have not yet found the right answer but we have 2 Polform F8s on order and the first low cost inflatable fender experiment is on order as well. We’ll post what we learn.
Welcome to London
Thanks for the welcome Andrea. It’s exciting to be here. St. Katherine Dock is an amazing location and a very nice marina.
It looks like you made it just after dark?
Yes, just after dark and with a couple of knots of current running from astern to keep us on our toes as we docked Dirona. We’re right on the river and the ferries speed past us with gigantic wakes but, one of the advantages of heavy boat, is even big wakes aren’t that big a deal. We had a great night and slept well. Pretty amazing to be docked with the Tower of London only a few hundred feet ahead. Great view.
This morning, when the lock at St. Katherine Dock opened, we went into the Marina. Very nice and, wow, what a location!
Glad you are there safe. Vibration not an issue? Spitfire all good?
No noticeable vibration. The Packless Shaft Seal collar is moving a bit more than I like but it’s not leaking and it may be the case we can get it moving less after the final alignment. All seems good and, yes, Spitfire appear to be 100% recovered and just as energetic, curious, and vocal as ever.
Good Evening from Melbourne, Australia,
I see that you are entering the Thames heading for St Katherines & thought you might be interested in a short You tube drone video posted by Braun Jones ( Ocean Pearl ) back in 2014.
Can be found at “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB-mlEnEUbE&feature=youtube_gdata”.
Regards
Malcolm Dale
We’re tucked away in St. Katherine this morning and enjoying an impressively nice marina at an incredible location. Loving it already!
Hello James,
You must have gotten the shaft run out problem fixed. That looks like more than a sea trial :)
Yes, I decided that prop shaft alignment perfection was for boaters that don’t want to visit London. The prop shaft is slightly out of true or there is an alignment issues. I’ll check the alignment in London. Technically, it’s slightly out of ABYC specs but it’s close and we bought the boat to enjoy the world rather than the yard (which was very nice but a month was enough). We’ll align the engine and check runout again in London.
If it’s alignment and you continue to have issues getting it right, you might consider finding a company doing millwright work that has one of these: https://www.gamut.com/p/fluke-laser-shaft-alignment-tool-wireless-alignment-1-beams-0-dots-NjcyMjUy?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&adpos=1o4&scid=scplp395K887&sc_intid=395K887&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIk8nDi–Y2QIVHrjACh2xuglmEAQYBCABEgLlzPD_BwE. (or something similar there are various brands). If it’s shaft being out of true, I’ve used a guy out of St. Louis many times on big air handling units to balance the shaft in place. I wouldn’t think a prop shaft would be any different. Someone over there should specialize in that.
Thanks Steve. Getting the engine and shaft aligned is pretty easy on this boat. I normally get get it aligned sufficiently well that when you spin the prop by hand out of the water, it keeps spinning a half turn. The problem here is the shaft and shaft coupling assembly is not dead straight. In the last go around this was vastly improved but it’s still slightly out of spec. Measured at the center of the shaft, run out is 0.0035″ and measured at the coupling it’s 0.0016″. That data implies the shaft coupling taper, flange face, and registration are all sufficiently good but the shaft is slightly out of spec. My intention is to realign and remeasure in London and likely do nothing until the boat next comes out of the water since the deviation at this point is very small.
Hello James,
I hope that you may be able to assist. I would like to refresh the oil in our Niaid stabilizers. Niaid recommends “quality SAE10W-40 motor oil” . I would prefer to drain only the reservoir, not the hoses etc, so I do not need to bleed the system
The dilemma I have is that I cannot find 100% mineral oil, all 10W-40 is at least partially synthetic. Do you think a partially synthetic oil would be a problem?
High pressure hydraulic systems self bleed so no need to worry about that. The air clears just about instantly as the system comes up to full pressure.
On oil quality, you could confirm with Niaid but, if all they specify is “quality SAE10W-40 motor oil” I can’t see a problem using the semi-synthetic blends common in the multi-grade engine oil market these days. All modern oils of that grade appear to meet their specification.
I have a few questions.
A. What do you use for an anchor snubber, we have 400 feet of chain on a 150lb Rocna anchor?
B. What are you using for a backup anchor system?
C. What type of flare package are you carrying?
D. What are you using for a towing package?
E. What are you doing for an emergency hull breach kit?
Good set of questions Tim. You asked:
A. What do you use for an anchor snubber, we have 400 feet of chain on a 150lb Rocna anchor?
[jrh]We use an Ultra Chain Grab UCG13 and about 35′ of line (didn’t record the length).
B. What are you using for a backup anchor system?
[jrh]We are using an Danforth style anchor on the argument that the Rocna works well in all conditions except very light silt and greasy but strong vegetation both of which are managed well by the large surface area and sharp edges of a Danforth style anchor. Because we don’t have room on the bow for a second anchor of any type and especially not a Danforth style, we keep it flat on the bow deck. To support moving by hand, we used the largest aluminum anchor I could manage and ended up settling on a Guardian G85.
C. What type of flare package are you carrying?
[jrh]We went with parachute rockets because we like the long hang times. We also have day/night hand flares and daylight smoke flares.
D. What are you using for a towing package?
[jrh]Do you mean, what provisions have we to be towed or what provisions have we made to tow other boats. We have the optional bow tow hook that would allow Dirona to be towed. We have no special provision to tow other boats but, in an emergency, would use the center transom cleats.
E. What are you doing for an emergency hull breach kit?
[jrh]We have a wide variety of different options here: 1) a wide assortment of conical wood wedges for through hull or hose failures, 2) larger foam cone wedges, 3) Navirex hull repair kit, 4) a canvas piece with ropes that can be dragged down over the outside of the hull to cover and plug (via water pressure) a hull breach, and 5) fast set spray foam. I’ve heard of large commercial boats using cement for emergency patching and a bag of cement isn’t that hard to carry but we haven’t elected to do it at this point.
James:
I noticed that you were using the Guardian vs. the Fortress, is there a reason why. Our captain has recommended the fortress. Further , you are using a 47 lb. anchor that is a step above the recommended for the boat. I am assuming that you made this decision based on the comment to get the largest anchor that you can reasonably handle.
The Ultra Chain Grad is a UK product. Is there a reason that you went with that one versus a stat4eside product which is similar?
The Guardian is less expensive than the Fortress and slightly less nicely finished but, otherwise, identical. Either will work fine.
I chose the 47 lb anchor wanting to get the biggest we could reasonably handle. Having used the anchor several times, I would not recommend smaller for a boat 50+ ton boat.Generally when it comes to anchors, we like to go big and sleep well. Our main anchor for a 52′ boat is a 70kg (154lb) Rocna for much the same reason.
We chose the Ultra Chain Grab on the basis of liking the product and company. Most of our purchasing decisions are made on the basis of product quality and their customer support reputation rather than where the parts are built. On Dirona, we have components from all over the world.
James:
1. I ordered the UCG13, but I have 3/8 chain not 1/2, will that be alright?
2. Ordered the G85 from Defender.
3. Towing Package is for towing the boat not the tender. I have the tow hook as you do. I purchase 100ft of 3/4 Line.
4. We have an ALX Alumina – 12 ft. with a 30 hp Yamaha. I think you were looking at these. If I can be of help let me know.
5. Our boat will be used mostly for coastal cruising for the next few years. We will be using Wheelhouse for maintenance, their spares are enclosed in containers when they ship. Given that, what would you consider a good starter bin package for our 52. In the engine room we have a Northern lights diesel generator, Yanmar 40HP wing, and a JD 265 just as you. In the laz we really don’t have anything special. Just the normal set up.
Tim asked:
1. I ordered the UCG13, but I have 3/8 chain not 1/2, will that be alright?
[jrh]We use 7/16″ chain on Dirona. The 13 in UCG13 is for 13mm which is about 1/2″. Your 3/8″ chain is 9.5mm. I would recommend asking the manufacture if you can use the UCG13 on 3/8″ in line but it seems a bit big in my estimation.
2. Ordered the G85 from Defender.
[jrh]It’s a nice anchor. We have two of them.
3. Towing Package is for towing the boat not the tender. I have the tow hook as you do. I purchase 100ft of 3/4 Line.
[jrh]We would use the secondary anchor rode if we had to tow. As our primary anchor rode, we have 500′ of 7/16″ chain. For a secondary anchor rode, we have around 50′ chain and 450′ of 1″ rope. We would use the 1″ rope if we needed to tow and we would work hard to avoid towing if there were any options. These are big heavy boats and towing in rough seas is difficult.
4. We have an ALX Alumina – 12 ft. with a 30 hp Yamaha. I think you were looking at these. If I can be of help let me know.
[jrh]We played around with ABs ratings for these boats and, although we wanted aluminum for a lighter and easier to handle package, we ended up electing to stay with Fiberglass. We took the HP to weight ratio of the 30hp on the 12ALX and compared it with our 12VST that is rated for 40hp and it is a faster boat. So, going to a 12VST would slow us down. In addition, AB has changed the ratings on the 12VST to 50hp so it’s now much faster than a max rated engine on a 12ALX so we ordered another 12VST.
5. Our boat will be used mostly for coastal cruising for the next few years. We will be using Wheelhouse for maintenance, their spares are enclosed in containers when they ship. Given that, what would you consider a good starter bin package for our 52. In the engine room we have a Northern lights diesel generator, Yanmar 40HP wing, and a JD 265 just as you. In the laz we really don’t have anything special. Just the normal set up.
[jrh]We prefer to do our own spares and spare management. We use and really like these boxes: //mvdirona.com/2010/11/really-useful-boxes/. To track maintenance, we use this spreadsheet: //mvdirona.com/2015/03/maintenance-log/. We have a similar spreadsheet for parts inventory where we track where everything is so we don’t lose things.
Hello and congratulations for your blog !! I,think seriously to buy in some years a N 52. One easy question : What do you think about sea keeper to have a “quiet ” boat on anchor ? and what is the efficiency on road ? you’ve chosen hydraulic stabilizer ? Is it better ? is a question af price ( sea keeper about 100 000 dollars). ?Thanks for your help and see you one time on sea, I,hope !!! Sorry for my English…I’m French !
When we bought Dirona, the only active stabilizer option were hydraulic stabilizers from ABT. Seakeaper didn’t exist at that point. There are some Nordhavn’s now being built with Seakeapers so we’ll get a view on how well they work and whether they are good value over the next 2 to 3 years. Our stabilizers were just under $45,000 back in 2009 so they appear to be a bit less expensive than your quote from Seakeapers. Are ABT hydraulic stabilizers don’t operate at rest (they need water flow) which is a downside but they don’t require the 24×7 generator operation that Seakeapers require (which is an upside).
I suspect that the stabilizer market will continue to grow — more boats will have stabilizers — and I expect both companies will continue to sell more product. My only experience is with ABT hydraulic stabilizers and I’m fairly impressed with them and just love the company. ABT support is amazingly good and they really stand behind their product.
thanks a lot for your so quickly answer !! When my project will be finalized , as everyone, I will ask you about dozens of question !! I hope that your problem of prop will be soon resolved !
Good luck with your project. On our prop/prop shaft/coupling problem, we pulled it all back out of the boat on Thursday and they went to the shop on Friday. I think we may have found the problem. The transmission coupling had picked up metal from the original shaft inside the coupling taper. This metal transfer was fairly thick and would cause the coupling to not sit squarely on the taper. I think there is a very good chance that is the problem. We’ll correct the problem on Monday and re-install and dial gauge the shaft to ensure it’s back where it should be before launching. I think there is a good chance, the problem has been found and we’ll soon be back mobile.
I have never owned a big power boat but I do own a 43′ Hans Christian Christiana (fin keel) sail boat. Every time the boat is hauled and placed on the hard the yard mechanics decouple the shaft from the transmission before the boat is lifted because they say sitting on the keel on the hard will place stress on the coupling and alignment. Once the boat is back in the water they check alignment and re-bolt the coupling. I don’t know if this makes a difference or not but for the past 24 years this is how the shipyard that does my bottom work handles the shaft connection. The first thing and last thing they do, always verifying alignment by spinning the shaft before they bolt up. Maybe sail boats are different because we have tons of ballast in the keel.
Dirona is not a nimble Hans Christian so hull flexing isn’t that big of a deal. It can be taken from the water and replaced without any change in shaft alignment. If alignment is changed out of the water, it’ll need to be reset in the water since there is some changing as the boat settles in but, other than that, flexing doesn’t appear to pose any problems. In this case, we have a part machining or fit problem that needs to be corrected.
Hopefully the run-out issue can be resolved quickly along with the remaining to-do list items and you’ll be on your merry way very soon. We’re all looking forward (including you & Jennifer I bet) to seeing Dirona back out there. Excellent pics & account of the considerable progress made on your refit tasks. You’re getting very close now…
We are getting close but the set back of needing to take the shaft back out of the boat is a time burner. This morning the shaft, coupling, and prop will all be brought to the prop shaft for checks to find out what went wrong and hopefully correct the problem.
In the post about the vibration you show your normal dashboard. I can see the RPM shows that you are at WOT. But I’m not seeing a gauge that shows vibrations. Do you have an electronic one or was this detection via the Mark 1 sole of the feet sensors?
Good question Foster. The vibration in this case isn’t that serious but you can feel it and it’s obviously a problem. Looking at the prop shaft at speed, it’s really dancing. Because the vibration isn’t as sever as what I would expect from a run-out that was visually that large, I suspect the problem is at the engine end rather than the prop end. Also the visual runout is about as bad at idle as it is at full RPM which also suggests it’s not the prop. With the engine off and the prop shaft turned by hand, we can measure runout with a dial gauge and found 0.023″ which is way too high so it all needs to come back out.
We took the prop shaft, coupling, and prop off Thursday and it all went to the machine shop on Friday.
Hi James,
We’re in the process of buying a 2003 N47 and would appreciate you sharing the cost of the muffler replacement.
Thanks,
Ron
This includes more than $1,000 for duty and shipping that you would not need to pay in North America and there are lower costs regions of the world to do this work. Our muffler is a 5″ muffler whereas 47 mufflers are 4″ so the part itself will be less expensive for the 47 you are buying but this is what we spent (all converted to USD):
*$1253.85: Exhaust Silencer 1448VCs5
*$931.76: Duty/Shipping
*$2528.24: Labor
*$121.04: Fan shroud cooling Pipe
*$106.62: Consumables
The total cost for the job including duty and shipment was USD$4,941.51.
Hi James,
Good to see the boat getting re-launched.
I hope you remembered to ‘burp’ your PSS shaft seal!
Yes, it’s good to be back in the water. Thanks for the warning on the PSS.
Just wondering how much does your rudder weigh?
Hello Jennifer and James:
Looking at your Dublin track, I noticed that you were accessing your n2k system remotely via the n2kview remote app. You stated that you had a static IP assigned to your satelite system in order to contact the boat remotely. I know you work for AWS/microsoft and are very technically savvy, but I have never seen you mention any sort of firewall/security on the boat.
I am curious if there are any firewalls in place or you have a VPN or similar so the boat isn’t connected directly to the internet like so many IoT devices are?
A concerned fellow techie
Yes, thanks, there is a linux based firewall in front of the boat.
Great. I assumed you had something in place, but was curious in any case.
Hello, I was very happy to find you and to follow your adventure! I am myself considering to start circumnavigating in the years to come.
My family have been over the seas for more than 500 years and I can’t take it out my blood!
I have thousands of questions to ask you!
For the moment I am in Greece but I own a family property in Normandy, next to Cherbourg.
I will be there form February 17th to March 1st.
If by any chance you will be around Normandy by the time I will be very pleased to welcome you at home.
It is quite a good place to have a break : http://www.islemarie.fr
We are operating it as a Bed and Breakfast, but of course you will stay for free.
all the best,
Emmanuel
Thanks very much for your offer of hospitality in Normandy. Our plan is to be in London at that time so we’ll not overlap late February. Hopefully our paths will cross. You can see where we are at //mvdirona.com/maps.
thanks for your answer. I will keep an eye on your trip!
Since your crane was a special design/capacity at the time do you think that affected the wear? Is Steelhead working with you on the rebuild?
Hi Timothy. There appear to be 4 independent issues with our Steelhead ES1100 crane:
1) Extension ram fasteners installed without insulation (stainless to aluminum corroded up).
2) The extension lower bearing was not installed so the crane ran aluminum on aluminum (I suspect this was either a build error or a design change that went in after our early serial number was built).
3) The extension upper bearing adhesive failed and the bearing fell out
4) The linear winch wore through the bearings it operates upon (plastic cheek blocks) and it ended up running metal on metal damaging the sheaves and the inside of the boom extension
From looking at the faults, they appear to be independent of the additional crane length. I suspect the key issue is it’s an early serial number crane. The crane is rated at 1,500 lbs and was derated it to 1,100 lbs due to additional length but, since we only lift 850 lbs, we’re well below rated capacity. It seems like three independent problems. The extension was probably installed during build so probably isn’t a Steelhead issues. The missing bearing pad likely is an early early design flaw that has since been corrected at Steelhead. The adhesive failure at the upper bearing pad has since been addressed by Steelhead with a adhesive change. The only issue that I’m pretty sure hasn’t been addressed in current cranes is the linear winch bearing cheek block problem.
I hope Steelhead handles this better than those fender people :)
The crane has seen a lot of use and it’s been many years since we purchased it so, at this point, I’m just working to get the crane operational again and haven’t asked Steelhead for any anything beyond technical help (which has been excellent).
Hi James,
I wonder if you could offer your thoughts on power plant choice for Dirona (and by extension, her ancestor N47’s). Dirona has the 265 HP Deere engine which is clearly not the standard build for the N52 at least at that time. The 47’s and early 52’s seem to have gotten basically the same 165 HP as the much smaller N43; perhaps by now the 52’s are built with the more powerful engine but I don’t know. In any case I’ve heard it said that the 47’s seem underpowered and while I have no first hand experience, this does not surprise me and certainly does not bode well for a 52 with that power level. As a future Nordhavn owner thinking about 43, 47, maybe 52, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic – and of course if there is something you’ve written already please point me to it.
Thank you for everything you’ve contributed to this community.
Chris
That’s a great question and it’s one we spent considerable time on. This is a write up of our thinking on engines for the 52 and why we decided to go with a 266 hp engine rather than the 163 that was standard at the time: //mvdirona.com/2009/09/engine-brand-choice/
The quick summary is the 163 HP engine that was standard at the time is intermittent duty so you can’t run 24×7 at that power level. The Deere 6068AFM75 is rated at 231 hp continuous and 266 hp for no more than 16 hours out of each 24. We chose to run using no more than 231 hp and, at that output, it can run like that 24×7 for the life of the engine.
The good news is the 6068AFM75 is now standard equipment on the Nordhavn 52. For geographies that require Tier III power plants, they will be using the 6068AFM85 which is the Tier III version of that engine. The ratings are the same but the Tier III fuel economy is not quite as good as the 6068AFM75.
If you are buying a new boat, you’ll get the same rating we are using. If you are buying a brokerage N52, most of them will be equipped with the 163 hp lugger. We prefer to have something north of 200 hp with a continuous rating but the 163hp engine will work fine and is what what of the N52s on the market will be using.
James, thanks so much for your reply. Busy week here, first chance to reply again today. I drilled in through the links you started me with and grabbed the manufacturer’s specs and ratings for the various engines Nordhavn is using and used in the past. Now I have a much better understanding of your choice of motive power and the broader question of “how do I want/expect my boat to operate/perform?” Obviously no one right answer for everyone. About the continuous duty rating of the smaller engine – it looks to me like the smaller JD 4045AFM85 is 160 continuous (e.g. current N43), the Lugger L1066T (turbo) is 135 continuous (e.g. older N52, N47), and the older Lugger 668D (non-turbo, e,g, N46) is only 105 continuous (140 for the turbo). You definitely have to pay attention to which engines are in which boats!
Also read your discussion on the prop pitch change for Dirona. Very informative. I’ve really learned a lot in the last few days!
I agree there are petty big differences between the different engine options available. They all have more HP than you will use when crossing an ocean but, when operating in coastal mode, we find ourselves very frequently running at 160 hp continuous and it’s not rare to be near 190 hp for long periods. We do run in the 200 to 230 hp range but it’s likely down less than 5% of the time.
Mach Schnell!
We were in the U.K. for the Millenium and had the same experience that you had during the holiday. Whereas in North America the holidays are seen as a time to make money over there many businesses treat it as a holiday and are closed.
I wasn’t going to bother you while you are in the yard but I see you are still blogging and replying to comments so here goes. I looked up the ThinkVision L1900p monitors you use in the Pilot House and their brightness is rated at only 250 cd/m2 (nits). Have you found that sufficient even in the tropics? We are fitting a new nav system to our N40 at the moment and I wanted to use monitors with at least 350 cd/m2 brightness, but I can’t find any which have the ratio and resolution I want (16:9, 1920 x 1080).
Hi Michael. The Lenovo brightness has never been a problem for us during the day. At night they won’t turn down sufficiently so you will need a dark filter for them. We posted what we did and I can find it for you if you don’t find it (I’m on mobile now).
James -wow, that was quick – a reply in 8 minutes!
And that’s great news for me, I have been driving myself nuts trying to find small high brightness monitors.
Concerning shading, I remember reading about your physical shades, but I looked for another solution and have installed a utility called Display Fusion to dim all 3 of our new monitors running under Windows Extended desktop (with the principal monitor duplicated to the flybridge). I’m sure you know there are lots of ways of dimming the principal monitor in a Windows-based system but it’s hard to dim the extended desktop monitors using software. Display Fusion doesn’t actually dim the monitors. Instead it interposes a shade or mask over the display to create (I think) exactly the same effect that your plastic shades produce. It’s working well at home, if you are interested I’ll let you know whether it works on our boat.
We’re on the taxi way in Paris CDG heading back to North America for the weekend so will drop off soon but, yes, I am interested in your success with your dimming solution once you have some use time with it. Thanks.
By the way, I just realized we are close to your homestomping grounds Michael. Feel free to drop by in Southampton once we are back in the water or while we are in London.
By the way, I just realized we are close to your home stomping grounds Michael. Feel free to drop by in Southampton once we are back in the water or while we are in London.
You might be able to get better quality capacitors for your engine room fans from this place https://www.mouser.co.uk/Passive-Components/Capacitors/_/N-5g7r/. Cricklewood Electronics have a good supply of discretes and deliver very quickly https://www.cricklewoodelectronics.com/Motor-Capacitors-450VAC-Polypropylene-with-Stud-and-6.3mm-Terminals.html
Maplins is a national electronics retailer which has branches on the highstreet and, there’s a branch in Southampton. They do click and collect from the store.
These suppliers are mainly Europe based but I do have a link for over the pond is you want it.
“Black ears,” I spent ages looking amongst those parcels thinking Jennifer had treated herself to a pair of those fashionable ear warmers that hipster types wear :D
Yes, totally true. Most of our parcels have black ears or long black tails soon after arriving onto the boat.
James;
What service do you do on the keel cooler?
Questioned prompted by a heater core blockage in my daughter’s van – a similar closed loop system. Cured by flushing with CLR for 3 hours and then refill with new coolant
For this trip, we don’t have much planned for the keel cooler. Every 5 years, the coolant is replaced in the engine with a good quality premix diesel coolant. When in the yard the growth is cleaned off the cooler. In our case, we “break the rules, and keep our cooler bottom painted. Our theory is the insulation qualities of paint are less than the insulation provided by marine growth. It seems to work.
You guys need to get to https://ennios.co.uk. Pretty close to you and just what to need after a hard day under Dirona!
Thanks for the advice Declan.
I have similar Kiddie detectors as the ones you have but mine have built in carbon monoxide detectors as well as smoke. You may want to check because I think they had a recall on them. They were designed to go off once they expired and those are the ones that were recalled. The replacements also go off once they expire but you can silence the alarm until you can get new ones.
Ignore my message above; that’s not what the recall was about. I looked it up and found it here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/inmar-adx-files/N130217/Kidde+End+of+Life+Recall+CPSC+Press+Release+Nov+10+2016.pdf
After looking up my exact model on Kidde’s web page I found this:
End of Life Signal-Ten years after initial power, the unit will “chirp” twice every 30 seconds to indicate the need to immediately replace the alarm.
Yes, that is what these are doing but they only went just over 7 years rather than 10. Thanks for checking on the recall Drew.
Good luck today. I cannot wait to see pictures!
We’ll were out of the water, and blocked in place ready for the work to begin. I usually take the thruster props off but they have been installed with a lot of red Loctite and aren’t coming out. I suspect they are going to require some heat, some patience, and a lot of skill. Overall the bottom looks great. Everything is in good shape. The Prop Speed is so good I feel like it’s almost a waste to replace it but we will. I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning both props and and removing all the zincs. Zincs need a change but none are good. The engine alignment from when I changed the engine mounts a year and half back is so good the prop will keep turning after you spin it.
Overall everything looks unusually good. The work done at Cracker Boy in Florida appears to have been excellent.
I’ll be feeling better when I see the prop shaft out. Hopefully it’s in good condition. Another big job for this yard visit is replacing the muffler. It’ll be nice to see that work coming together as well. We’re also taking the rudder down to inspect the lower bearings but, other than that, mostly routine work that needs to be done well but isn’t really complex or risky. We’ll take lots of pictures and get them up as fast as we can.
James:
Tried to find the file on pulling very very stubborn thruster impellers off MV Rover (N62) in 2003. (Multiple computer upgrades etc. making it hard to find!)
Basically I fabricated a puller using the retaining bolt holes to hold the carrier and then another bolt pushing on the thruster shaft (after removing the ‘nose cone’. With the thruster under tensiuon a small amount of heat finally popped them free.
Hope this helps
Yes, I have the correct puller and, with that puller, the props just pop off. These ones are really on there.
Thanks for the suggestion Rod.
I am sure the bottom looks great as you are never anywhere long enough to accumulate growth :-) Where are you staying while you do the work?
We’re staying in downtown Southampton while the work gets done. It’s working out fairly well.
Hi James,
Can you tell me how you do the live updates to Google maps? Is there a separate transponder with auto update or do you manaually transfer the track from the chart plotter.. tks
There are two chart plotter systems. One for the boat and one for personal tracks when we head out for trips off the boat.
The boat tracks come from the larger automation system that does many things including power load shedding, recording all data, alerting, alarming, generator auto-start, weather fuel levels, and tracking. It takes all data off the NMEA2000 bus and stores in a relational database every 5 seconds. This data includes location and other data that is part of the track system (location, weather, and fuel levels).
The personal tracks come from an Android packaged called My Tracks. Originally supported by Google but they open sourced and removed support. We picked up the open source code and built our own version but any fitness app will do fine. We hand transfer the tracks so no tricks there.
Actually, using fresh water to clear out the salt and other minerals from ocean water doesn’t seem crazy at all to me. I did it more times than I can remember during my time in the U.S. Navy.
Yeah, your right Steve but it sure does feel crazy to have the shore power plug soaking in the galley sink :-)
James:
Rinsing with 95% ethanol after the water would allow faster drying and ensure any minerals in the water do not dry on your rinsed items
Good suggestion Rod. I often use brake cleaner because it’s fast and effective but alcohol is a good suggestion to get water out of nooks and crannies. Thanks,
About 8 years ago I really started noticing I was replacing more start and run capacitors that I had in the 20 or so prior years. Coupled with the fact capacitors were the one part that has gotten significantly cheaper over the years I started investigating.
It turns out when I first got into my trade, manufacturers would do a test lot on every production run. They would run them at 110% of rating and if any failed pull the entire run. Since I was unable to find any manufacturer that still followed that process, that is probably large one factor where cost is concerned.
Another is the removal of PCB’s as a coolant, the methods employed today while safer for everyone, are simply not as effective. Combined with lack of testing, I believe the mystery solved at least to my satisfaction.
I would suggest you order extra capacitors as spares, the new ones are probably not going to last as long. I have found capacitors reading low out of the box, it is simply cheaper for them to replace under warranty than bring back testing.
I’ll bet you are right Steve and production quality issues are a common problem. Another factor is temperature — capacitors fail early at higher temperatures.
I would love to find a higher quality part and would happily spend more for it. If anyone knows of a high quality source for CBB66 capacitors (small square units) rated at 2.5uF, 250V I’m interested.
That is an odd voltage for a motor capacitor. Normally I would expect to see 370V or 440V and the CBB66 is only a class rather than a specific shape. As you know a capacitor will only store so much and the voltage rating is what the capacitor can be exposed to.
The biggest problem is finding one that is compatible with the existing method of mounting. I carry rolls of perforated metal strap to deal with 99% of the issues I run across.
A 2.5uf 370/440 capacitor might be a solution if you can mount it. If I had a picture of how the capacitor was mounted I might come up with something.
Never mind, I looked at the picture of you testing and saw what I needed to see.
Steve, I have enough space inside the fan hub where the capacitor is tucked away for a larger capacitor but, sticking with the same form factor, what would you think of this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dimart-2-5uF-Conditioner-Motor-Capacitor/dp/B00PFAXBY2/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1515161236&sr=8-3-fkmr2&keywords=cbb61+2.5uF+250v
It’s at 450V capacitor rather than 250V but they are both 2.5uF. It seems like higher voltage just means better insulation in the capacitor. Do you know of any reasons not to use a 450V capacitor in a 120V application that was previously using a 250V capacitor? This one is rated for up to 158F (70C) so is fairly good on the temperature front as well. The one that is installed by the factory doesn’t appear to even have a temperature specification and I suspect that’s what is leading to the somewhat short operating life.
That actually might solve your issue with short lifespan. No there is no reason you cannot use a higher voltage capacitor it’s the 2.5uf that is the issue. The capacitor is still only going to have a storage capacity of 2.5uf which will be at 120V since that is what is being applied, it’s simply capable of being exposed to a higher voltage due to it’s insulation.
That is a Films capacitor and they are notoriously sensitive to heat, probably anything with a high enough temperature rating on it would also be an option, if you find for some reason that won’t fit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_capacitor
Thanks for checking that out Steve. I’m going to try the 2.5uF, 450V unit. I can’t quite get it delivered in time so we’ll probably not make the order until we’re in London but all my fans are operational so we’re in good shape until then.
That increased galvanic corrosion could simply be caused by the increased salinity of the sea water and its temperature, or stray electrical current whilst on shore power.
You’re currently sailing in cooler seas which may be the reason for the increased life of the anodes?
To be honest, I wouldn’t worry about it! As trying to find stray electrical current is a very costly endeavor and you might as well invite a priest on board to carry out an exorcism.
Happy New Year
Your theory seems reasonable Paul. I’m enjoying the longer run between anode changes although, with all the practice I’ve had, I can do a pair of anodes in 5 min.
Actually it might be simpler. I put a larger heat exchanger back in 2014 (//mvdirona.com/Trips/Australia2014/Australia2.html?bleat=6%2F26%2F2014%3A+Heat+exchanger+complete) and I had forgotten the new cooler has 33% more zinc. That might be a big part of the difference.
James:
It would be interesting to compare pH change of the coolant over time and also compare these numbers to fresh coolant. pH test strips are inexpensive.
Another thought would be to use distilled water to dilute new coolant, assuming that is what you do.
Hi Rod. The hydraulic heat exchanger uses sea water as a cooling medium. It’s an oil to water heat exchanger so there isn’t a falling PH as you might have in some closed cooling circuits. It’s just sea water flowing through this unit and I don’t have much influence over sea water acidification although it does appear to actually be happening.
Are you not just travelling in cooler seas?
Possibly the cause but during the first 2 years of the boats life it was in the Seattle area and it just burned through Hydraulic cooler zincs then. But it was bonded at that time. I’ve since debonded it and it might be the case that debonded and cold water is the cause of the improvement. It seemed that it has just slowly gotten better for a long time but it is far from a scientific observation and your explanation on water temp is the best theory so far. Thanks,
It seems that the life was way shorter than would be imagined. I was thinking salinity variance too but that just doesn’t seem right. Could there be some other small electrical problem What have other owners had to say?
It could have been stray current from nearby boats. For sure that was an issue in Seattle when the heat exchanger was bonded. All zincs where failing quite quickly back then whereas they now seem to last forever. The other big change is the cooler water mentioned by Paul and Declan. Now that the heat exchanger is isolated from the boat bonding system, stray current doesn’t seem like a possibility. Whatever the cause, I’m happy with the current zinc longevity.
Just saw 85.3knoks off Portland Bill. Glad to see you are tucked up safely. It’s a good marina; I spent a few days there this summer.
The marina is good and very strong but, wow, the winds are incredible. We saw gusts to 72 kts last night. The worse we have ever seen in a marina. The storm we saw in Richards Bay South Africa (//mvdirona.com/2015/11/a-brush-with-disaster/) was very similar but the peak wind speeds were less than this one. We always tie the boat off super tight and it’s now so loose that 2 of the fenders have blown up onto the walkway. The power is out in our area probably caused by our power cord being hammered by waves and so full of salt water that the super sensitive dockside RCD system has tripped. The wind is still never under 30 kts and often up over 50 kts and it’s been like that or worse since the big gusts around 3am. The waves are so big in the relatively sheltered marina surrounded by breakwaters that the docks have a wave pattern in them with the dock hinges creaking back and forth. It’s time like this that I really like our 1″ dock lines.
Portland got a mention on the national news this morning due to the high wind speeds there. Its really well protected there so hard to imagine those big pontoons moving like that. Are you in the “U” shaped area just past the fuel dock? Have you spotted the Mulberry Harbour there?
We are on T-doc, the same float as the fuel dock in Portland marina. On shelter, it’s a pretty flat area and there doesn’t seem to be much between us and the winds whistling across the English Channel.
We might have time to stop in Mulberry Harbour after our yard work in Southampton. Thanks for suggesting it.
Jennifer points out that the “Mulberry Harbour” you mentioned is likely not the harbour near Southampton but, instead, a temporary portable harbor. Cool, I hadn’t heard of them before.
We might have seen one between Portland Marina and the commercial docks but I’m not 100% sure.
Hi james and jenifer, i live in bodmin (cornwall) so if you guys need another ride whilst your here give me a shout and im sure i can sort you out!
Hope your enjoying cornwall (its nicer in the summer, honest!)
All the best
Chris
Very kind of you to offer Chris. We actually got underway at 10:17pm last night and we’re about 3 hours out of Portland at this point making excellent time at 9.7 kts. The engine is performing beautifully with no fault codes. The Injector change we just did seems to have fully addressed that issue.
Thanks again for the offer of a ride. Much appreciated.
Dear James and Jennifer,
Happy new year.
I have just read the first half of your book and article on generators, thank you for both.
This has me thinking of suggestions for less traveled ports:
Dover. This port is the most formal on the south coast. It is often overlooked because it is still a busy ferry terminal. This does not take away its history or charm.
Boston. I noticed you traveled to Plymouth and stood at the Mayflower embarkation point. Boston was the first pick up on the Mayflower’s route. My grandmother’s friend Nelly used to tell me her ansesters joined the Mayflower at Boston. I will state the church’s in Boston are spectacular. Arrangements will have to be made with the “Port of Boston” if you choose to undertake this trip. Boston is a full drying port unless you can dock in the commercial port or access the grand sluice to the inand-waterways. I can confirm you will not reach or pass the grand sluice due to height restrictions.
I hope this helps. You have certainly enlightened me of the BC coastline. I shall make plans to visit BC and our Canadian relatives.
Regards
Robert and Julie
Thanks for the information Robert and Julie and Happy New Year.
Hello James,
This is not a real good meter, but it’s not bad and relatively inexpensive for what it does.
https://www.gamut.com/p/megohmmeter-1000-megaohms-max-resist-measured-digital-NjYyMzMw?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&adpos=1o4&scid=scplp736X307&sc_intid=736X307&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwfnI-5K12AIVCZ7ACh1HzwY6EAQYBCABEgJF3PD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=COWV_ICTtdgCFQatTwoddw4A0w
And a megohm meter works a lot better for finding current leaks than a multimeter. A megger will tell you before it goes bad, a multimeter only finds it after it is.
And what I mean by “not a real good meter” is it’s not something I would carry for everyday use. I have a rather expensive FLUKE for that.
Super interesting. My Fluke multi-meter is a pretty good general meter that did find 3 megaohms on on the shore power lead I tested in Kinsale Ireland but a megaohmeter looks useful and I’ll definitely get one. Amazon has the one you referenced (up to 100 megaohms) for $85 or I can get a low end Fluke 1503 (2,000 megaohms for $468 or a Fluke 1507 (10,000 megaohms) for $539. Given that modern shore power RCDs will trip at often as little as 30 milliamps, being able to find super small current leaks would be very valuable. I lean towards getting a Fluke but let me know if you don’t agree. Thanks for yet another great Steve Coleman tip!
I like FLUKE products so I would recommend them to anyone. It’s all a matter of how you plan on using them and for most people the 85 dollar one would work however, you are going off a light rather than an actual reading.
I myself would buy the 1507 however the 1503 would do anything you would ever need it for on Dirona.
I just placed an order on Amazon for a 1507. My thinking is modern residual current sensors are super trigger happy these days. Often down at 30mA or even below. Even the smallest current leak can be very frustrating to deal with. I’m going to get the 1507 and use it to keep an eye on all my conductors and systems. I decided not to get the NIST certified version :-).
Thanks again for the help and if you are ever anywhere even hinting at close to Dirona, you have to drop by. You’ve had a lot of influence on our systems over the years.
Hello James,
I do appreciate the offer and yes if looks like I am ever going to be anywhere close, I will try to contact you and make it happen. I’d love to meet you two (three I do like cats, have three of my own) and tour Dirona.
I think you’ll like the FLUKE 1507 even though it’s more capable than you need. On the 1503, anything above 2000 megaohm’s simply reads infinite. But if it actually started out at say 5000 megaohm’s (just a random value) and started dropping with the 1507, you would see it much quicker and hopefully long before it is a problem.
Various items have various “safe values” the best advise I can give on that is, benchmark something when you know it’s good and look for a continuing change in subsequent testing.
Makes sense Steve. We are currently in a massive storm where the winds are constantly over 30 kts and often up over 50 with gusts as high as 72 kts (83 mph, 133 kph). Two of our fenders have blown up on deck and the waves rolling over the dock are sufficiently big that the shore power is down probably due to salt water in our shore power plug causing the dockside RCD to trip. Now that many marinas are starting to go with super sensitive RCDs, the ability to chase down very small current leaks and failing insulation is becoming pretty important.
We’re warm and inside with the generator running when needed but when the winds go down, I’ll try to get the shore power back operational but at this point there is so much salt water flying around it’s probably pointless to try to get it back operational.
Hi James, I’ve also considered installing a 3rd bilge pump like the Rule 3700 in Dirona. My question is how did you route the plumping? Did you install a new through hull or simply tie into an existing deck drain?
Thanks, Keith Olaisen N47-23 Acqua Dolce
Oops, never mind, I just scrolled down a little further and saw all of the pictures and how you very cleverly used the manual bilge pump pickup.
Thanks for taking the time to document your many experiences. I’ve really enjoyed following your many travels and hope to see you someday in some corner of the planet.
Happy New Year to both you and Jennifer !
Thanks Keith. I hope your new pump goes in well. It’s a snug place to work but, once installed, it’s a nice place for the pump and it really works well.
I have followed you for many years as I live in Vancouver B.C. and am a long time subscriber to Pacific Yachting. I see that you dropped off Spitfire with Deborah Lefroy whose name popped right out at me as my name is Peter Lefroy and all Lefroys are related somehow! I love reading your blog and look forward to each installment arriving on my computer.
Debra took excellent care of Spitfire while we are were back in the US. That worked out super well. Glad you are enjoying the blog — we’re having a great trip but we do miss our annual Christmas stop in Vancouver. It’s a great city and after a month in the wilds, all the restaurants of Granville Island are really fun.
Good evening and Merry Christmas to you from Brittany ! What a nice trip and what a beautiful boat ! Many thanks for sharing with us your great adventure and all those pictures.
Thanks to you and the Nordhavn community, I have now only one goal in my life : to buy one of this fantastic boat.
I highly recommend you to visit my former working area, the Channel Islands and Saint-Malo and my living place, the Golfe du Morbihan (preferably during spring or summer period as Brittany is quite famous for her heavy rains… ^^ )
Wishing you a bon voyage, enjoy Europe !
Best regards,
Benjamin
We will be spending a few weeks in Southampton for boat yard work then to London for a few weeks. The plan from there is to go to Amsterdam and then north for Norway. We’ll have to make your recommended stops on the trip back south. Thanks for passing on the suggestions.
Dear James and Jennifer,
Hope you had a great Christmas and are looking forward to New Year,
Our patch if from the Humber to Cornwall so I thought I would make some notes for you.
Fowey has a RLNI pontoon which you can use in the evening.
You can fit in Queen Anne’s Battery Plymouth.
The Spa at Dart Marina is great.
Salcombe is lovely.
Our favourite restaurant is the Carb House Cafe between Portland and Weymouth.
I alway see if I can lunch stop at Lulworth Cove.
Yarmouth is a must. The Royal Solent Yacht club is welcoming. If the boats are in the water you can often get a crew racing their gaff rig boats.
All the best
Yours sincerely
Robert and Julie
Thanks for the advice on the area. We appreciate local insight.
We are currently booked to have the boat lifted out of the water on January 8th and I’ve currently got the injectors out of the main engine waiting on parts so we may not have a lot of time between here and Southampton but we’ll see how it plays out. Thanks!
Merry Christmas from sunny Southern California! We hope you three have a great holiday and a safe New Year.
Tim, Tiffany and Apollo
Merry Christmas and all the best in 2018.
We hope you have had a splendid Christmas Day, best wish for the coming year Mike & Trish
Thanks Mike and all the best to both of you in 2018.
With your eventual plans to come back to Seattle do you know how you’ll get here? Top, bottom or middle(Panama canal)
We haven’t made plans yet. We’re really enjoying the nomadic lifestyle and it’s hard to know when we’ll get tired of it and where we will go when we do. Our short term plans are Southampton, London, Amsterdamn, and then cruising Norway for the summer.
I know James, the mind boggles at the science behind it. One of my friends sent it to me, his son is a scientist. Quite an interesting website, too!
The Worlds smallest christmas card http://www.npl.co.uk/educate-explore/christmas-2017/?utm_source=XmasCard&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=xmascard2017
Merry Xmas folks
Can’t beat that for efficiency and minimizing waste :-)
Jennifer and James:
Merry Xmas from snowy and cold Niagara Falls, Ontario.
All the best for 2018 with all of your adventures.
Signed: An Avid Reader!!
Thanks Rod!
I read your amazing account of boat monitoring at 36,000 feet.
And for the next trick: Start the main engine, retract the automatic dock lines, back the boat out, set up a dock-to-dock autoroute, and have the boat meet you at the other side of the pond. :-)
Michael
We actually can start the main engine from 36,000′ but we haven’t yet solved the remainder of your challenge :-)
The solution isn’t electronic, it’s called ADC -“A delivery crew”. Sometimes simple is best.
You’re right that a delivery crew is certainly an option. My thinking is those conditions should be perfectly safe and not a problem. Whether it’s a delivery crew or me, I want the boat as safe as possible. Even if I elected to pay others to do the ocean crossings, I wouldn’t want to send them out without fixing the issues I outlined here.
Sorry to upset you. I was referring to Michael and Francis’ comment not trying to insult your skills or site.
Sorry to misinterpret your comment as reason not to do correct these issues Walt.
Hello, James and Jennifer – long time, no contact. A year after our planned departure from the US, we’re still here, but feeling like we’re almost ready to go – planning for end of January. (Some family issues, then a little Irma damage, which is being repaired now.)
Anyway – on our To Do List is to embed a map of our travels in our blog site, like on Dirona’s. I think I recall you do that with an abandoned Google project that Jennifer modified. I wonder if that code is available somewhere for others to use? Thanks!
Hey Brian, good to hear from you and sorry to hear you took some Irma damage. WWe use is a mess of mostly custom software but the system you are describing sounds like what we use to track ourselves on trips without the boat. These are the routes we use around town. These are made using a the open source version of Google My Tracks. We initially started using it when it was a standard Google product but they eventually discontinued it and took it down from Play Store. There is an open source version of it that we use but there are also several private builds of this software up on Google Play Store with advertising and other ways to monetize. There are also many other fitness tracker systems for IOS and and Android with many similar characteristics that would probably server you fine. The latest open source version seems to be posted here: https://github.com/justin66/MyTracks.
The main boat tracking system is a tiny part of much larger system we wrote to track all data on Dirona. We monitor the NMEA2000 bus and a few other data sources and store all navigation, weather, power system, fuel levels, depth, etc. data every 5 seconds in an on board relational database. A tiny subset of that database is uploaded are AWS web site and we run a hacked version of WordPress on the site. This data is used by our custom control systems to start and stop the generator when needed, to shed power load prior to allowing the power source to be overloaded, and to send alerts and warnings in email and to display on our PH display systems. All that software is custom and highly tied to the specific configuration of Dirona without effort to make portable or commercialize. We’ve been offered opportunities to commercial those parts of the system but it’s just too much work and I think my day job pays better :-). Maretron is able to do almost everything we do and it’s a battle tested system with excellent support.
But, you were asking about the personal tracks and, yes, that software is available up at: https://github.com/justin66/MyTracks but I would be tempted to find a similar app with support unless you enjoy doing Android App builds.
Thanks, as always, for that thorough and thoughtful reply, James. I’m not particularly interested in learning to build Android apps (even from someone else’s source code), so I’ll look for something a little easier. Happy holidays to you, Jennifer, and Spitfire!
Yeah, probably the right call Brian :-).
Hope you are enjoying Falmouth. Brings back fond memories for working on the RFA Argus refit down there. I think you are currently looking at her. Remarkable ship build by H&W Belfast as the Commander Bezant, then when to the Falklands and subsequently concerted to aviation training and PCRS (Primary casualty receiving ship).
Have you been up to the Chain Locker yet? They used to do a great Irish Music session on a Thursday night.
Naturally! We arrived and went directly to the Chain Locker for lunch. Falmouth is a pretty cool place, it looks like we better eat out often with this amazing variety of restaurants.
We are beside the Argus. I didn’t know it’s yet another product of H&W Belfast. We really enjoyed our time in Belfast and the H&W cranes Samson and Goliath are a big part of the Belfast skyline. The H&W built Titanic and the museum and other related displays are also a super interesting part of visiting Belfast.
Dear James and Jenifer
I Notice you are heading past lizard point into the Falmouth. I was there three years ago with my wife Julie. That stretch of coast line has several tidal races starting at lizard point. These are not to be underestimated. I have been in the lizard race on a calm day and the swells were quite impressive. I mis-timed Sawanage race in 2014 and was hit by a sigular 4 meter wave. It took us from 8kts to 22.6Kts, we were a thirty two foot surf board. My Julie has not quite forgiven me yet. Nothing you can’t handle but you should note them as navigational hazards.
The history of these races are interesting, the English used them to there advantage whilst attacking the Spanish armada.
Ps
We droped down to Mylor as Falmouth can be quite noisy with machinery from larger vessels.
Rgs
Robert Hall-Palmer
We appreciate the warning to get the tides right. We played it carefully with routing and timing and ended up having an enjoyable last day of our run. The first evening was fairly rough with winds steady 25 and gusts to 30 but even that was fine. When making longer runs in the winter, it’s almost impossible to completely avoid a bit of weather. Overall, it was a good run and we’re an hour out of Falmouth now.
Hi James and Jennifer,
Hope you are having a fantastic time in here in Dublin.
I seen you got some to visit some of the great places here in Dublin including City Hall.
Did you manage to go inside and see the ceiling. I got married there and the pictures were amazing.
Hope you enjoy the rest of your time here.
Ken
We are having a great time Ken. We did indeed see the city hall ceiling. A great venue for a marriage.
We’ve really enjoyed our time in Dublin and stayed longer than we originally expected. We expect to get under way later this evening for Falmouth. If the weather cooperates, we’ll head there directly.
Maybe I missed it, can you mention how you got the anchor chain untangled ?
We opened the chain locker hatch, powered the chain up and out until a chain knot rose to the deck, and then I untangled it by hand. Then powered more out and repeated the process. I’ve seen it before with a knot but never with so many. We only untangled 1/2 the chain on board so there will be more to do when I get a chance. It’s not difficult or even all that time consuming and it’s fairly rare but we appear to have really tangled it all up this time.
I’ve just been studying your new 3700 Rule bilge pump installation because we are about to do the same job on our N40. I proved at the last lift-out that the Jabsco pump shifts less water than our washing machine pump. And, as you know, those Jabscos have a history of failures. Like you we intend to go out through the same skin fitting (thru-hull) as the Edson hand pump. I’ve looked very carefully at your blog and I just can’t work out how you have joined the Rule outlet to the Edson hose. Is there a “Tee” or a “Y” fitting somewhere? And does the Rule pump send its output through the body of the Edson, or does the water by-pass the Edson? Sorry if this is indeed a dumb question.
Hi Michael. I feel guilty for not posting this article already. I wrote 90% of it 3 weeks back but work has been busy and I haven’t had the time to finish it off and get it posted. I will do that this week for sure.
The approach I took was to have the manual bilge pump and the 3700 in series rather than in parallel. Essentially the 3700 replaces the pickup for the manual pump and pumps inline through the manual pump. The manual pump draws through the 3700 pump. I’ve filled the bilge and the manual pump output is indistinguishable from the test prior to installing the 3700. The bilge was again filled and the 3700 output is about 3x and perhaps 4x the output of the Jabsco pump. It’s a simple design that seems to work fairly effectively and is fairly easy to install. It would be “easy”except the access to the lower bilge in our boat is very limited below the prop shaft and 5 through hulls. The pump can’t be dropped in through all that mechanical gear so it needs to be assembled in place like a ship in a bottle. That required some patience but, otherwise, the job actually was easy.
I’ll get that article with more detail and the other changes I put in place in response to “Alarms at 1:15am” posted as soon as possible.
James,
Thanks for replying. Do not feel guilty. I have no idea how you manage to hold down a demanding job, cruise, tour, maintain Dirona, AND keep the rest of us entertained. No doubt Jennifer does a lot to make it all possible.
Pumps: That’s what we’ll do then. My friend Steve has installed a “Y” on his N40, downstream of his Edson, to achieve a similar end result. But if the Rule will pump straight through the Edson it simplifies the installation.
I’m going to put a video on Youtube to show how the Jabsco pumps less than our washing machine.
I finally got motivated and did the final review and cleanup on what we did in response to the “Alarms at 1:15am” article. Hopefully it’ll make some of the details more clear: //mvdirona.com/2017/12/alarms-at-115am-follow-up/.
Hello James,
Bearing in mind I’ve only seen pictures of these pumps, have you considered long term effect on the diaphragm and valves in the Edson pump or, if the diaphragm failed? Would that negate the installation of the new pump?
Good question Steve. My analysis suggests the Edson shouldn’t be a problem. The Edson is a big chamber with a large rubber diaphragm over the top and a one way flapper valve on the inlet and the outlet. If the valves fail, we should be able to just pump through them without impact. Of course the manual valve would not work at that point. If the diaphragm failed, it might leak and not be effective as a manual pump but I would expect the leaks would be minor compared to the flow and the Rule 3700 would still be pumping well.
Unless the leaks were spraying on something that would cause problems. But if that would be the case, you could easily devise something to divert it. A sheet of rubber, modified plastic bucket etc.
My thinking is if I test annually I should catch leaks well before they get that serious and, as you said, we could wrap a towel around it to prevent spray in an emergency if it started leaking badly.
Hello again, did you ever get your RIB sorted out? The only reason I ask is, I was having a crack with one of my family members the other night and among other things, we discussed RIB’s and punctures etc.
Our family member has a RIB (safety boat) which was retubed by http://www.menaimarine.biz/. They’re located on the shores of the Menai Straits in Victoria Dock, Caernarfon, Wales. They custom build RIB’s as well should you be feeling flush :D
Thanks Paul. We elected to get another AB VST12 with a 50hp outboard but it turned out there were none in the UK and an order couldn’t be reliably delivered before we left the country. Our current boat is hanging in there fine so we ordered one from the AB dealer in the Netherlands and will pick it up as we pass through Amsterdam.
I see you’re both enjoying Dublin, as do we. The Spire is known locally as the “Stiletto in the Ghetto” or the “Stiffy on the Liffey.” It replaces Nelson’s Pillar which was blown up in 1966 by Irish Republicans. The architect was Ian Ritchie. I like its elegant, slender movement which given its dimensions being 3m in diameter at the base and 120m high is quite an achievement.
It’s an imposing structure and I agree it’s both elegant and striking.
James
Is it jusy my computer or have your most recent photos of York diisappeared from your site?
PS Awaiting the Alarms at 1:30am update with great interest
The pictures all look good on the computers around here and under a couple of browsers. Recommend restarting your browser and seeing if that clears the issue.
You are 100% right on the Alarms at 1:15am post mortem. The article is written and it just needs an edit pass before posting. Work’s been busy with our annual re:Invent conference in Las Vegas but I’ll get the article up soon. Thanks for the reminder.
Hi James,
As you suggested, here I am on your blog. :-) Our new KK50 will have a similar exterior, what are the size (D x L) of your Prostock Marine fenders and how long are your fender lines? Thank you in advance for your wisdom! :-)
Jackie in Seattle
Our initial fenders were Aere Inflatable fenders and they were a disaster. Aere uses a thick and very durable material to build their fenders but they simply don’t hold air. Some leaked from day one but all leaked within two months. Having seen ProStock Marine fenders starting to take over the super yacht trade, we decided to move to them. They use a slightly less heavy duty material but the welded seams are absolutely perfect. They hold air well and we have abused the heck out of ours taking fuel from a steel barge in a 3′ to 4′ swell and up against concrete docks in 40 kts. They just take the wear and abuse without problem. After three years of heavy use, we have yet to see an issue. ProStock Marine makes a great product.
We have 6 of the 18×42 and 2 of the 24×42 sizes and we have sized the fender lines to match the boat where the right side hangs from the walkway rail and the left side hang from further up on the boat deck.
Hi James,
That is really helpful! Those are the same size fenders that are being recommended for our boat and having your positive review gives me more confidence.
Any other guidance you can provide on fender line length? KK is planning on supplying us with 30 foot lines for each of the fenders, I think that is too long.
Jackie
We have ours in two lengths. The short ones are around 10′ and the long ones for the non-walkway side around 20′. 30′ is certainly too long but, hey, if long fender lines are the only mistake made in your new boat build you are perhaps the luckiest people in the world :-).
Long fender lines can be shortened so I wouldn’t worry about it. You’ll know what is right when you get the boat.
Hi James,
Thanks for your patience with our questions. When you are under way on short voyages do you deflate and put them away? If not, what do you do them? Would you say they are easy to store? Do you use the pump they sell?
Jackie
We don’t usually bother for a short trip but, if we are planning to dock for a couple of days, we take them down since they are really big and take up most of the boat deck when not stowed away deflated. The trick to fast inflation/deflation is to use a shop vacuum. Amazingly effective and fast and useful for multiple purposes.
Since you were asking about the Prostock Marine fenders, after three years of flawless performance and fairly heavy use we woke up Sunday morning to find two fenders having leaked down. Two failing at the same time seems super unlikely but both have fabric leaks about an 1/2″ from the valves. It was right around freezing with a 30 kt wind onto the dock that night. I suspect the problem was related to the cold but clearly the material needs to be able to work without failure in cold weather.
I reported the problem to Prostock that morning and, it’s been a couple of days now and they haven’t gotten back to us.
Hi James,
Bummer on your 2 failures. Keep us posted on how this is handled by the company. I am confused that you say if you are going to dock for a couple days that you would put them away, wouldn’t you leave them hanging on the side of your boat in that case? Or did you mean if you are anchoring for a couple days?
Given you had two failed fenders and a 30 knot wind, did you boat sustain any damage as a result?
Jackie
If not returning to the dock for a couple of days we deflate and stow the fenders.
There was no boat damage from the fender failure. We had 4 fenders down that side of the boat and the outer two kept the boat undamaged. Yes, I will post here on how Prostock Marine handles the failures.
Hi James, Jennifer – – is it feasible to fill these fenders with Nitrogen? I am wondering if humidity causes breaches, air gap, while using Nitrogen could eliminate that possibility, but it also might be problematic carrying bottle(s) of Nitrogen on board….?
Hi James,
Any word yet from Prostock Marine? That’s a long time to go without two very important fenders…
Jackie
Friday Prostock Marine asked for some pictures to better understand the failure. I’ll follow up here on how they elected to deal with the situation as soon as I hear back from them.
Alway’s impressed with your blog. Keep’s us dreaming!. I’ve got a few system’s questions. With the time on your electronics-radar,sounder,radio’s etc how much longer before you think you’ll need to replace? With the hour’s on your engine and generator what’s your guess on how many more hours before they’ll need major work. Did Nordhavn design way’s you could remove without using a chainsaw? With all the real world use you get are any of the manufactor’s making improvement’s/changes for all going forward or are the thing’s you’ve been doing unique to your cruiseing needs? Thank’s!
Lots of good questions Robert. We know have more than 9,400 main engine hours so, as you said, the hours are mounting and our “new” boat is probably heading to the top 10% of the Nordhavn fleet. We know of quite a few boats with more hours but I suspect most haven’t as many. So far the engine/transmission have never been open. We recently started getting a 1347.7 ECU trouble code indicating actual high pressure rail pressure is different from called for fuel pressure. It looks like an injector problem so I’ll change the set soon and hopefully that problem will be solved. Assuming, I’m right on that problem, changing injectors after 9,000 hours seems pretty reasonable to me. I’m hoping we can get 15,000 out of the engine before the head needs to come off and 20,000 before the lower end needs attention. I know of engines with 15,000 that have never been open and show no signs of needing it so all indications are that this engine will continue to do well.
You asked if the engine could come out of boat without a chainsaw. Yes, absolutely. It was a focus item from me during build since we expect to run up the hours and, even for those that don’t, you can get unlucky. The main engine can be lifted out through a large Salon hatch designed for engine and transmission service. Nordhavn intends it to be big enough and I’ve looked at it pretty carefully and believe the hatch will be sufficient if needed. Hopefully it’ll not be any time soon.
On electronics, we are using Furuno NavNet3d that we have had in use on the boat for nearly 8 years. It was long ago superseded with the newer TZ system but we’re still very happy with the current navigation eqiupment and don’t intend to replace it. The only fault we have seen so far is the MFDBB had a graphics card failure while we were in the Indian Ocean. I ended installing a temporary card that was very similar (//mvdirona.com/2015/10/thank-you-plug-n-play/) and then later I bought a used MFDBB from someone who was upgrading to a new system so we now have a full MFDBB in spares on Dirona. We expect to run this system for another 2 to 4 years and, at this point, have no complaints with it. Furuno has done a good job and we still like this system.
Nordhavn continues to improve their boats all the time. I’m sure the odd idea comes from our experience and they have the experience of more than 500 other owners to draw on as well. Every time I’m on a new Nordhavn, I see subtle (and sometimes fairly dramatic) improvements. One area where we have contributed a bit is in power systems and Nordhavn now has an optional design available that has many of the advantages of what we ended up doing: //mvdirona.com/2014/08/a-more-flexible-power-system-for-dirona/. I really like new design done by Mike Teleria at Nordhavn.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your various musings on your recent posts. Regarding Liverpool Cathedral. This place probably gets more tourist visitors than actual Sunday parishioners!
However, saying that, a guilty pleasure of mine is visiting these kinds of places when on a jolly.
As to the architecture of the place, which is seriously beautiful on an immense scale and, if one thinks about it, stone is probably the oldest building material used by mankind. Some of this stonework can be reproduced in the modern world, whereas some is clearly no longer possible or at least feasible.
Just up the road from me, there stands some skeletal sandstone ruins of an 11th century Cistercian Abbey with enough stonework left on a scale that is difficult to grasp. Given the tools used it’s difficult to comprehend! I’m always left saying to myself, how the hell did they do it?
Briefly touching on the Manchester Science museum. Technology wise we’re living in exciting times, what with those little Raspberry Pi’s that you use, and the device I’m writing this on, which is an android phone, either of these miniature gadgets have probably got more computing power than that Baby computer Jennifer’s Father built. I should probably get one of those Pi gadgets just so I can clue myself up, but the programming of the thing makes my eyes glaze over, and at the end of the day, I’ve no real use for it other than educating myself ?
Cheerio for now…
I totally agree with you on these old stone structures. Absolutely amazing. In North America, “old” is 200 years. This is a completely different perspective.
On the Raspberry Pi, it’s remarkably simple. Like you, I didn’t really intend to use it. I just bought one to learn a bit but it was so easy to program that I ended up finding many uses for it. And, after awhile, I ended up deciding to get a 2nd and then later, put in a third. Embedded programming used to required deep low level programming skills, cross compilers, cross debuggers, and it was slow going. The Pi is a basically a full computer running Linux with lots of memory and storage resources. It essentially requires very little skill to get things going. Most of the software I have running on mine is written in PHP with just a bit of C++ for a performance sensitive module.
—
I picked up a Pi when I was in Darwin Australia via Amazon from the US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C6Q2GSY/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1. I played with it a bit on the Indian Ocean crossing and was soon reading digital input state — checking to see if a device is on or off. Then I got it doing digital output — the ability to turn devices on and off. On that trip, I had an electronics failure of the Watch Commander. It’s a simple device that makes sure that the person on the helm is awake and requires that you touch a button every 10 min. I built a new one using the Pi and, before the Indian Ocean crossing was done the Pi had gone from toy to part of the boat control systems and it expanded from there. On the boat I now use them for around 30 channels of digital input, about 12 channels of digital input, and around 10 channels of temperature using a DHT-22 (https://www.amazon.com/Diymore-Digital-Temperature-Humidity-Replace/dp/B01IT2E4ZW/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1511701777&sr=1-2-spons&keywords=dht22&psc=1). Just the latter functionality of reading temperatures is pretty useful. In the near future, I’ll blog the details with example code of what I use the Pis for and show how it’s done.
with your PI you can aso run the Viltron Venus CCGX software which they made open source
Cool, I hadn’t noticed that Victron had open sourced some of their control software. For those interested in reading more on the Victron open source projects, it’s here: https://www.victronenergy.com/live/open_source:start.
On Dirona, we use a Victron 240v inverter and what I notice about it was, when compared to other gear we have on the boat, it easily delivers it’s spec of 6kw and it’ll even deliver 7kw for very short periods of time without cutting out. Where many charger/inverter suppliers put in limiters, cut-outs, or de-rate with temperature, Victron goes for a design with sufficient engineering safety margin that it actually can meet the spec in less than ideal circumstances and, if pushed beyond, they don’t shut down unless the they need too. My Mastervolt equipment sometimes derates or limits at annoying times. For example, the chargers run on 240V but, world voltages are far from stable and they range from 208 to 240v nominal with big deviations caused by grid load or other factors. I want the chargers putting out whatever the hardware will support but Mastervolt derates starting at 195V and output falls off fast below that voltage level. Like many adjustments on the Mastervolt gear, it isn’t user adjustable or configurable.
It’s really cool to see Victron open sourcing some of their control software and actually helping customers be able to integrate their systems with other types of equipment. The more I see of Victron, the more I like them. Thanks for sending this along Jan-Kees.
As a fan of the Americas Cup I think you will be interested in the AC 75 foiling monohull concept which has just been announced. It is shown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx2qG_YMrDs
For some bizarre reason the Namib gecko, which lifts alternate feet off the hot sand to keep cool, came to mind when I saw the video. That said it looks as though the proposed design will present a great design and sailing challenge.
I was really disappointed to see the high speed foiling cats not being used going forward but some are already speculating that this new AC75 may be even faster. I’m still slightly skeptical on the speed point but it is definitely a wild looking boat. I read an article quoting Tom Slingsby as really liking the design. The real test of the design is how many competitive teams emerge. I really wish that America’s Cup was annually or perhaps every 2 years. 4 years between events is a long, long time.
Hello again, glad to read that the gaiter worked out ok. My wife and I have quite an eclectic taste in music and have never really heard any of the BRMC’s music. It’s funny what a name of a band can conjure up in one’s mind, as we had it down as heavy metal headbangers music so never gave it a listen!
That opinion has now changed, as Beat The Devil’s Tattoo, Spread Your Love, Little Thing Gone Wild (which is what our six-year-old grandson is currently bouncing around to as I type) sounds fantastic on our home HI-FI. A Spotify list has now been created!
If you like Blues music check out the American musician Seasick Steve – he makes his own instruments, too!
Love it and it’s funny you should say that Paul but, for years, I thought the same about Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and more or less ignored them. I knew of the band but hadn’t listened to any of their music. It was Jennifer that eventually gave them a serious listen and they have become favorites of ours as well.
Thanks for the pointer to Seasick Steve. Will give him a listen.
James:
Thanks for the acknowlegdement re gaitor for power cord!
Any progress on the lifeline??:)
I’ve got a blog entry ready to go with an update on all the changes that we put in places as a result of “Alarms at 1:15am”. We’ve made a lot of changes and I like the results but we’ve not done anything on coming up with some sort of Jackline system. Thanks for the reminder.
What about lifelines between your mooring cleats in the cockpit?
Sure, absolutely. There are lots of options and that’s a good one Rod. Our first line of defense is to not go outside in storms. However, if we ever need to again, we will ensure we are attached to the boat.
Thank you both for letting us tag along on your wonderful adventures on beautiful Dirona. We have enjoyed every article and picture. Although the adventures we have in our 1974 Tollycraft Makara are a bit more modest and limited to the greater Puget Sound area, I think all who choose to cast off lines and watch the world unfold with a gentle or sometimes not so gentle swell underfoot, share many of the same life changing moments one can only experience on the water. Wishing you safe passages and look forward to sharing future adventures with you and Dirona.
We agree. Boats are both a constant pleasure and a constant education. Thanks for the note.
I lik to think you calmly repair things on board, under way with the calm of the film “Jaws” Captain Quint (Robert Shaw), “we need a bigger boat”, upon actually seeing the shark finally. Your handy work, getting that pump in is impressive but Yoda rules apply in boats, “there is no try, only do”. Safe travels to you all!
Re locks check out Caen Hill Locks. I think you will be impressed. They are inland and not navigable by Dirona!
The Caen Hill locks look great: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caen_Hill_Locks#/media/File:Caen.hill.locks.in.devizes.arp.jpg. A continuous flight of 16 hand operated locks covering 237′.
Dirona has been up to 738′ above sea level in the Columbia/Snake River system but (thankfully) those weren’t hand operated: //mvdirona.com/category/destinations/north-america-pacific-coast/columbia-river/
I assume you will be making your way along the south coast stopping near Portsmouth/Isle of Wight. If so inclined you could, with a driver, take in Salisbury/Old Sarum, Stonehenge and possibly these locks as well. They are near Devizes in Wiltshire. That could be too much of a stretch in one day. If so you could possibly add them to a visit to the ancient stone circle at Avebury, the White Horse Hill and the Ridgeway on a second day. All are north of Stonehenge. That said there is plenty to see in and around Portsmouth too.
We will be in the Portsmouth/Isle of Wight area in early January. We’ll be getting some boat work done in South Hampton and then we’ll spend 6 + weeks in London. Your suggestions are within reach of both. Thanks for passing on the recommendations.
HI james and jennifer i see your in Belfast now and i was wondering if you had any plans to nip across the North channel to the Isle of man ?
I’ve been following you since you were in New Zealand and am amazed what the pair of you have done and your Nordhaven must of been through .
i live in Douglas which is to capital of the island we do have a 24 hour stay afloat Harbour if your coming
and if you are and need any help or advise about douglas you can e mail back and will be happy to help.
yours sincerely Steve
We are thinking through ways to visit the Isle of Man. We plan to visit Liverpool immediately after Belfast so won’t have time on the way by. But will have some time in Liverpool so might just take the ferry over for a day. Another approach will be to stop off the at the Isle of Man before heading to Dublin. We’ll be in Dublin for a while so we might take a ferry from there to visit the Isle of Man. Still working on options but I think there is a good chance we’ll do the trip. Thanks for the offer of advice.
Hi James, thank you for your videos and site. Can you tell me how effective your kvh7 satellite is for Internet? I am going to be working from our boat and curious to other’s experiences. Best, April
Our KVH V7-ip (http://www.kvh.com/Commercial-and-OEM/Maritime-Systems/Communications/mini-VSAT-Broadband/TracPhone-V7IP-with-ICM.aspx) has been instrumental in making this trip possible. Without reasonably priced, high-bandwidth communications, there is no way I could work and the trip would have to be deferred until after retirement. We love the equipment and the world-wide service plans. We originally used the fixed price plans available many years ago. We reluctantly moved to one of the Open Plans (http://www.kvh.com/Satellite-and-Content-Services/Satellite-Communications-Service/mini-VSAT-Broadband-Airtime-Plans/Open-Plans-Standard.aspx) and eventually concluded the Open Plans were better. The fixed plans had difficult to throttling that was functional but a bit difficult to work with whereas the open plans are always high performing. We currently use the OP5k which includes 5G per month bu these plans are available in 2G, 5G, 10G all the way up to 150G per month. We might be better off with our consumption rates when we are in remote locations with the OP10k plan but the overage costs for both are reasonable so we don’t bother changing back and forth.
The only negative is the polar regions are not covered and there are some large uncovered areas where commercial shipping traffic is sparse: South Atlantic (Central and North Atlantic is fine), South Indian Ocean, and the Southern Pacific region. It’s been a couple of years since we were in one of these “blind spots” — these aren’t common. The next one we expect to find is next summer in Norway where some of the Fjords will likely not have connectivity due to the lower elevation angles to geosynchronous satellites and the heights of the nearby mountain ranges.
Overall, it’s a great system. It’s not inexpensive but, for those still working and needing constant connection and good bandwidth, it’s an excellent option. In fact, we have become so dependent on the system that, if I was to retire today, we would stay with the same plan. We really like 24×7 connectivity and it makes the trip more enjoyable for us both.
There is more information on our satellite connectivity at: //mvdirona.com/2015/08/communications-at-sea/. It dates back to 2015 and so we should probably update the article but it still does a pretty good job of covering the options that we investigated. Aboard Dirona, we use WiFi when it is available, the terrestrial cellular radio, and use a KVH V7-ip as our primary satellite system. As backup satellite systems we use Inmarsat BGAN and Iridium but these latter two are only used when outside of the KVH Mini-VSAT satellite footprint or during a system outage. It’s been 2 years since we have used either but we test them annually.
I’ve never sailed on a river or canal so I’ve never experienced the Bank Effect. I have heard about your experience of the water appearing to be lower and flowing faster past the boat. In the instance I heard about the boat ran aground, almost as if the boat was sucked down and had to be towed off. Probably down to hydrodynamics, like boat shape or a combination of different variables of speed and displacement?
Yes, hydrodynamics. The water is being displaced by the hull passing through it and it has to pass by the boat. With the bank near, the water being displaced by the bow and trying to go between the hull and the shore will push the bow away from that near shore. At the stern, the water rushing past the hull needs to fill the space left behind by the boat passing through the water. Because the hull is near to the shore there is resistance to the water freely flowing back into the void left by the hull underway. This causes a low pressure area develops at the stern that pulls the stern towards the near shore.
Dear James & Jen
I hope you are both well. I have in attached my wind speed reference at the bottom of this message. The telematory from Dirona showed winds of 122.8kts. The record for the UK at sea level is 123kts. Watching you boat is more nerve racking that the latest Hollywood film.
I have been up several times in the night to check on your position.
I would love to cruise around Scotland but will need a bigger boat. My wife and I generally don’t go out if the wind is above force 3.
Rgs
Robert
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_weather_records
Fortunately, the telemetry from Dirona was incorrect. We rebooted the weather instrument and removed the erroneous data from the website yesterday. It is windy with winds running in the 30 kts range with gusts to 40 kts but not beyond.
I am glad to hear. Have a great day.
Last few days, post Ophelia, a relief it passed has been great reading….thought the “EE” acronym was “time to be an electronic engineer”, and the nice lunch break at the Castle Tavern for me would be followed by “Nap Time”, after seeing those lovely pints! Entrance to Inverness like is beautiful! Safe travels….!
10.202017
Hi James
Truly magnificent photography an historical treasure !
Are you planning to see more of Europe? Like the Netherlands
Yes, absolutely. WE plan to go to Norway next year and on the way north will stop in Amsterdam for a while. Likely in the April time frame. Looking forward to it.
Hi James & Jennifer,
If you are in the Amsterdam area around April, check out the Keurkenhof gardens – they are absolutely magnificent when the tulips are out. Also the bulb fields all around are a fantastic sight, and the smell of the Hyacinths is almost overwelmingly strong.
Regards
Rob
Our plan is to be in Amsterdam in early April so that suggestion will likely work out very well. We’re looking forward to it. Thanks for the recommendation Rob.
10.17.2017
A little maritime history !
http://www.scapaflowwrecks.com/resources/scapa-map/ScapaMAP2002.pdf
Great set of data and, of course, this is why recreational SCUBA diving is such a big industry in the Orkney Island area. There are a lot of ships (and other debris) on the bottom.
You should be glad all your anchor snagged was a chain and not a torpedo!
http://gcaptain.com/tanker-pulls-up-unexploded-torpedo-with-anchor-off-england/
Very true, capturing unexploded ordnance would be far worse that our just hooking onto a massive chain.
I’m guessing if it had of been ordnance when you got down there you and Jennifer would likely be scraping your second anchor at that point?
Quite possibly we would have had to give up both achors. I’m fairly stubborn and might have found a way to free at least one up without getting close but we probably would have to give up both anchors (we have a third on board).
If you enjoy maps like I do, then you may enjoy this interactive wind map of the world. Wind speeds are in real time, too!
It’s 88km/h where I am at the moment.
https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/orthographic=10.13,58.23,196/loc=9.748,31.764
The North Atlantic looks incredibly bad right now. Nice visualization.
Hi from Chile, nice videos…thanks
Whats the crane brand you use to download the dinghy?
Gracias
Gonzalo
Puerto Natales
Chile
The crane is a Steelhead ES1100. The ES1100 is actually an ES1500 with a longer boom (16′ reach) which requires it be derated from 1,500 lbs to 1,100 lbs.
Hi, you have heard About hurricane Ophelia? looks as it Will pass northen Scotland!
Yes, we saw that. The current predicted track shouldn’t bring unsafe weather our way but it is gusty today.
yeah Ex-Hurricane Ophelia made her landfall this morning here in Ireland. good thing she’s downgraded to storm Ophelia when she reach Northwest Scotland tonight…
Three fatalities and a lot of destruction reported since land fall. We hope the worst is over for Ireland and the cleanup will be swift. It’s an unusually sever storm.
Plockton/Loch Duibh…before your time, but this was the setting for the great Hamish MacBeth series with Robbie Carlyle. We spent our time there scouting the shooting locations. Great to see it again!
The portion of the train trip from Plockton to Kyle of Lochalsh is particularly pretty.
You are very nice couple..with a way to use your life who is perfecr!!!! Actually this is my dream but i’m still working here in Greece and i wait the day i stop. If you ever visit our waters let me know…I’ll be proud to meet you and yours best boat ever!
Best wishes guys!
Thanks for the invitation to Greece. I hope we do get there someday and, if you are ever near Dirona (//mvdirona.com/maps, feel free to drop by and say hello!
How do you guys create your map/track?
We display the maps using modified WordPress blogging software with custom software driving Google maps. We collect the data on Dirona as a side effect of a far broader central control system that captures all NMEA2000 data on Dirona and acquires data from some other non-NMEA2000 connected devices as well. This data is stored in a relational data base and is used to the drive alerts, alarms, email notification of problems, generator autostart, power load shedding, and a variety of other tasks. A tiny subset of that data is uploaded to our website on Amazon Web Services for display.
The personal tracks that we create when off-boat walking, biking, Taxis, train or other forms of transit are created using a discontinued application called My Tracks. Google removed support for this app and no longer maintains it but they open sourced an earlier version of it. We took the earlier version and continue to use that app side loaded on whatever phone we happen to be carrying.
Are all your posts and website driven by WordPress? Do you recommend a hosting service? Btw my wife and I are in process of building a N60. Taking delivery in early spring 2019. Thanks for the site and maybe we will cross paths
Yes, the web site and posts are all done through WordPress running on Amazon Web Services (aws.amazon.com). There is some custom code used for the maps section where Google maps is embedded in word press and the boat position and track is shown but the rest is just standard WordPress. Generally, we’re quite happy with WordPress. It’s a nice solution.
We hope our paths do cross. If they do, drop by and say hi.
Hi Flocerfida,
If you want to create trip tracks like James & Jennifer with GPS data logging. I use an app on my phone called Geotag Photos which is available on Android. It’s a user friendly solution which works very well for cameras that don’t have GPS technology built in. It records your trip as a GPX file which you can export and load into Google maps.
That sounds better than My Tracks even when My Tracks was supported. Good find.
Hi James & Jennifer. Long time reader/follower(fan!!) of your blog (I think I ended up here once, years ago when Ken Williams linked to one of your long South Pacific passages). I love (and am jealous!) of what you guys are doing, but am eternally grateful for how well you share it. I’m finally commenting after a few questions came to head…
Re: dinghy/tender replacement. I have noticed in some of your pics (dating back several years, too) the rust stains/leaks from the small bits of hardware on the current tender. While not mission critical, the staining and rusting of those parts isn’t ideal. I am sure it all boils down to the bottom line ($$) but my basic understanding of alloys is that most of this could be avoided (304 vs. 316). What is your take on the Tender OEMs “missing” in this arena? I even wonder if they offered it as an option/package for higher grade bits on these parts, what percent of buyers would opt-up? Seems to be a small price in the relative scheme of things for a long term improvement on cosmetics and durability.
Windshield wipers- how often do you use them? Do you replace the wipers on a schedule, or just keep spares (your parts inventory is beyond impressive. I love reading your blogs and seeing a part that you replaced and thinking “woah, how did they have *that* on hand?!?!”) and replace as necessary?
Solar- while I understand you are *big* power consumers, as the solar technology improves in cost, efficiency, and reliability, have you considered any size of array to supplement your power needs? Or is it not realistic with the size of your battery bank, high power use, etc?
A more broad question: Rewind a few years, you’re in Seattle, boat-less, ready to do this trip again, but with all the knowledge/experience you have at this point. On a high/macro level, what are some of the big changes/differences you would do if you could start again? Boat/plan/equipment/etc.
Thank you so much for everything you share on here, it’s incredible.
Lots of good questions Jake. Your first was on the tender noting that, as it aged, it developed rust stains and other cosmetic problems. It’s true, one of the sources of the rust were the locks I use on the lockers. They are not stainless and I just replace them after a couple of years but it would be better if I found a stainless part that was easy to lock/unlock. One component of the Honda motor has rusted badly and it leaves ugly streaks down the back of boat. Everything else around the Honda has no paint flaws and no rust. I’m not sure why they would have selected a ferrous metal for this one bracket. It was a poor choice. However, none of the rusty components have failed so it doesn’t appear to have impacted durability. Certainly it is a negative on the cosmetic side. Beyond that, there were parts of the tender that rusted that were stainless. Perhaps 304 vs 316 stainless steel as you suggest or it could just be age and weather. If you don’t polish stainless occasionally, it will “stain less” but it will not be without stain. The tender is often pretty muddy on the boat deck, the tubes are often marked with tar or other dirt from the large commercial docks we often tie to. Ideally we would carefully clean and polish the tender but we end up treating it like a working boat and we maintain it well but don’t wax and polish it. Perhaps we should — we do on Dirona.
We usually have two spare sets of windshield wipers on Dirona. We change them when needed and that is usually every 12 to at most 24 months. We use the wipers fairly frequently to get salt water off before it drys on and to clear rain. On our previous boat the wipers didn’t work well so we used Rain-X which works well. On this boat, I haven’t applied RainX in years and the wipers seem to get the job done. The windshield sprayers are a bit unusual in that they are plumbed into the boat pressure water systems so they never run out and never need filling.
As you guessed, it’s hard to add enough solar to make a material difference to our power consumption. We unapologetically run the boat like a small apartment with washer, dryer, entertainment, dishwasher, furnace, etc. We use a lot of power. But you are also right that some solar would help. Less so in the current cruising area in Scotland than in the South Pacific but I agree Solar would help. The only install locations we have available that don’t look super ugly would be to replace the bimini that covers the fly bridge with a frame supporting panels. We enjoy having the fly bridge able to go either open or covered with the bimini, don’t love adding more weight up high on the boat, and it hasn’t felt like a project we want to take on. If I had a great solution that looked good and knew it would contribute enough, we would add solar. It’s a project that hasn’t felt like good enough price/performance but we honestly haven’t really researched it out carefully.
We do have a lot of spares on board and what that buys us is the trip never gets redirected to wait for parts or service. We can just keep going but, for sure, there is a massive cost in all the spares and they all have to be inventoried and kept clean and dry so it’s a substantial investment. We love the freedom it buys us.
You asked what we would add to the boat if we were to start the trip again. Generally, they way the boat is now is pretty close to that point. For the most part, the changes can be made after the fact so, if we felt like we needed it, we just made the change since we intend to be using the boat for years and many thousands of hours. Each thing we found we needed, we added or changed as we learned more. Some of the major systems we knew we needed when we left but there were some we discovered later. Here’s a few of the changes that we think were were important that came since Seattle: 1) 240V inverter that can run any appliance on the boat and 9kw of alternator on the main engine essentially making the main engine our backup generator and the sole power producer when we are underway (//mvdirona.com/2014/08/a-more-flexible-power-system-for-dirona/), 2) longer passerel (gang plank used for Med Mooring), and control systems auto-start the generator when needed, shed less important loads when power draws near maximum source power, we have alerts on potential system faults, we send email for some problems that need attention, and we display all this data using Maretron N2kview (much of the control systems have Maretron at the core). The power system changes covered in the article referenced above made a massive improvement to the boat and the power system changes and control system additions have been key to making the boat “just run itself” and help us run it safely without only two people on the boat. Simplicity of operation and fool proof is important to a lightly staffed boat. In fact, that’s an interesting point. For many folks, our system look complicated. We’re fine with complicated to install as long as it makes the boat simpler to run since that’s where we spend our time.
Things that we haven’t done but would have liked changing: 1) move from a 40hp wing to 50 to 70 hp, 2) move from 7 1/2 sq ft stabilizer fins to 9 sq ft, and 3) autostart for the main engine. The last one sounds silly but here’s what’s driving our interest in auto-start on the main. If the generator ever failed to start or shut off due to a system fault while we are not on the boat, the batteries will discharge. It turns out that a high power consuming boat like ours needs to run the generators 24×7 or have gen auto-start. You just can’t be on the boat to run the gen when the batteries need it so it’s best left to control systems. The 12kw Northern Lights generator has been rock solid for 5,000 hours but there will come a time when it can’t run for some reason. Our backup is the main engine that can produce 9kw of power generation. We want the control systems to be able to start the backup generator if the primary fails. The best answer is a second generator but it’s hard to find space for another generator so we use the main engine. It’s working out so well that we want the control systems to be able to start it if needed. The interest is driven by a battery bank being worth $6,000+ and the best way to prolong the life of the battery bank is to never deeply discharge them. We can add autostart to the main engine for under $1,000 so we will make that change. It won’t often be used since the main gen is so reliable but it’s good insurance.
If we built again, the boat wouldn’t change much from what we currently have. Solar power might be part of the new build, two gens, a larger wing would be nice but not vital and, in a larger boat, we would go with twin engines despite the tiny loss of operating efficiency.
I see here:
http://www.nordhavn.com/news/headlines/improved_52/
that Nordhavn have announced a new version with a stretched saloon and boat deck. Nordhavn say ” “We’re confident 52 buyers are going to love this change.”
Nice to see. It’s not a big change but, as much as we love the big cockpit, giving up a bit to get a bit more boat deck and interior is a great improvement. It’s a really good looking boat.
Hi James. Have followed the site for some time and regret not coming to say hi when I saw Dirona in the Hawkesbury Australia 12/2014. I’m still a sailor but working towards a trawler around 60ft in length. I’m interested in your comment that you’d go with twin engines in a larger boat. I’d appreciate your reasoning and at what length you would consider twin engines.
We loved the Hawksbury and Sydney region. Definitely one of the trips highlight areas.f
You were asking about twin engines. First, if we like twin engines why did we buy a single? To get twins into a small boat, you need to give up few to allow sufficient space for two engines and two engines are just a tiny amount less efficient. In a 52, we didn’t feel we had anything to give up. However, in a 60 to 63′ boat we would go twins on the argument that boats of that size can carry all the fuel needed for even quite long crossings and the tiny loss of efficiency isn’t really material. We really like the redundancy of twins, we like the handling of twins, and I like having two identical engines when working on why something isn’t working properly on one of the them. Generally, I prefer two small diesels to one large one just about every time unless the package is too small to have two without giving up fuel capacity and range.
On the handling front, a single with thrusters hasn’t been a problem so that factor is arguably a pretty small factor. Singles are used on boats all the way up to very large ocean crossing container ships mostly because it’s a bit more efficient. Here’s an article on us visiting the Hanjin Oslo container ship: //mvdirona.com/2012/06/on-board-the-hanjin-oslo/. On the other side of that decision still up at the very large end of the boating spectrum, oil tankers care just as much about container ships about efficiency but I’ve noticed many new builds are going with twins for redundancy in an effort to reduce the risk of collision and potential spills.
An incredible journey and documentation to boot. With joys and challenges abound along the way. I am cautious for the next installment of you journey however. Although inland, do not let your guards down! Be vigilant! While many may dismiss the reality as folklore legend, there is a true monster that lies in the section ahead!
Humor asides, I encouragea Haggis as a means to calm yourselves. They are challenging to catch, but worth the effort :)
Good luck!
Thanks Jamie. We will keep an eye out for the Loch Ness monster. For calming, the Scots have a variety of recommendations but I’m not sure Haggis will be the option we take :-).
Loch Ness can feel quite spooky – especially when it is black and glassy smooth. We rented a boat for a trip for about a week from Inverness to Fort Augustus (up the locks) and return when our children were young many years ago. Back then, IIRC, there were not many places to moor a boat in Loch Ness itself.
It looks like things haven’t changed a lot since you were last here David. Still not many places to tie off or to anchor but, for this time of year, I’m pretty confident we’ll find lots of open space for Dirona. Really looking forward to it but, having just pulled into our slip in Inverness, wow, it’s pretty nice here as well. We have a really nice end tie with good shelter, a view of the entire bridge in front of us and the marina entrance behind us. We’re planning a train trip (Kyle of Lochalsh) scheduled for tomorrow and we’re heading out now for lunch.
Spent about a week in Inverness ourselves before we headed up the Lochs. Nice town good shopping friendly locals and a few good pubs. We had just come across the North Sea from Norway though, so the low prices were most welcomed.
Beautiful videos, as well as some outstanding photos and their reflections !! Are you set up for HF Radio Comms ?? Not sure where you guys are right now, where might your next trip be and when ? Keep up the good work and enjoy life as you are
Have you come across the Ofcom website or app for checking coverage. Might be useful for you while you are in UK waters. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/advice/ofcom-checker
Thanks for the pointer to the UK government Ofcom communications site Declan.
Any thoughts on the Dashew’s ending production of their FPB boat series? It appears the three under construction will be the last three. My lottery ticket didn’t match up so I guess I won’t be getting one :)
Are you sure? I’ve not seen any announcements about stopping production on FPBs and there is nothing on their web site suggesting they are stopping.
Here is the link to the article they posted 9/29:
http://www.setsail.com/so-ends-this-voyage/
Amazing. Good for Steve and Linda to take some time off and enjoy cruising without the constant load of a full time job.
Hello,
What is that large antenna on a hilltop on Eye Peninsula just outside Stornoway? It belongs to the National Air Traffic Services. Which means it’s an on-route navigational aid for aircraft – I think there used to be an RAF base up there, too.
Well done Paul. We’ll update the posting to reflect that. Thanks!
It is a VOR beacon, which stands for Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Beacon. It is indeed a navigational beacon which gives you a bearing to or from the beacon. Airways, which are motorways (or freeways!) in the sky are often aligned between VORs and in the old days before inertial navigation, then GPS navigation, you drove between VORs on a particular bearing. Now that aeroplanes are often cleared direct to points on the edge of overlapping sectors, VORs are becoming superfluous. However, Stornoway VOR is frequently still used by controllers as a waypoint which airliners are cleared to before commencing their oceanic crossing.
Thanks for the additional background on the VOR beacon Colin.
That antenna is known as a VOR (VHF Omni-direction Range) and it enables aircraft to determine the magnetic compass heading towards, or from the beacon. By acquiring similar bearings fromm two similar beacons they can determine their exact position. When used in conjunction with DME (Distance Measuring Equipment) they can measure the distance from the beacon in nautical miles
Thanks for the technical details behind the VOM system Phil.
James:
Just looked at the Maretron temp etc sensor. Given the cost I can easily relate to your peeved look when you did the swap!!
True. Although, overall, I’m pretty happy with the price/performance of Maretron equipment. They have really changed the market where, prior to them entering the market, high quality instrumentation was mostly just available super yachts (or “super” budgets).
James:
Love your site especially the maintenance items
1, Where did you purchase the one way cockpit drains?
2. I have found Krylon Battery protector (#1307) to be superb at protecting connections such as your generator temp ground (image 8063) as well as battery terminals, etc. Available on Amazon too!!
3. Does your temperature sensor protude below the hull surface? If it does would it be ‘failure point’ if were struck by a large piece of debris?
Rod asked:
1. Where did you purchase the one way cockpit drains?
[jrh]I used one of these from Amazon in each locker: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0019M5JQI/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
2. I have found Krylon Battery protector (#1307) to be superb at protecting connections such as your generator temp ground (image 8063) as well as battery terminals, etc. Available on Amazon too!!
[jrh]Thanks Rod.
3. Does your temperature sensor protrude below the hull surface? If it does would it be ‘failure point’ if were struck by a large piece of debris?
[jrh]The sensing wheel does protude slightly but the sounding and temperature sensing is flush with the through hull. If you are interested in more detail, here’s a picture of the business end of the transducer: https://www.amazon.com/Maretron-DST110-Depth-Temperature-Triducer/dp/B00PA3MFGE/ref=sr_1_2?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1506874265&sr=1-2&keywords=dst110
Hi, James,
Regarding that water temperature sensor, you’re fitting. Does it go into a dry pocket or is it a case of snatching it with the risk of water entering the boat?
Oh, and that safety temperature blow off valve on the water heater is quite a common thing that fails on sealed system boilers. It’s a bread and butter job for engineers!
The depth sounder and temperature sensor are a single integrated unit in a just over 1″ diameter cylindrical shape that goes through a special through hull where the depth sounder has O-rings around it’s outer edge that seal with the through hull. This allows the depth sounder to be removed and a new one replaced while the boat is in the water. But that briefly leaves the boat with a just over 1″ diameter hole, 4′ 2″ below the water surface. Water comes in at an amazing pace during that operation if you aren’t quick.
The change of the water heater temperature and pressure relief valve is indeed an easy job. I would have done it already but it’s one of the few times we find ourselves without a spare. Once I get the spare, I’ll make the change quickly.
Hello James,
Looking at your pictures of your T&P relief valve, it looks like they had the outlet of the valve bushed down from 3/4 to whatever the hose barb fitting happens to be.
I hope I am wrong and those are just random parts laying there however If that was actually the case, while you can obviously do it, it’s against every code ever written on the subject.
I’d be more than happy to provide you with links on the correct installation if necessary and can even provide many examples of the reasons for those codes.
Um, sure, probably just random parts that happened to get into the picture :-).
Yes, that is the way the boat was built. It’s only a 20 gallon hot water tank and I suspect that the system as built would relieve pressure before explosive failure even with the reducers but I also have no doubt that building codes would disallow such an approach. This particular hose is carrying the flow directly to the main bilge to avoid a mess in the laz but, in truth, since this valve should never pass water when operating properly, it would be a lot easier to find the source of the water and the failure if just vented directly into the Laz.
Thanks as always Steven.
Well, failures are rare and generally they do require some “operator input”, in other words “someone knew about it and screwed up”. These days most of the problems you read about with water heater explosions are fuel related.
It takes quite a few things to go wrong but if they do the results are horrible. Since Hydronic systems are part of what I do I always found this one to be the worse since they knew there was something wrong and even called someone that was suppose to be a “technician”. If I remember right the guy was actually a janitor for the school system.
http://www.combustionsafety.com/hot-water-heater-explosion-elementary-school/
Due to the size of your heater, you already run it hotter than what is considered normal for domestic hot water and rely on mixing valves to temper it for use.
Obviously there is more to the equation than simply the size of a discharge pipe on a relief valve and, I suppose most people consider me “alarmist” but I’ve got 43 years of considering the “what if”.
The “what if” of 20 gallons of water being heated to flash on a tank failure converts to 32,000 cubic foot of steam. Quite frankly I would expect a failure in one of your PEX lines long before that could ever happen along with a multiple other clues I suspect you’d investigate including the fact that it’s a T&P and if it was operating correctly, water temp should have it in full dump anyway.
One thing I’d really like you to consider before I shut up and leave you alone is, during a thermostat failure a properly operating T&P will go into full dump at it’s temperature set point with little to no warning. If you do decide to simply vent it to the Laz, think about what would happen if you were crawling by or working on something nearby when it happened.
You are right that the system runs hotter than normal. Our is adjusted to maintain 135F under electrical power. There is also a engine coolant loop inside to allow the water heater to be heated by waste engine heat as well so, under some circumstances when running the engine for a long period of time without using hot water, the temperature can be as high as 180F (5 to 10F less than the engine).
The systems as described as all the usual safety systems and protections and has operated without issues for nearly 8 years. I have additional safety systems above and beyond the normal ones. I find it useful to have a temperatures sensor on the tank to indicate low temp so I know if it’s getting low on capacity and isn’t ready for another shower or washing machine load. When it hits 115F I show a yellow indicator light and when it hits 105F, I show a red indicator light. Since I have a temp sensor on the tank, I can also detect a fault by checking for less than 120F for 8 hours consecuatively. In this condition, I show a large yellow full boat check light. Since I have the sensor, I can add one more safety factor. If the temp ever goes above 185F, we show a large red full boat check light and send email to both of us.
The system also has the water heater under control system software control used to implement load shedding. The control systems know if we are on shore power, generator, or are running off inverter withe engine generated power. Since the control systems knows the power source, the capacity of that power source, and the boats current power draw, we can shed the water heater load by shutting it off as we get close to maximum power source capacity. This means we don’t have to manage loads on the boat and just operate it as an apartment. If we over draw, the least important appliances starting with the water heater are shut down for a few seconds until the power draw peak is past.
It’s a really nice system that allows us to run more load that we have supply and not worry about managing the power loads. We have it on both the 120V and 240V systems so we don’t have to worry that one of us might use the hair dryer at the same time someone else is using the microwave. Everything just works.
The 240V load shedding system also prevents the easy mistake of leaving the water heater on when there is no power source and we’re running off batteries. It just shuts off the water heater when we have no external power. If the main engine is running, we have 9kw. If the gen is running, we have 12kw. And, if we have the common 16A@240V shore power connection common in Europe, we have 3.8kw. If there is no power source and are running on battery, we don’t ever turn on water heater. It’ll run automatically when the generator is started automatically when the batteries need to be charged.
The load shed system allows us to implement one additional safety system for the water heater. If the water temperature ever exceed 160F due to engine operation or a faulty hot water heater thermostat, we shut down the water heater electrical heat. This means we have an additional, redundant thermostatic safety device on the water heater and if it ever gets over 160F, the water heater is forced off. Summarizing the system. We have the standard water heater thermostat shutting off at 135F. We have a second thermostat with a safety setting that shuts down at 160F. We have a large red indicator light and we send email if the system ever exceeds 185F.
Like you, I believe that the plastic hoses and fittings in our system would likely let go and release pressure prior to the T&P relief valve. So, in a way, we actually have redundancy on the T&P valve as well.
I hope you don’t mind me referring back to your multiple tiers of protection against water. We had a sad event with an open timber boat we owned. She was left open to the elements and protected by a Rule 2000 bilge pump with an electronic level control switch, this arrangement proved to be very reliable. Power was not a problem as she was moored on shore power. Unfortunately Sod’s law came into play. Our pump discharge hose came off the skin fitting which caused the discharge water to cycle back into the boat. We had heavy rain and as the boat started to sit lower in the water the external water level started to come up to the hull planks that were not as tight because they were constantly dry, this increased the rate of water ingress. We received a call from a neighbour questioning if our boat was sinking. By the time we arrived with a petrol salvage pump we had about an inch of freeboard left. Very stressed we set up the pump and tried to get it running, heavy pump and hoses, we struggled to get it started, and guess what, it lost its prime and we needed to start the priming process again. It started with suction as the level topped, we only saved the boat because the pump was so powerful and the mooring ropes were supporting the boat, it could not have been closer, within 10 minutes she was empty and safe.
Apart from the obvious lesson re the onboard pump and lack of backup we also learnt that a pump which needs priming can be a problem particularly in a high stress situation. On our current boat we have a comprehensive 24v double pump arrangement with independent skin fittings but our last resort is a 240v hd pump moving 600 lt/min, it can be run on shore power or through our on board 240v network which is supplied by an inverter, had an auto pump switch, can run dry, and is a 1/4 weight of a petrol alternative. I’m not sure if the head would allow it to be a fire pump, but I can deploy it a lot quicker. You might consider packing one, they do not take up much space. I am getting the feeling that you enjoy ‘kit’ so I’ve attached a link to a web site that you might like to browse, when I do I feel a bit like a kid in a sweet shop.
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/c/pumping/
Mike
Thanks for sharing your near sinking story Mike. We have come to much the same conclusion you did that yet another pump is at least part of the right solution.
We have done or have parts on order to do the following:
*Hydraulic bilge pump secondary control switch in the engine room so it can be run from the pilot house or engine room
*Install a 3,700 GPH Rule 3700 with float switch in the main bilge with bilge pump indicator (we were originally aiming to use a Rule 4000 but space makes the 3700 look like an easier choice).
*Warn via red dash indicator light and email if any bilge pump cycles more than 3 times in 60 min.
*Install small boat transom auto-drainage system in the aft cockpit cabinets that allows water to run out but not rush in
*Install a higher collar to prevent down flooding at the Glendinning cord entrance into the Laz from the aft cockpit cabinets
*Install a third bilge high water level alarm
A bit more than half of that work is now done and we’re hoping to have the rest complete before end of year.
9.25.2017
In regards to water seepage did Norhhavn route the anchor chain locker drainage threw side of bow or into the bilge? As bilge seepage of any kind would be super important!
The anchor locker is well engineered. It’s really large, has a person sized access hatch, and drains directly overboard.
James,
Perhaps you might know the answer to the following situation: I have a Nordhavn 55 with a flopper stopper on one side. I would like to add a flopper stopper on the other side but I have heard that it won’t add much additional stabilization. I believe that you only have one but I thought you might have some data on stabilization with one vs two flopper stoppers deployed.
thanks,
Bob Warshawer
Moxie
Currently in the south of France
It’s not an exact science but, from having operated on a single stabilizer at times and being able to compare the stabilization of a single stabilizer with using both, I have estimated a single fin to be about 70% as effective. A passive stabilizer isn’t going to perform exactly the same and I’ve never tried two flopper stoppers but your 70% number sounds like an excellent estimate. We rarely use our flopper stopper but, when we do, we just love it. It can transform an ugly experience into a perfectly workable anchorage. Super important for some locations.
My theory is that two floppers is exactly twice the work of a single flopper but much less than twice the gain so I’m not super motivated to install a second one. But, there certainly are swells that could overload a single flopper but two floppers would tame it. We just don’t see those conditions enough to feel motivated to try the second one.
You could probably borrow a flopper from another Nordhavn and try hanging it off your boat deck crane to see if it’s worth the cost of installing a second one and putting it out. You could just install a second one and only use it when you aren’t happy with the single flopper. You could also find a Nordhavn with two and ask to try it out with one and with two to see if the gains is worth it to you folks. I suspect one could be added without much cost — we thought about it but ended up concluding we just don’t see situations where the single hasn’t been adequate and our estimates of the additional positive impact of the second one match yours. It doesn’t feel worth it for our roll tolerance and the anchoring we have done so far.
9.24.2017
Hows the culinary cuisine been over there reasonable? Listened to the real McCoy bag pipes yet?
Yes, we went the Edinburgh Tattoo so have seen literally 100s of excellent pipers all in one location. Fantastic. We loved Edinburgh, the Tattoo, and the natural beauty of Scotland. Particularly the outer Hebrides Islands and St. Kilda. The food is fine and I’m sure the best places are excellent but if I was listing the literally hundreds of reasons why you really, really should go visit Scotland, the food probably wouldn’t top the list. The natural beauty and amazing history is right up there for us.
9.23.2017
Hi
Have you had to do many electronic hardware upgrades for your boat?
I’ve heard that Nordhavn focuses on quality equipment component installs during their boat builds.
Nordhavn does use good quality equipment but there isn’t a “standard” electronics configuration. Owners chose what they want and install it either before delivery when the boat is new or as an upgrade subsequent to delivery. We have done a lot of both on Dirona.
I have to watch more carefully! You are in Scapa Flow of WW I & II “fame.”
You are 100% right John. There is a lot of history here. Two days back we spent an afternoon in the Scapa Flow Museum. Super interesting. We are currently anchored beside a Churchill Barrier — the causeways used to block some entrances to Scapa Flow to secure the anchorage against German U-boat attack.
You mentioned awhile back about the extension of Dirona’s crane is in need of repair, could you elaborate?
Their are two issues with the crane extension. The first is that many service operations including replacing the lift rope require removing the extension and the 4 fastners that connect the extension hydraulic ram to the extension have corroded in place (stainless steel in aluminum). I’ll need to drill these out and tap new holes to allow some service operations. The second issue is the extension friction surface to the boom is wearing and probably needs to be cleaned up and lubricated. I say “probably” since, without being able to remove the extension, it’s hard to tell the extent of the wear between the boom and the extension.
My current thinking is I will need to drill out the old fastners and tap holes for new ones. Once that is done, I can remove the extension and investigate the second problem.
Hello James,
I noticed your new wire strippers and crimpers were in use during the “Glendenning Repair”. You’ve told me about the crimpers but how do you like the wire strippers?
Another thing that might, from the picture anyway that could be of interest is this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BYAPNR0/ref=asc_df_B00BYAPNR05181988/?tag=hyprod-20&creative=395009&creativeASIN=B00BYAPNR0&linkCode=df0&hvadid=167120444362&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13062417704139084824&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9023534&hvtargid=pla-306856415507
They work better when you are dealing with terminal strips (especially recessed) or anything with a ferrous metal screw. They stick better than an alligator clip many times.
I really like the strippers as well. Precise and sharp just makes all jobs go a bit faster. Good tools are worth their cost. Thanks for recommending them Steve.
I’ll also try a couple magnetic jumper cables on my next Amazon purchase.
9-21-2019
Hi James
Just looking over those island countries of : Ireland,UK,Scotland & surrounding neighbors brings back memories of London,Whales,France,Germany in the early 70’s – beautiful rolling countryside as I recall. You’ve picked a good area! Now anxious to revisit. Say what’s been their current criteria for length of time foreign registered vessels can tour without being hassled by their officials?? Hows the cuisine been reasonable! Listened to the real McCoy bag pipes yet? Be well
Ireland allows visitor to stay in country for up to 90 days per visit. The UK allows 6 months per visit. The limits on the boats time in country are EU regulated. The boat is allowed to be in the EU for up to 18 months consecutively before taxation applies.
9-21-2017
Hi James
Couldn’t help noticing how extensive your voyages are with support to a very important subject matter! Have any of your voyages ever been sponsored with interest to correspondence/marketing kick backs?
Surely – fuel,maintenance,repairs,satellite service along with other related criteria couldn’t be that cheap! Especially the repetitive ones. There seems to be many wannabe hopefuls that evidently aren’t doing enough research before embarking on a sailing adventure that may not go according to expectations! James – any words of wisdom for those people that desire a life without pollution!
Before much longer there’ll be enough boats floating out there a person could walk across the ocean without getting his feet wet!
Kind a like vehicular congestion do to over production – not to mention all those imports that we so conveniently allow into this country. Human error,greed & selfishness only adds to the one well known product WASTE! Be well
Greg said “Before much longer there’ll be enough boats floating out there a person could walk across the ocean without getting his feet wet!”
I understand why you might think that but, the world is really, really big. We sometimes go weeks without seeing another boat when at sea. There really aren’t many boat in absolute terms.
You asked how one could live without pollution. It’s pretty hard to not depend upon transporting anything using engines, capturing and recycling all waste products, etc. It would be challenging for a person to produce absolutely zero waste and not use any non-renewable resources. Possible to be sure but I would think removing 1% of the cars on the road or improving automotive emissions by even small margins would be a higher leverage and more impactful project.
I read that you had a Yacht Controller system installed on Dirona when you commissioned Her. I am interested in this system and would appreciate your comments on it since you have had one for a few years. Is it safe, reliable, and useful. Generally how do you like it?
I do like it and I use it frequently. Whenever we dock going forward, we use the remote. Basically, I use it as a substitute for a bridge wing station that just won’t fit on Dirona. It’s perhaps a bit expensive for what it does but I use it frequently and it’s never needed service so I can’t complain too much.
Only two issues I’ve noticed: 1) range is bounded and so care needs to be take to not step out of range, and 2) the proportional control system is not well engineered so I didn’t end up using it. The standard system has only off/on but it works fine and I don’t find that a problem.
I use a hard wired helm at the stern for backing situations and use the Yacht Commander for everything else. It’s particularly nice when single handing.
9-19-2017
How many times did you need to check into Ireland/Scotland/ & What where your procedures? Is your boat registered in U.S.? Did the citizens favor the cruiser/tourist trade? Where most of their anchor/moorings accommodating! if so in what ways? Did you fly a supplemental flag during your visit to those countries? Were the accommodations researched & made in advance or /random select anchorages? Was the appropriate fuel readily available at those chosen marinas? What was their mark up!
The boat is registered in the US. You asked how many times we checked into Ireland/Scotland. We checked into Ireland once in Kinsale on arrival. We checked into the UK at Rathlin Island, Northern Ireland. Once checked into the UK, Scotland is covered so there have been no further customs and immigration procedures since then and won’t be another until we go to Dublin where we will need to again check into Ireland. When entering another country we fly the Orange Q flag and a courtesy flag for the country we are checking into. Once checked in, the Q flag comes down but the courtesy flags stays up until we leave the country again.
Obtaining fuel has never been a problem world wide. Fuel is available at enough locations we have no problems and quality has always been good. Price range between amazingly low in the $2/gallon range in South Africa, the US, and Ireland to a high of something close to $7/gallon in St. Helena. We sometimes fuel at Marine fuel docks, sometimes have trucks deliver bulk fuel directly to the boat, and sometimes have had a barge come out to Dirona to fuel us. Perhaps our most unusual fueling is in an open ocean swell off the coast of St. Helena from a large fuel barge. Having big fenders came in handy that day.
When we go to a Marina, we book in advance. When anchoring, we just go where is a good location that isn’t in use. We usually have cruising guides for the countries we are visiting to help us find good locations that are worth visiting.
World-wide have found local residents of countries we visit friendly, engaging, and often interested in the boat and the trip.
Hi James and Jennifer
Glad to hear you have a bit of calm water after the past few weeks of wind. This really is a poor summer, even by our standards. I had high hopes for September but temps are now well below average with night frost even appearing in the forecasts. After a poor July / August, we sometimes get what we call an “Indian Summer” which is fine weather in September, but it’s not going to happen this year. Anyway, I can see from the blog that you guys are having a great time regardless of the weather.
I couldn’t help notice your very impressive 29-gallon portable gas tank, I remember seeing those in US boating catalogs but we could never buy one in the UK. A lot of guys running sports boats and ribs here would kill for one of those because petrol is virtually unavailable dockside in most of the UK except for a few large marinas, where it is sold at a hefty markup.
The reason we cant get them in the UK is that the law prevents you from storing more than 60 lts in any container, but it talks about 30lt max for a demountable boat tank. I don’t imagine you will have any trouble up in Scotland but the authorities and rules at pumps in England are likely to be enforced a lot more strictly. I attach the relevant document for your information.
Many fuel stations in UK towns limit plastic containers to 5lts ( 1 imp gallon! )
There have been a few fires in UK marinas this summer so if you are docked in England you might want to keep that big boy out of sight!
Have fun and thanks again for the blog.
http://www.rya.org.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/legal/Web%20Documents/Legal%20Leaflets/Clubs/Premises/CARRIAGE%20AND%20STORAGE%20OF%20PETROL%20AND%20DIESEL.pdf
By international agreement, most countries will allow foreign flagged vessels to operate as long as they are in compliance with the rules of their country of origin. If anyone is uncomfortable filling our tender fuel container, we would be happy to limit the fill to 30 liters. Thanks for the note of caution Robin.
How is return trip so far? It looks a slow and little bouncy but with a tail wind. Dirona running well?
Hi Timothy. Conditions are incredibly good. Near flat water and we’re loping along at only 1600 RPM (about 95 hp) but running along at 7.0 kts. The wind is bouncing around between 3 and 5 kts. The sun just set and it was a beautiful, bright orange orb slowly settling into the sea behind us. It’s a very nice night. We’ll arrive in the Orkney Island group tomorrow morning.
An amazing weather window, are you planning to stay in Longhope?
Do you travel regardless of the weather, if time is not a constraint are there conditions that would cause you to wait?
You are 100% right Mike. The weather has been amazing and, around this area, currents can run upwards of 8 kts so it’s super important that we avoid wind against current and we’ll also not be able to make much headway against currents that fast. On the way here, it was dead flat with a strong current behind us and we were doing 13.5 kts at only 1500 RPM.
We don’t intentionally travel in poor weather. We tend to explore an area and time our trips between areas to periods where the weather at least reasonable. And, where current are strong, we’ll try to optimize for them as well but it’s the weather that we watch most closely.
We are now on anchor just off Longhope and we’re planning to takes our bikes in and do a peddle around the island.
9-18-2017
Hi James
Is your frig/freezer system set up to run on 12 or 24 volts as opposed to 120 v. shore power? Thanks
The fridge runs on 120V 60hz. Like most US houses, we have both 240VAC for large appliances like ovens and dryers and a 120V system for lower draw appliances. On the direct current side, most of the boat runs on 24VDC but there is also a small 12VDC system for gear not available in 24V.
Your maps are very effective, what does each of the colour tracks represent? How do you record the different types and publish them?
Mike, there are two basic type of tracks we show: 1) tracks made by Dirona, and 2) personal tracks which might be boat, airplane, train, walking, bicycle, bus, taxis or any other form of transit other than Dirona. Dirona tracks are organized into groups of tracks we call trips. These are the set of trips that involve our exploring a specific area. These tracks left by Dirona are blue for the selected set which is the most recent unless you navigate somewhere else and red for all the remainder. Just scale the maps site out to show the entire world and you’ll see lots of red tracks and of which can be selected.
Personal track have the most recent track shown in green and older tracks in turquoise. If you hover the cursor over any personal track, it’ll turn yellow so you can see it separate from the rest.
Dirona tracks are produced by custom software that is primarily used for other purposes — the tracks produced are just a side effect of a broader system. This software takes all data off boat-wide NMEA2000 data communications bus and stores it in a database every 5 seconds. This data includes all data from all the main engine, wing engine, generator, all electrical systems, all navigation systems, the electrical systems, and many other discrete devices in the boat. The data in the database data is used by other custom software systems to track historical changes, alert on problems, set indicator lights, send warning email, auto-start the generator when the battery discharge, shed power load when starting to reach the limits of the current boat power source, etc. A tiny part of this data is auto-uploaded to the web site to show the track on the map at //mvdirona.com/maps using a combination of google maps and custom code shown inside WordPress (the blog software).
The personal tracks are produced by a really nice little program that ran on Android phones called “My Tracks” — unfortunately Google stopped supporting this app and it’s no longer available from the Google Playstore. But we got lucky anb found they had open sourced an earlier version of My Tracks so we did a private build which we side loaded so we now have our own version of My Tracks that we continue to use.
9.18.2017.
Hi all
Does your system back up navigation references to a portable drive should there be a natural disaster black out???? Lets hope an asteroid doesn’t clobber earth & screw up our compasses! Or worse yet the heavens give us the finger. Live long!
Yes. Everything on the boat is stored locally on RAID6 which can operate through two disk failures without data loss. All of that data is also backed up to Amazon Web Services S3 where it is stored in multiple independent data centers. It’ll take a big asteroid before we start loosing data :-)
9-18-2017
Hi James
Is raid6 portable & compatible with all or most OS systems?
Have you yet sailed over any areas where your currently cruising that have effected compass readings?
Thanks
The central file store used on Dirona is a Synology 416 running RAID6. It can be read by both Windows and Linux systems and we have many of both on board. All on board systems backup to this central file store.
There are many areas marked on the charts as having a magnetic disturbance — these seem fairly common. Our primary heading indicator is a Furuno SC-30 satelite compass. This device computes position, heading, and speed using time differentials between two different GPS receivers.We use the system for it’s increased position accuracy over simple GPS. It also makes the boat more or less immune to magnetic disturbances and their impact on compasses.
The backup to the SC-30 are multiple discrete electronic compasses and multiple redundant GPSs. There is a standard magnetic compass on board as a tool of last resort and, of course, it would be impacted by local magnetic disturbances.
9.26.2017
Hi
Hows the Internet access where your at ?? Or do you rely solely on satellite?? Any challenges with reception such as mountainous regions??
Have you done any fishing in those areas if so whats your favorite catch? Do those general jurisdictions require fishing permits??
It depends where we are. Ireland is very well connected via cellular so something close to 3/4 of the data we moved while in Ireland was over cell networks. In Scotland, cell coverage is less common especially in the Outer Hebrides Island. We currently have cellular connectivity but most of the time we have been on satelite only so we are running a very big bill this month.
We are big users of KVH Mini VSAT: http://www.kvh.com/Leisure/Marine-Systems/Phone-and-Internet/mini-VSAT-Broadband.aspx.
10-27-2017
HI
TracPhone V11-Ip & bundle systems are impressive ! Considering
upgrading !
Knowing what you know now about your current dinghy what modifications would you be looking for in your next purchase of a new dinghy
It’s funny you should ask that. Our current tender was delivered in early summery 1999 and it now has just under 600 hours on it. I’m starting to think about replacement. All three compartments have just started to leak and it looks like the fabric is sufficiently worn that it is just seeping air everywhere. It’s still solid and I can easily get another year out of it but, depending on pricing, we may replace it soon. When we do replace it, we’ll go with AB Alumina 12 ALX. The only mods we like on our tenders are: 1) locking storage areas, 2) battery meter so it’s super clear if the battery is on and what level it is at, 3) depth sounder, 4) trim tabs, and 5) off engine canister type fuel filter.
Our current tender is powered by a Honda 40. The Alumina 12 ALX has a max engine size of 30 hp so we’ll probably go with a Yamaha 30 outboard.
Gauges, impeller, bilge pump, oil and an anode. At least your seals were sleeping and did not need to be replaced.
Yeah. Overall the boat has been pretty stable of late. We’re caught up on all the small jobs but have a few big jobs that we will want to get to but arent’t really urgent: 1) needs a full wax, 2) will need a bottom paint before next summer, 3) main engine injector change and rocker arm carrier gasket change, 4) crane extension has siezed fasterners that need to be drilled out, and 5) there are early signs that the house bank batteries are on their last 6 months or so. All the small issues are caught up. The boat doesn’t take that much work but, when it’s us doing all the service, there are always some items pending.
Hello James,
I can’t tell from the picture if there is any magnesium left on that anode or it’s simply calcium but, even if there is it had done about all it was going to do for you.
Having been in there almost 8 years that’s actually a pretty good run but I’d recommend checking it again about the 3-4 year mark. Ideally you don’t want any of the steel rod that holds the magnesium on showing.
I’ve seen worse .
Hello again,
Maybe it’s just me but, I seem to read a lot about impellor failures on Dirona while equipment is in use. I know at one point you’d mentioned finding some type of strainer to catch the parts.
Does there seem to be either a time or hour failure rate that would indicate a possible maintenance schedule or is it fairly random and the cost and effort be more than any gain?.
It’s a great question. Generally the industry recommends annual changes. I had a look at the failure rate and some last 2 1/2 years and some last less than a week. Since the distribution periods are so widely seperated and some have very long lives, I think it’s more economic to let them go until near failure. I have temp sensors set low to set a warning light and send email when the temp starts to climb and a impeller is probably starting to fail.
We have 3 identical Jabsco pumps so statisticaly there will be a fault every 6 to 9 months: 1) wing engine cooling, 2) generator cooling, and 3) hydralic and main engine fuel cooling.
My analsys says that if it’s disruptive to have them fail, then change them every 6 to 12 months. If it’s not really a disruption and the focus is on economics, then they are best replaced when they start to fail.That’s where we ended up.
10.27.2017
Hi James
Couldn’t help noticing your articles mentioning e-mail alerts numerous times ! Which alert module/program are you currently implementing that would route an
alert to your e-mail as well as to a bright light or sound alert from a discrepancy with the electronics, security breaches, excessive bilge water levels, overheats, fires, drift & etc. ??
Be well
breach,
I’m currently using custom software for most alerts but Maretron N2kview does this super well and can alert with lights, email, SMS, and audible alarms. N2kview also supports conditional alerts so you can set an audible alarm on low oil pressure but only if the engine is actually running.
It’s pretty ugly and should have been changed 3 years back but, hey, better now than a year fro now :-). Thanks for recommending we have a look.
Unfortunately, while in there I noticed the T&P valve is has started leaking so it’s next on the service list. I had noticed small amounts of freshwater in the bilge over the last 3 to 4 days and it appears that it’s from the water heater.
People rarely do especially on residential domestic hot water but, pressure relief valves should be tested annually and replaced every 5 years.
http://www.watts.com/pages/support/tp.asp?catId=64
Watts recommends an inspection every 3 years which IMHO is redundant if they are tested annually and replaced at 5 years.
Thanks for the reference to the Watts information page on T&P valves. It’s a useful read.
This valve appears to have calcified sealing surfaces probably due to passing water for some time. Perhaps the valve has gotten weaker with time. The water is heated to 180F to 185F when underway for a long time by the engine cooling loop. This might lead to small expansion discharges that over time which eventually calcify the T&P sealing surfaces. I’ve got a new valve on order.
10.27.2017
Hi James
Euro style water heaters are fast becoming a favorite heats only water used energy efficient, compact, light weight, valve regulated heat exchange
plumb 120/vdc available! Happy moments!
James:
The ‘Big Wheel” instantly reminded me of the Peterborogh Lift Lock on the Trent Severn Waterway in Onatrio Canada.
With admittedly lower lift this lock, opened in 1904, is an excellent example of an ‘ elegant low tech’ solution to a large lift distance. I believe the lock operated for over 80 years before requiring major maintenace. Great experience to ‘ride’ in!
See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterborough_Lift_Lock
Pretty cool Rod. We did cruise parts of the Trent Severn 30 years ago and would love to return but with only 22′ of air draft and 5′ of water draft, we’ll need a different boat for that trip.
You are unlucky with the weather in Scotland. If you have internet access and are looking for Dirona based entertainment, check out the Goodwood Reviival races for historic racing cars (1920s-1960s) which are being live streamed now and through the weekend.
We are in Storoway and planning to explore the area today. But the Barometer has fallen hard to 977mb yesterday and it’s still sitting around 983mb right now. The wind is currently around 2 kts but we certainly have some bad weather coming. Likely later today. We’ll enjoy it while we can today and perhaps tomorrow will check out the Goodwood Revival races. Thanks David.
I should have added they are on YouTube and show repeats including highlights. Its a fun event with a mix of amateurs and pros, expensive machinery and a few spectacular spins (triple 360 degree Jaguar E Type) and expensive crashes (a Ferrari was pranged yesterday).
GREAT! We watched the shootout (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQi_ANn46vk&t=44s). Single car on the track at one time from a standing start. They run them in reverse order of speed so the second half is most of the newest and best cars being driven well. Impressive to see the tiny Subuaru WRX beat some of the worlds most expensive supercars. Fun to watch.
Now this is a crossing: http://www.canoekayak.com/news/70-year-old-kayaker-crosses-ocean-keeps-going/
Yeah, those and similar stories are a constant reminder that, if we found the last crossing hard, it wasn’t THAT hard :-).
Good luck tonight. Hope you can set the alarm and get some sleep.
Yup, there probably is some level of wind that we can’t sleep through but I guess it must be more than 60 kts. We have a fair degree of confidence in our 154 lb Rocna, we have 5:1 scope out, and we are running heavy chain so we sleep soundly. Dirona being fairly heavy at 55 tons helps as well. It moves around in the heavy winds but it a nice slow and lazy movement that is easy to sleep through. We sleep great.
Where do you store the poles for the floppers?
We have only 1 pole on Dirona. That’s a common configuration but Nordhavn has built many boats with flopper stoppers on both sides. The flopper on Dirona uses just a single stand off pole that rotates 90 degrees aft when not in use and clips onto the hull more or less disappearing into the lines of the boat. We keep the lines for it in the brow storage area over the pilot house and in front of the fly bridge.
I really enjoyed the canal pictures and comments. Was there a current in the canal? Did you have to use thrusters at all or was it easy to navigate?
There is no current in the canal and it’s easy to navigate other than the bank effect occiasionaly pulling the stern over. Thrusters are helpful when navigating in the small turning basins at each end where moored boats don’t allow a straight run into the lock. The last turn at the Crinin end is tight enough that a gentle bit of bow thruster helps keep the boat central. I also noticed that a light touch of the thruster would quickly break the bank effect when it begins to suck the boat over — at these speeds the rudder doesn’t have much water passing over it and the thrusters are particularly effective.
Just read through your stuff whilst on holiday here in Mallorca. My boat is moored at the marina in Greenock you visited and I was amused to see where you had sailed from.. Good luck sailing the dream !
We’re having a ball in general and really enjoyed our time in your Marina. Being near a train station makes longer trips easy and allows a quick and easy run into Glasgow.
I thought you guys were back at Greenock for a moment, there is another ‘expedition’ style boat in the marina – looks like the same make as yours!
Cool. What’s the boat name?
It says Rockland on the rear and reg in Fowey.
You’re right, that boat you saw in Greenock is almost identical to Dirona. Rockland is a Nordhavn 47 built just 4 years earlier than Dirona.
Three boats all from the same yard visit james watt in a matter of months!!
I agree Stephen. There are getting to be a lot of Nordhavn’s out there and an unusually large number of Nordhavn’s actually cruise and go interesting places. I’m always amazed how many we see in our travels.
Hi James and Jennifer – love the site! Thanks for all you do. While you’re in Edinburgh, the National Library has a great photographic exhibit of Shackelton’s famous Antarctic expedition with original photo plates from Frank Hurley. Worth seeing if you have time!
Thanks for the tip Jay. Ages ago I read Caroline Alexander’s The Endurance, featuring Frank Hurley’s photographs of the expedition. The story itself is incredible and Hurley’s astonishing pictures really brought it to life.
Hi James & Jennifer, Looks like you are heading up the Sound of Mull, assuming you turn north at the end past Ardnamurchan point do try and have a look at the Small Isles ( Muck, Eigg, Rum, and Canna ) Canna in particular is stunningly beautiful with a good anchorage on a transit between the two churches. Looking SE from here you get a great view of Rum. Really enjoying reading about your adventures, as we cruised the west and north coast in 2014 & 2015.
Hope you get good weather to enjoy to the max ( not great eat today I think ! )
Regards
Rob
S/Y ‘Norman James’
Rob, thanks for the recommendation. We’re likely going to head southwest from Loch Spelve to Iona Island area, and then out to the south end of the Hebrides and work north from there, so we’ll miss the Small Isles. But if we do end up in that area, we’ll be sure to check them out.
Hi folks
Just passed you in Loch Spelve as I drove home, lovely looking boat.
Enjoy your travels
It’s a nice area to call home Bob. We’re tucked away in here on 100 meters of anchor rode with enjoying watching the storm roll through. We saw winds to 38 kts last night. We’ll likely stay another day to let the low pressure system pass through and then head north. Thanks for saying hi.
Hi Jennifer,
Hope you enjoyed Canna. If you are going up the inside of the outer Hebrides from Castlebay, there is a nice ( very new ) marina in Lochboisdale. The post van does a bus service and we took it up to the airport, the minibus goes up the Atlantic side of the island stopping at every post box but the return is almost non stop. If I remember rightly, the return journey was only £3.50 each and was great fun, listening to all the locals speaking Gaelic – quite musical!. A bit further north, Stornaway is very friendly, as is Stromness in the Orkneys. Enjoy!
Regards
Rob
Rob, we did enjoy Canna–it was quite beautiful. We’re underway for Lock Skipport now and after a few “town days” in Castle Bay likely will skip Lock Boisdale. But thanks very much for the tip. We had a great time at Barra Island–we rode the bikes around the island and watched a plane land on their beach airstrip. Most unusual.
Rob, we did end up visiting the Small Isles and currently are anchored at Canna. And you’re right, the scenery is spectacular. Thanks again for the recommendation!
215 year old canal with 15 locks and 7 bridges in under 10 miles sounds awesome. You will be sitting close to the 2.2m limit? You get to do your locking? I cannot wait to see the video of this trip!
The speed limit is 4 kts rather than 4 km so it slow but not as bad as 2.2 MPH. Even the widest parts are pretty close so going 4 kts doesn’t really feel rediculously slow. Dirona runs 4 kts at about 1025 to 1050 RPM so we’re just loping along and enjoying the scenary.
Yesterday we went through 4 locks with help on three of them. When operating alone with only the two of us, it’s busy. I keep the boat where it needs to be with the engine and thruster controls and adjust the lines and Jennifer closes gates, releases the water, and open the gates in front. Since all controls are hand driven and hand powered, it’s a bit of work. I walked up and opened the second set of lock gates while we were waiting in the first lock and the gates require a strong back to push open. When they get open at 8:30am this morning, we’ll get started on today’s adventure. Dirona feels quite big in here.
Sorry, I meant the draft limit of 2.2M. I know you are close and it is freshwater so Dirona sits a little lower.
I am a fan of the Broom river cruisers over there. Are there many in the canal?
The Canal isn’t that busy right now and most boats are sailing craft so we definitely haven’t seen that many Broom River boats. However, ,I’m not sure I know the distinguishing characteristics well enough to know when I have seen one :-).
Yes, 100%, the Canal is quite shallow. We often see depths in the 8′ range and occasionally in the 7′ range. We’re currently against the dock at the Crinan end so it appears we have managed to stay off the bottom for the entire trip but you are right, the Canal is not very deep.
Hi James and Jennifer!
Fascinated looking at your canal transit. Looks like quite a challenge! I’m curious about how Dirona handles at 4 kts – do you feel like you have adequate steerage? It looks like the canal is not only narrow, but isn’t exactly straight. Are you having to use the thrusters? I don’t recall but do you need to run a generator full time to have hydraulics for the thrusters?
Dirona is perfectly happy at 3 to 4 kts but handling was still a surprisingly noticable issue on the last day in the Canal. I’ve read of “bank effect” in the past — this is the tendency for ship sterns to be pulled towards the nearest bank. This effect is important for Canal Pilots to keep an eye on when operating in narrow waterways. I’ve never felt the effect before and assumed it only applied to large ships in narrow channels. But, the water displaced by Dirona is a large percentage of the Crinan Canal and it leads to weird handling at times. If you drift 2 to 3 feet over towards one bank, the stern will pull towards it and the bow will veer off heading the boat over to the opposite bank. The lower the speed the less the impact of this effect but, even as low as the 4 kt speed limit in the canal, we felt a pronounced bank effect that I have never before experienced. I initially thought we had a steering problem but it was just the bank effect where the bow tends to push off the bank and the stern tends to “suck” towards it.
Another interesting (and related) anomaly when operating in narrow canals is the water was rushing so fast from bow to stern that it would drop by 6 to 8″ near the PH door. What appears to be happening is the passage of the boat through still water requires the water in front of the boat to get to the stern but, since the boat fills much of the canal, we build up a several inch high plug in front of the boat and the water rushes from the bow to the stern of the boat far faster than we are actually travelling.
Thank-you! That is interesting. I’m guessing that Bernoulli was having his way with the canal water as you passed and since there was a ‘constriction’ in the canal (Dirona), the water had to accelerate around it to maintain equilibrium. I’d never heard of ‘bank effect’ before – thanks for the great explanation!
Yes, good point Greg. I think the bank effect is just a specialization of the Bernoulli principal. I was surprised at what a strong effect could be felt if you get too close to one bank or the other.
James and Jennifer:
Just curious. Why did you name your cat Spitfire?
Good question on Spitfire. He was actually named by a Seattle Vet on his first visit. He was running around the examination room and, overall, massively energetic. The Vet commented “he’s a little Spitfire isn’t he?” The name stuck and 14 years later, he’s still a little Spitfire.
Ah! And I always thought it was because he was purring like a RR Merlin 16 cyl engine! ;-)
Beautiful cat, my 10 year old black female cat Mokka is a big Spitfire fan and follows his adventures attentively watching the screen on my lap!
Her favorite picture is from Wellington NZ where spit was hoping to catch a seagull!
Spitfire definitely does purr up a storm. On catching Seagulls, he’s a bit optimistic. They are bigger and meaner than he is. And Spitfire carries 4 loud bells on his collar since our previous cat Gremlin did successfully catch a baby rabbit. We would really prefer that he let them live so the bell policy was put in place. Spitfire carries the bells due to behavior a generation before him.
Good to hear that the Rathlin island visit worked out OK for you. I believe you sail North next but if you can fit it in your itinerary I suggest you consider North Wales especially Snowdonia and the fine medieval castles there. Conwy castle (and its walled town) and Canaervon castle are well worth a visit. There are others too if you are gluttons for punishment, including Beaumaris and Harlech castles. The Portmeirion hotel, village and estate will probably be unlike anything else you have visited – it is south of the two castles. You would need to rent a car to get around the area.
You are right we are heading north from here to explore the west coast of Scotland and the Hebrides. We will head around Scotland to the north but will take the Caledonian Canal back to the Scottish west coast before we head back south. We plan to stop in the Isle of Man and Dublin and are still investigating other stops along the way. Thanks for passing along the tip Snowdonia and other possible stops.
I forgot to add that the Ffestiniog light railway runs from Portmadoc (near Portmeirion) to an old slate mine. If you like trains I expect you will Welsh narrow guage railways. Worth checking out. Waterford, south of Dublin, might be worth checking out too.
We’ll likely cross over from Ireland to the UK before we get to Waterford but Portmadoc and Snowdonia look like good potential stops for us. Thanks David.
Did I miss the picture of you two standing in front of a East Hamilton Street sign?
Until you asked, I hadn’t realized that we are actually moored at East Hamilton St. Thanks for pointing it out.
Hello again – I am in the last stages of making an anchor buoy + trip line and realised that I haven’t noticed your “Wilson” (//mvdirona.com/technicalarticles/WilsonAnchorBuoy.htm) in any recent pictures of Dirona at anchor. Have you stopped using an anchor buoy?
Best wishes
We mostly use Wilson when anchoring in high anchor loss risk areas. These are area where logging or other activity has left spirals of steel cables or other debris on the bottom and snagging is a significant possibility. It’s also helpful in crowded anchorages to help others avoid tangling with your anchor and rode. Generally, we view an anchor buoy as a good idea but it’s more work to deploy so it’s a risk/benefit decision. For many years, especially when boating in British Columbia, we used it every time we anchored but, of late, we’ve been spoiled by locations where the risk of anchor loss is low.
We are finally using our Anchor buoy (Wilson: //mvdirona.com/TechnicalArticles/WilsonAnchorBuoy.htm) again. We’re currently anchored off of Longhope in the Orkney Island group and the cruising guide says this area is known to have a foul bottom. It’s the first time we have used Wilson for a long time but it was as easy to deploy as usual.
Also, as you know, the tides and currents are big in this area so we’re making good use of Reeds Almanac. Thanks again for your contribution to our fun trip through Ireland and the UK.
Quite the journey James, glad you got to visit Glencoe one of my top 2 or 3 places in Scotland. I seem to remember you posting that you had tickets to the Edinburgh Tattoo, hope you enjoy it I know of no other event like it and the setting is spectacular to say the least.
Hey Euan, your 100% right about the Edinburgh Tattoo. We just got back from a couple of days in Edinburgh. It’s a great city and the Tattoo was excellent. We had a really good time and stopped off at the Falkirk Wheel on the way back to our boat in Glasgow.
We really enjoyed the Festivals last summer…I would go back in a minute, especially as we now have the hang of navigating and ticket buying.
Hey Karen. Edinburg was a ball. Massively busy but still lots of fun. We’re we to go there again with more time flexibility we would probably go less close to the center of the tourist season. But, in some ways, the massive crowds were part of the vibe. The combination of the Tattoo and the Festivals absolutely fills the city.
We just did a few weeks back in Seattle and, this morning, got back underway in the boat for some time in the Crinan Canal, the Hebrides, the Orkney’s, and the Caledonian Canal.
Hi James,
I’ve just been introduced to to your very informative Web site and have found it to be a wealth of information! Thanks you for all your hard work! I am about to purchase my first yacht, (either a Nordhavn 55 or a 60. Not quite sure which yet as I intend to do much of the same type of exploration you have. I in tend to first explore the Mediterranean and Black Sea before going down the East Africa coast then a cross to Madagascar from beira in Mozambique. After exploring Madagascar for a month or two I’ll be heading to Reunion then the reverse of your journey. Do you have any suggestions in terms of which yacht between the two 55 /60 (myself, my GF and for longer stretches 1 crew member) and particularly regarding the reverse journey from Reunion across that part of the ocean. I’ve been told it can be rather rough!
Your advice would be much appreciated when you find some free time.
Blessings!
Sounds like a really fun trip. As you know power boats can got whatever direction their owners wish. However, heading into weather can end up a bit slow, consumes more fuel, and the pitching can get annoying. With either boat you have the range to make the trip you describe but you might enjoying heading in the opposite direction.
Another thing to keep in mind it’s a long way between South African and Australia with some real gems between but they are all a long way apart so you will end up with a lot consecutive sea miles on that trip. If you go through the Panama Canal and the South Pacific, you have a higher density of fun stops. But, one of best features of a small boat is you can do whatever you want and having covered much of the area you plan to cover, we know you will have fun on either possible routing.
The 55 and the 60 are very similar boats coming out of the same molds. The 60 has a bit more waterline length, more storage in the Laz, more space on the boat deck, and a much larger cockpit. We love spending time outside in the cockpit so the space of the 60 is super attractive. If we were making the decision again today, we would likely go with the 60.
A little late, but the fender boards that are Schedule 80 pipe look great, I’m currently dragging around 2×12′ and they are a pain. But we have a favorite marina that they really help at.
Can you post some more about the diameter, lengths, and if you stack 2 or 3 or how that works. I have a place to put them since they will be so much smaller.
Thanks!
We are using 4″ diameter schedule 80 PVC. We have 4 each 5′ long. We store them standing up in the anchor locker strapped to the bulkhead. When we use them, we attach a fender line to the bottom of the fender, knot the line to hold the fender board in the middle of the fender and then feed the line through the top of the fender. This forms a integrated unit of two fenders with the fender board on the outside stretched between the the two fenders.
Super, I wasn’t sure if you were trying to make wide ones to help with the load supports. In my case two 4″x5′ sections of pipe will be easy to store and deal with than my existing wood. Thanks for the tip!
Hi Jennifer and James,
I am following your blog form a while now and really appreciate your writing in full detail. Very interesting and also very helpfull!
What I didn’t find and what would be a “need to know” thing for our future plans of boating is what costs with mooring you had cruising the world. At least in Europe’s hot spot harbours they are charging a lot for this size of a boat.
An article about that would be great!
Enjoy your time in Europe and greetings from Germany,
René
Moorage ranges from incredibly cheap to super expensive. Sydney Australia over Christmas was $300/night before power. The busy season in Newport RI and Boston can run $5 to $6/ft. Florida was very inexpensive at just over $0.50/ft at the monthly rate. Off season rates are usually less and often negotiable.
Good idea for the fender boards. Tried the same thing several years ago but found that a 52 ton trawler leaning up against them on a dock in a storm snapped them like tooth picks. Back to wooden boards – 2×6 size.
I was wondering about that, Sch 80 PVC is rather tough under certain conditions but it crushes fairly easy.
http://www.pvcfittingsonline.com/resource-center/strength-of-pvc-pipe-with-strength-chart/
Good work on finding the collapse pressure of schedule 80 PVC Steve. 350 pounds per square inch isn’t that bad but reading that, I would likely go with 3″ and get 500 lbs per square inch (giving up some torsional stiffness). With 4 of these, we can also use pairs of them to increase the surface area against the dock.
Hi James &a Jennifer,
Living vicariously through your travels as we await our trawler to be commissioned this September. Reviewing your most recent posts, we have two questions …
1. Agree 100% with your Sch 80 PVC fender boards. Noted the holes. How have you configured? How do you deploy? I was thinking of short line simply looped around whip line on each fender but could not tell how you deployed on Dirona.
2. Linda (wife) loves your cockpit table and chairs (Jennifer at lunch). Would you mind providing manufacturer?
Thanks,
Gary &a Linda
M/V Unwinding
Gary & Linda,
Congrats on your trawler purchase–hope all goes well with that.
For the fender boards, we followed the design at “https://www.tropicalboating.com/2010/12/making-your-own-fender-boards-in-2-easy-steps”
Our teak furniture is by Westminster teak. We stripped all the furniture and the caprail, sealed it with Mar-X-Ite, then applied Cetol Marine Light and Cetol Marine Gloss. This lasts a good two years, even in the tropical sun. See “//mvdirona.com/Trips/southafrica2015/SouthAfrica3b.html?bleat=12%2F5%2F2015%3A+Sanding” and “//mvdirona.com/Trips/NewZealand2013/Northland.html?bleat=12%2F9%2F2013%3A+Painting” for more info.
Sitting out the storm has a silver lining in that it gives you time to see where leaks and puddles develop. Strainers, lines and grates are always fun to clean :-) It is always interesting to see what crap from the factory fell into the bilge and at some point years later has worked its way down to the pump intake. I hope the three of you are doing well and having some wonderful beverages while you clean!
It’s amazing how much debris is found when sloshing water around for a while in rough seas. Seeing that really emphasizes the importance of high volume pumps that can pump through a bit of debris. We just took delivery of 185 lbs of Amazon Prime so now have the parts we think we need for the new bilge pump installation. It’s a super tight location so it’ll be work to get it installed the way we want it but having the parts is step one.
We just replaced a bilge pump and a float switch and I did all the wiring before on the galley counter. I left a big service loop and then just tied it above so I only needed to make two connections in the hold. Your bilge pump wiring runs all the way to the bridge? Did I read that you moved another switch point to the engine room?
Love me some Prime. I am amazed at how many of my boat parts I can get from Amazon. I hope they make a Marine category someday and move the parts out of sporting goods!
My plan is to do pretty much the same thing you did where I will wire up the pump and float switch and attach plumbing on the bench and then lower the assembly into the bilge and finish the install of the assembly. For bilge pump off/on detection and cycle counts, I’ll use the raspberry Pi that I installed some weeks back and there is a junction box near the bilge pump that leads back to the Pi.
Re America’s Cup the elimination rounds were, I thought, more interesting than the final itself with some close racing. The Red Bull series in 45 ft boats was also fun to watch, but that was regatta rather than match racing. Much of it is available on YouTube; the best was a very close race between NZ and Artemis when the lead changed hands some eight or nine times.
NZ has just announced the first of the rules for the next series, to be held in Aukland. These include that each boat should be built in the country of each challenger (without defining what proportion – perhaps just the hull(s)), and that the crews should be citizens of the challenger. Apparently there was only one US citizen in the Oracle USA team! Other rules are expected to be announced in September.
It is true that Team Oracle is about as close as you can get to “Team Australia” given where many of the crew were born. But, as long as dual citizenship is allowed, team Oracle will be fine in the next America’s cup even with the proposed new rules.
What would be really cool is if Australia fielded a team. It’s a country full of great sailors and it would really be good to see them with an America’s cup team. While New Zealand is working on changes, one that would be nice to see is annual racing. I’m OK with waiting 4 years between Olympic events but the America’s cup really needs to be run more frequently.
Five of the competing teams in this year’s America’s cup had agreed a framework agreement for an event every two years with series events in between and the aim to reduce the cost per team to c$35-40 million. NZ did not sign up to this. As the winners they now call the shots; among other things saying the next event will be in 2021 (vs 2019 per the framework agreement). It remains to be seen what else they will specify and how many countries are likely to stick around to compete. It is evident, as the experience of the French and GB teams showed, that it is very difficult if not impossible to get up to speed in a single campaign.
I would have loved to see critical mass to have emerged behind this effort: “Five of the competing teams in this year’s America’s cup had agreed a framework agreement for an event every two years with series events in between and the aim to reduce the cost per team to c$35-40 million.”
Yes, it looked as though it had the makings of a viable format both in design and presentation. Some, like Martin Whitmarsh (ex McClaren F1 MD and now MD of Land Rover BAR) made an explicit comparison with the way F1 motor racing operates in which the participating teams agree the basic specs and develop from there.
Hi James, Welcome to the UK. Just a quick note that we are here to help with anything Nordhavn and or cruising related.
My mobile number is: +44 (0)7793 582905.
All very best
Neil.
Thanks for the welcome comment Neil. We’re looking forward to exploring Scotland and we hope to be down in London early next year. Hope to meet up with you and the Nordhavn Europe team while we are in the area. All the best!
Re: Lifeboat
I’m glad to see pictures of our lifeboats popping up here. Your are in Lifeboat Country while coastal cruising in the the UK, the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man and you’ll see many RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) boats of all shapes and sizes providing cover right around our coasts. All crews and support staff are volunteers except that the big boats usually have a salaried full-time mechanic. The RNLI receives no government funding whatsoever – its money comes from members (including Frances and me!) and legacies. And they don’t charge for salvage. If they tow you to safety it’s all part of the free service. I know this sounds like an advertisement, but we absolutely love our RNLI. Frances’s son in law and his father were lifeboat crew members at Rosslare.
Michael & Frances, thanks for the background information on the RNLI service. Impressive that it can all be volunteer and self-funded–those are really nice boats. Its a beautiful coastline but the weather is far from forgiving. Life saving services are important world-wide but particularly important in this area.
What was your impression of St Helena in the South Atlantic? It is on my bucket list. Hopefully will get there before RMS St Helena is taken out of service?
Cheers
Colin J Ely
Melbourne, Australia
Better hurry Colin. The RMS St. Helena was due to be out of service and scrapped prior to now. It’s life is temporarily extended by the the wind sheer problems at the new airport that was intended to replace the mail ship. I find it hard to believe that they can’t ever use the airport — I could see some conditions being insufficiently safe but last reports has the airport not being used under any conditions. I suspect it will go into at least limited use in the near future and the RMS St. Helena will be taken out of use.
We really enjoyed St. Helena. Walked everywhere we could get to (//mvdirona.com/cache/TravelDigests/Trips/atlanticocean2016/atlanticocean2_TravelDigest.html) and then scheduled a tour with No Limits Travel and Tours (http://islandimages.co.sh/our-tours/) to get to the rest of the island that we hadn’t yet seen. We enjoyed our visit.
As you like bird watching, you may wish to include Rathlin Island on your itinerary (if it is not already on it). It is a special conservation area and home to thousands of sea birds including common guillemots, kittiwakes, puffins and razor bills. You will need your bicycles to get around or hire a local minibus – it is about 8 miles long in the shape of a boot, off the NE corner. It is just off Northern Ireland. The Giants Causeway is not too far away (on the main island) and it too is well worth a visit.
Hi David. Thanks for the travel advice. We did visit Giants Causeway yesterday and had an amazing visit. We also got to Dunluce Castle, Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, and the Grianan of Aileach fort. Today we are picking up a load of fuel at 9:30 and we’ll plan to get underway as soon as we have enough water to float Dirona at the marina entrance. We have been talking to the Marina at Rathlin Island and will stop there if schedules line up and they have a spot for us. Thanks for sending along the travel tips.
While travelling around the British Isles you might find it useful to download the Met Office app onto your phone. This will give you useful local weather forecasts, including rainfall, surface pressure and weather warning alerts. I have found it very accurate, especially in predicting when rain will arrive. The latest version has a nice feature which gives an hourly prediction for the area you select on the map, zooming in or out.
PS I hope Rathlin Is lives up to its billing!
Raithlin was an excellent stop. We rode our bikes to the bird center, all three lighthouses, and stopped off at McCueigs bar for a late lunch. The bird packed cliffs of Raithlin Island are incredible.
Thanks for the tip on the Met mobile application.
yr.no is a weather forecasting system that works in most places on this planet. It has particularly good wind/current direction maps around the North Sea. https://www.yr.no/kart/#lat=58.96221&lon=4.61297&zoom=6&laga=vind&baseid=PunktNorgePolar%3A23%2F181&proj=3575
Thanks for the weather tip Sverre. We will be in the North Sea area for quite a while so this will come in handy.
You are really spoiling us with amazing pics and now drone video! Ireland looks so beautiful, I had no idea. I for one am inspired to work harder today to get ‘out there’ one day, even if on a smaller scale!
You are 100% right Jamie. Ireland is a world class cruising destination and very much worth a visit even without a boat.
James, welcome to the wild west!
Hopefully, the weather in Donegal is being kind to you so you can make the most of these long summer nights. I spotted your boat in Baltimore and we seem to have managed to find our way into one of your photographs. We live in Ireland and love both Cork and Donegal, last year we spent some time on Friday Harbour WA and felt very at home so I am sure you are settling in well. West is best!
Thanks for the blog, you have gained another avid follower.
Safe travels
Robin
ps the gate code was 1234 going in and coming out !
Hey Robin thanks for the comment. We used to visit Friday Harbor frequently and loved boating in the San Juan islands and north into British Columbia’s Gulf Islands. We even wrote a cruising guide on the less traveled areas of western BC: //mvdirona.com/WaggonerSecretCoast/.
We are loving Ireland and especially the Wild Atlantic Way. Incredible views, great walks, great biking, lots of history, and a pub to visit in even the smallest towns. We are really enjoying the boating here. The west coast of Ireland is a world class destination.
P.S. Both Jennifer and I tried various combinations of 1234 with reset before, not before, etc. and climbing the fence ended up being the more expedient solution :-)
Hi James
So Sorry we can’t fix the weather for you guys, but this summer is turning out like most here in the Uk and Ireland. I am following your blog with interest and you are about to enter into a fantastic cruising area when you leave Crinan. One spot I can highly recommend as an anchorage as you head north is Plockton, stunning views and very good food ashore in several pubs. There are so many bays and anchorages to be explored but not all have pubs with good food within dinghy distance!
Hope the weather improves soon, thanks for the wonderful resource.
Robin
It’s true that it has rained most days but it’s usually short and it’s actually been sunny most days as well. On some days it might alternate back and forth multiple times. We got a bit unlucky in that the day where we did most of the locks through the canal was solid rain the entire day ranging from a light sprinkle to a torrential down pour. Even in the pouring rain we still had fun working the locks. We won’t have gotten as many pictures that really do justice to the incredible beauty of the Crinan Canal but I’ll bet we still got a few good ones.
In fact the wind and rain may have made some aspects of the trip more interesting. We haven’t looked at the video we recorded yet but I’ll bet the two of maneuvering the boat and operating the locks in the pouring rain in winds as strong as 30 kts probably is interesting and potentially more interesting for the wind and rain. It turns out operating the manual locks with a two person crew is a busy operation.
We would have preferred a sunny but we ended up at a tiny secluded dock along the side of one of the most beautiful parts of the Canal and some friends came by to welcome us to Scotland. We ended up having an incredibly fun day and really enjoyed the canal.
Cant wait to see your pics of the cliffs of mother from the water! beautiful spot. Looks like you all are having fun…and thanks for the posts!
I’ve seen you mention passing ships a number of times; have you heard about the collision of the destroyer Fitzgerald and the container ship Crystal?
Early reports indicate neither ship saw each other and that the Crystal, at least, was on autopilot with nobody at the helm: http://freebeacon.com/national-security/freighter-autopilot-hit-us-destroyer/
Yes, I did see the news on that tragic event. Seven lost their lives.
Early reports don’t look great for either ship. The container ship was operating in busy waters and needs someone keeping watch. We don’t know for sure that they didn’t but “missing” an entire destroyer would be unusual. The destroyer certainly had a fully maned bridge. I can’t figure out why they would let any ship friendly, commercial, or otherwise anywhere near the when operating in open ocean.
That was terribly sad! There’s got to be a lot of that story missing!! will be interesting to hear more if and when it comes out.
Just listened to one of your interviews where you mentioned being in Richards Bay and Cape Town. Pity we didn’t know as we could have met up and shown you around South Africa.next time you come to this side of the world, let me know. Regards Allan
We had a great time in South Africa. It’s a long way to get there from any direction but it’s an exciting destination and, with the pirate activity in Somalia, South Africa is now very close to a required stop when rounding the world.
Hi,
Would love for you to stop by Findhorn Bay, some 30 miles east of Inverness/Caledonian Canal. I can take you for a ride onto the whiskey trail in the Spey Valley. Speaking of ‘spirit’, also spiritual centre Findhorn Foundation. I’ve crossed the North Sea to Norway some 7 times, if you need any hint on that.
Thanks for the invitation Sverre. We will certainly be in your area and do plan to transit the Caledonian Canal. Don’t know if we will be heading into Findhorn Bay but your invitation sounds really good so we’ll do it if we can. We hope our paths do end up crossing. It would be great to meet you and your offer of the tour sounds excellent.
Hello James,
Well you two (+spitfire) are slowly making your way around the coast and sounds like you’re having a ball.
I did get to thinking, mostly due to all of this week so far appears to be dealing with related issues, when was the last time you checked or changed the anode on your hot water heater?
I can’t find where I read it but I seem to remember you have a Torrid marine water heater though and those aren’t really cheap.
Most of the commercial domestic water heating systems and tanks I’ve been dealing with this week are going to run more in the 10K plus range and none are over 9 years old (failure to replace anodes is not a manufacturers defect).
That’s a good point Steve. It took a while to run down part numbers but it looks like we have a Torrid MV-20 and it appears that unit uses the TA12 magnesium anode. I’ll pick up a couple when we are in Seattle in July. Thanks for the reminder.
Hey James:
Since you guys are using so many Raspberry Pi’s, I thought I’d point you in the way of the Chip (https://www.getchip.com/pages/chip). They’re sometimes a PITA to buy because they keep going out of stock, but they’re a $9 ARM SBC similar to the pi but with built-in Wifi/Bluetooth and built in storage. They also have a lot more GPIO capability than the Pi. I used one in an IOT one-off device and it worked great for me.
Cheers!
The Chip looks good. Great price, acceptable GPIO, nice they include headers, and it has great I/O with WiFi, Ethernet, and Bluetooth. But, as you said, hard to get get. They are currently not shipping. We only use two Raspberry Pis on Dirona with one in the PH and one at the back of the boat to minimize I/O wire runs. The downside is they are more expensive but they have many GPIO pins so the actual cost per incremental GPIO pin is fairly low and there is a good community of users.
If Chip comes back into availability I might try one just to learn more about it. Thanks for pointing it out to me.
A similar option within the Raspberry Pi ecosystem is the Raspberry Pi Zero W, unlike the original Pi Zero it is actually available. (SOC from the 1st gen, Wlan & Bluetooth from the 3rd gen.)
The Raspberry world has a definite advantage when it comes to support. The others tend to be cheaper with more performance and IO but lack of support is a constant complaint.
Now if there would be a Pi with POE…
Thanks Chasm. The Pi Zero W looks pretty good. I wish it had direct Ethernet and PoE would be even better but this coupled with a 24v to 5v power supply looks pretty interesting. I put one on order. Thanks,
Crookhave! O’Sullivan’s is the place! (-:
It looks like you may be right Jacques O’Vuye. We were enjoying sunset on the aft deck under the patio heater but could see that O’Sullivan’s was very busy. Lunch or dinner tonight for sure.
Interesting little pirouette. Can hardly wait to find out what that was about.
^ +1 and this hopefully is a sign the high pressure problem has been resolved!
I wish the engine alarming problem were solved Jamie! The good news is that rather than alarming all the time, the engine is now performing well at all RPM and under all loads except, ironically, raising and lowering anchor. When at idle running the hydraulics it alarms frequently but we didn’t see any problems today even trying to provoke the engine to alarm at all RPM and loads from idle to WOT.
The good news is that the engine problem has gone from very serious to mildly annoying. The bad news is that we are no closer to understanding it, it most definitely isn’t fixed, and it will return at some inconvenient point in the future. It has just stopped happening as frequently so we will still need to get it figured out. My guess is I’ll need to change the injectors. With 9,162 hours on the main engine, needing new injectors wouldn’t really be that unreasonable. What’s annoying is that it’s not possible to say for certain what the problem is.
We did two laps around the famous Fastnet Rock. Fastnet is most famous as the rounding point for the famous Fastnet Ocean Sailing Race (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fastnet_Race). Fastnet rock and the lighthouse on Fastnet Rock is super famous. Years ago I read Fastnet Force 10 (https://www.amazon.com/Fastnet-Force-10-Deadliest-History-ebook/dp/B007HXKY86/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1497613708&sr=1-1&keywords=fastnet) about the 1979 Fastnet race described by Wikipeida as:
“A severe storm during the 1979 race resulted in the deaths of eighteen people (fifteen competing yachtsmen and three rescuers) and the involvement of some 4,000 others in what became the largest ever rescue operation in peace-time. This led to a major overhaul of the rules and the equipment required for the competition. Several books have since been written about the 1979 race, which remains notorious in the yachting world for its loss of life.In the 1979 race, “15 sailors died, five boats sank, and at least 75 boats flipped upside down.”
We have a video of the two laps around Fastnet and we’ll get it posted soon. You’ll like it John.
I remember the event!! Look forward to the video. Locally, I have been watching – again – the R2AK event. Always exciting.
Aha, laps around Fastnet. Makes perfect sense. When zooming in on googlemaps we get “sorry we have no imagery here’ – too bad as it looks only a tile or two off where they do have imagery. Perhaps a google employee might see about adding this famous rock to their outstanding mapping service. In consideration of where they are located. Haha. :)
We’ll get a video of the lap around Fastnet rock up sometime this week.
Great anchorage! Jump in the tender and accross to Bushes in Baltimore.
I’ve got a few projects I need to get wrapped up so it probably won’t happen but we like your plan Declan!
Quite a bit of projects all seemed to happen at once. Glad it was a short trip and they did not surface a week earlier! I hope the three of you are doing well. It looks a little chilly for me but probably just like the PNW that you both like!
It is a bit weird to have 3 problems in one short trip. The main engine issue is particularly concerning in that we still don’t have a solution for that one. We changed all the fuel filters without improving it at all. Next thing I’ll try is replacing the high pressure pump suction control valve since I have a spare, it’s fairly easy, and the engine manual says points there as the next step in troubleshooting. It’s been a bit windy but it’s currently 57 with light wind so, with our patio heater, we’ll be comfortable out enjoying the early evening on our aft deck.
Do you have a spare pump?
No, no spare on the hydraulic bilge pump Steve but we do have a 9,000 gph Honda trash pump ready to go behind the hydraulic pump if there is a failure.
Sorry, I meant a spare fuel pump. Filters are done, I would assume they pointed you to check values on the sensor if they are starting to recommend parts replacement. I figured if that “suction control valve” doesn’t do it the fuel pump would be probably be next in line.
But of course JD probably recommended a JD mechanic after the filters :)
The Cascade Engine team, the Deere distributor that supplied the engine, has super good service, is very responsive, and always willing to answer questions. Surprisingly, they really understand that marine engines are used in secluded places and they don’t just say “get an authorized Deere mechanic.” My only complaint is that Deere should make the mechanical diagnostic harness and software (Service Advisor) to world cruising and fleet owners. I suspect they do make it available to fleet owners but haven’t been able to arrange permanent access to it for use on Dirona. Not having this data makes diagnostics more of a hit and miss proposition, can lead to wasted time, and overall can be a bit frustrating. I wish Deere would reconsider there position at least for world cruising boats that need to be self sufficient.
Next in line after the SCV, is checking for air the fuel, and then I would probably go to changing the injectors but I may get some advice on easier diagnostic steps I can take before that.
Kind of expensive but is this what you are looking for?
http://blog.diesellaptops.com/2016/09/02/john-deere-diagnostic-options/
There is a link in that blog to where you can buy it. The comments at the bottom indicate it is good for marine engines.
I see the problem, it’s not the tool it’s the fully functional software.
You nailed it on both points Steve. That is the required hardware and, without the Deere diagnostic software, the hardware is not worth much. Deere licenses Service Adviser for 3 months at a time and I’m always working on convincing them that on boats that roam far from Deere skills, they need to allow the operators to have access to this software. At this point, I’ve not been sufficiently convincing.
Access to service diagnostic software will greatly influence my recommendations and buying decisions.
Can you put a manual gauge on the fuel rail to rule out the pressure sensor?
Hi Jamie. The pressures are in the range of 20,000 PSI so sealing properly would require great care and the gauge would need to be properly rated. And I’m not sure where I would put it with all fuel system openings already in use. What we know from the 1347.7 code is the actual common rail fuel pressure is at least 750PSI different from called from actual. With special hardware and software, all parameters can be read by a John Deere authorized mechanic. The right answer is having access to this diagnostic system and, in the future, if a manufacturer was willing to grant me access to this diagnostic software, it would influence my purchasing decision and subsequent recommendations greatly.
At times in the past, I have had access to this diagnostic software but I haven’t been able to arrange to have permanent access so don’t have access to the massive amount of data that this software makes available including high pressure rail actual and called for pressure.
Declan, thanks for the tip. We went to Bushes in Baltimore yesterday and had a great lunch outside enjoying the warm weather and the view out over the harbour.
I fished out of Baltimore briefly on the Lovon (I believe she is still there) in a former life, before moving to the Uk and getting involved with data centres among other things.. Can i ask your thoughs on a battery monitoring system for my Grand Banks? After reading your blog i am thinking Rasp PI, small touch screen at the helm and sms/email alerts. In return i will recommend the best pubs on any european coast ;)
That’s a deal Declan! Your advice has been excellent so far.
For battery monitoring, there is a lot you can do. On our original boat we had a simple battery monitoring system from our inverter supplier. At the time we were using a Heart Interface Link 2000 and their entry level system that does just about as much was the Link 10. Heart Interface has since been purchased by Xantrex but the Link 10 lives on as the Xantrex Link Pro available from Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/Xantrex-84-2031-00-Link-Battery-Monitor/dp/B001E4DX0U
On Dirona, we have multiple battery banks and wanted to be able to alarm, send email, and show all relevant parameters. We decided to use Maretron N2kview as the display and the Maretron DCM100 as the sensor. We’re very happy with that system.
More recently we have implemented more than 20 channels of digital input (sensing device off/on state) using a Raspberry PI. It’s super simple and inexpensive where less than $50 buys a Pi and that plus a $5 relay for channel works well. We have since implemented 12 channels of digital output (ability to turn external devices off and on). A bit more complicated but not much and again, it’s cheap and reliable. I just added a second Pi to since I’m running out of input and output pins and then implemented 8 channels of temperature and humidity using the $6 DHT-22 sensor also available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/HiLetgo-Digital-Temperature-Humidity-Replace/dp/B01DA3C452/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497623928&sr=8-1&keywords=dht-22.
For your project, if you wanted to use a Pi you would need to either implement analog input to sense voltage over a range from 0 to your max battery voltage or buy a sensor that produces digital output and read it directly from the Pi as I do using the DHT-22 temperatures sensors. I’ve not yet implemented voltage sensing with the Pi but it certainly can be done. One approach is to use an Arduino.
For simple battery monitoring I would go with something like the Xantrex battery monitor. It’ll tell you voltage, state of charge, etc. and there are 10s of these available with different features. By far the easiest approach. If you want a more elaborate monitoring systems that goes beyond battery management and includes other boat systems or you want alarms, lights, email and/or SMS on faults, I would go with the Maretron system. If you are a hobbiest, just like to do it yourself, or want to have complete control over the system, then using the Pi is a great approach. Very cheap, quite reliable, you can do anything with it, but it’s more work than the other solutions. After spending 4 hours implementing some feature or another I always joke that it really wouldn’t be worth it for 1 use but for 1,000s of customers it makes total sense. Unfortunately I only have 1 user (unless you count Jennifer and Spitfire) so the time investment doesn’t always make sense.
I would look hard at packaged battery monitors or a Maretron-based solution but any of the three approaches will work great.
James, comprehensive and excellent response as always.
I have a Heart Interface 1000 inverter so had looked at the Link 2000 or 2000R recently. Liked the Bluesea and Victron Energy products also. But like you, remote monitoring and alarms are important so I have read with great interest your Maretron articles. As impressive as it, i’m finding it hard to justify as getting the “data” from my 44 year old engines will require a bit of work! The are several NMEA to wifi boxes now on the market so i’m sure it could be done. I would like to monitor engine temperatures and pressures but at the moment batteries are my priority.
That got me onto the PI. Unfortunately i can’t code so feel it maybe a bit beyond me. As you said to another blog reader maybe I should start with a basic Maretron system and build on it.
Interestingly I have recently installed an excellent 4G router on board: https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Computers-Accessories/Teltonika-RUT955-LTE-4G-Router/B017DAJIS4/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497885646&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=teltonika+955
It has a few digital and analogue inputs which can trigger SMS alerts so I have set a low voltage alarm for my house battery bank which gives some peace of mind at least.
Have you had the Mavic up in Ireland yet? I got one a few months back and love it but still havnt been brave enough to fly it off the boat.
Hope you are enjoying your trip up the west coast – its rare you get weather like this!
With the Maretron solution, no coding is required. All you need is a DCM100, an Maretron NF-NM4P-NF power inserter, and a DCM150 to get full alarming for your batteries. If you want to get SMS or email as well, replace the DCM150 with N2kview on a PC. Works well and is easy to install.
I really like the router you pointed out with digital inputs. It’s really smart of the company to include some digital input capability. Very useful for some applications and essentially free to add to the device.
We have flown two missions with the Mavic in Ireland. One over Brows Head to get a nice picture looking down on the signal tower and another in Crookhavn off the boat to get some shots of us in the anchorage. I continue to be impressed with it’s ease of flight and the quality of the pictures. Landing on the boat does require some care. On the last “carrier” landing it was blowing 15 kts, the boat was moving slightly in the anchorage and I dropped a leg off the table I was landing upon leading to my first minor crash. We took some nicks and marks on the props but nothing else and no need to change parts.
I am leaning towards Maretron using N2kview. It definitely seems to be the best sorted solution out there and the expense well justified.
Cant recommend the Teltonika highly enough. DIN rail mounting keeps things neat too. I think they are aimed at remote monitoring, wind farms etc, but work great on board.
Looking forward to seeing your Mavic pics, particularly the signal tower. They really are a remarkable machine.
Dingle next?
Your plan with N2kview sounds like a good one Declan.
For our next stop, we’ll head to Velentia Island and then through Blasket Islands up to the Aran islands to anchor. Dingle looks great but, as much as we enjoy great towns, we’re ready for some more time in the wilds.
Or across to the hotel and the Jolly Roger on Sherkin. So jealous.
We were close to the Jolly Roger but the view from Islanders Rest drew us in for dinner and a Murphy’s. Both were good. It was fun to watch the weather system roll in. Baltimore Harbour gets surprisingly rough in what were fairly mild conditions. I’ll bet it can get exciting in there in a big storm.
How did they address the fuel spill. I know here it would be a major event and we would get fined.
Here it considerably less of a big deal than in many other countries and especially the US. It’ll get looked at and procedures will be put in place on the boat to reduce the probability of a repeat occurrence.
I am just emerging from a long list of projects I started as a freshman trawler owner. While working through our long list, mvdirona.com was always on my list to see if you had covered the subject matter. Very often I would find that you have covered the target subject and had thoroughly worked through pragmatic solutions. Your posts can take quite technical issues, annotating them into an easy to comprehend, informative and enjoyable read. I would hate to think the number of blunders I would have made if not for your assistance.
Recently I have time to read through more of your site that I still take in bite size pieces. Bite size, not because it is hard to comprehend but, because I invariably come across an article that highlights another issue on N5002 that should be addressed. Then I’m off to work through this new another task before returning to MVdirona.com to discover yet another shortcoming on our boat. I do not see an end in sight yet, as I have not yet trolled your entire site. Even when I do manage to make it through I am sure that on another read, I will find treasures that I missed first time around. My wife may not thank you but I certainly do!
Thank you for sharing.
Mark McGillivray
Very kind of you to post that Mark. That’ll get me motivated enough to post some of the past work that is still in the queue. Thanks!
Re the Atlantic gales, the BBC reports than one competitor (age 71 or thereabouts) has been rescued by the liner Queen Mary II. Apparently his yacht was knocked horizontal at 2:00am, broken timber flew across his cabin shattering a porthole causing it to fill with sea water. It says he scuppered the yacht so it would not be a shipping hazard. Sounds like he was fortunate to be able to continue the rest of his trip in relative comfort.
More yachts in the OSTAR TWOSTAR race were affected by the storm:
TAMARIND – Suffered severe damage. Skipper well with no injuries. Rescued by Queen Mary en route to Halifax.
HAPPY – Dismasted. Both crew rescued by ocean going tug APL FORWARD. No injuries reported.
FURIA – Boat sunk. Crew resuced by survey vessel THOR MAGNA. No injuries reported.
HARMONII – Mainsail and track damage. Retired. Heading under engine for the Azores. Skipper ok, no injuries.
SUOMI KUDU – Mainsail problems. Retired. Heading back to UK. Skipper ok, no injuries
All other competitors safe but still experiencing a 10 – 15 metre swell, no injuries reported.
[source]
—
In the Bermuda 1-2 race SPADEFOOT was abandoned on June 5th after lifting keel damage. Skipper rescued by a competitor.
[source]
Brutal conditions. They are loosing a lot of boats. Glad they have avoided loss of life.
In a storm, if you lose a window you likely loose the boat. He’s lucky to have survived that outcome.
James and Jennifer:
Three cases of Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc is what I call a great resupply job! Also a very pleasant wine. Enjoy!
(PS. My wife and I visited all of the Marlborough vineyards in February)
We love the Marlborough region — great Souvignon Blanc and great cruising. A match made in heaven. The South Island of New Zealand is an incredible cruising area with Fiordland, Marlborough Sound, and Stewart Island. Light populated and beautiful scenery.
Back to the keel cooler as you know I am really watching on this one. Here is what I can decipher based on the screens you have posted in regards to tach and temp. I left off any water temp mingling in this since we do not know at what point you lost your temperature sensor when you were on the southern half of the world. I am also bundling the data I see from your passages across the Indian, S Africa to Helena and Helena to Barbados into one group versus your passage across to Ireland since it is your first very long passage since having your cooler painted.
For the 3 passages there was 19 entries that gave us an average of 183° temp on main engine. Of those you running high rpms during those first couple weeks in Sept which always had your temps in the high 190 to just over 200°.
For the Ireland run there were 21 entries I could use and that gave us an average of 184° temp on main engines.
Some things to point out though. You ran high rpms for that first week out. 1850 or better and one just over 2000. Only twice in all the pics do you ever cross the 190° mark. Before with the same rpm (although in warmer waters) you were always running in the upper 180’s to lower 190’s.
Now this could be because of the water temps or keel cooler or combo of both. This does show to me though that painting the keel cooler did not hurt its ability to do it’s job. So I guess the next thing to watch will be what kind of growth you get on it. Has it been worse or better then before it was painted?
The video was great too. Glad you posted that. :)
You are watching closely. Just some background, our thermostat starts to open at 180F and is not fully open until 190F.
Water temperature has a huge impact on the cooling capability of the keel cooler as does speed through the water so analyzing performance fully requires a fair amount of data. I agree that it appears to be performing well.
On bottom paint, we have a problem where the paint has suddenly become ineffective even though it’s only a year old. The bottom is starting to grow quite a bit. We’ll nurse it along for a while but we are going to need to find some time to lift the boat out for a bottom paint in the near future. I haven’t had a look at the keel cooler but suspect it’ll have some of the same issue.
You two have published a Cruising book. But having just read your recent posts on your first few days in Ireland, I am reminded how much you two like sampling various beers.
Therefore I think you two need to publish a book on “Beers of the (Cruising) World”.
Thanks for the pointer Tim H.
James, I see you’ve been playing with your Raspberry Pi lately – cool! Searching the General Comments, I find all kinds of low-level stuff, like how to get the voltage you need for multiple outputs – but I can’t find a simple list, or even a few examples, of the kinds of data you’re collecting, processing, and outputting with the Pi. Can you give just a few examples? I’ve got a handful of things I’d like to start monitoring on Smartini, but I’d sure like to know what your priorities have been. Thanks!
Sure, I’ll give a quick sketch here but, over the longer term, I’ll write up how I read digital inputs, how I send digital outputs, and how I read the temperature sensors. Here is what is currently processed:
*Digital input:
i4=>Watch Commander on;
i17=>Acknowledge Alarms switch on
i22=>Watch Commander Reset Signaled;
i5=>Gray or Black Water Pump on
i26=Gen Autostart on
i25=Fuel Transfer Pump on
i24=bilge pump on
i12=Start Parallel Override on
i19=Fire Suppression system triggered
i13=EmergencyOverride (emergency disable all automation)
i27=Furnace on
i3=N/C (not connected)
i2=N/C.
*Digital output:
16=>Parallel Wing Gen Start Battery
7=>Inv120V fan on
21=>Shed Microwave load
15=>DashBuzzer on
18=>Shed ER fans
23=>”NC23″
20=>”NC20″
I’ll eventually get all docs on the details and with examples of how it was done.
Thanks for that, James. Can’t wait to see the write-up with some details!
Hello James,
Looks like you are having a wonderful time in Ireland.
You really sparked my interest in one of the fort pictures. Are those actual supports for above ground water tanks or tops to cisterns?
I just thought it was interesting a military installation would design something so important in such a vulnerable way.
I thought the same. The best way to shorten a siege is ensure the enemy runs out of water. I believe what we are looking at in the pictures you asked about is the foundation for above ground water tanks.
By the way, I’m loving the Klien crimpers you recommended. They work great!
I’m glad you like them but from the picture of your old ones I believed you would. It’s a rare day I don’t crimp a terminal on something and they make it much easier for me.
I’ve been crimping my brains out on a recent project to install 7 temperature sensors in the ER and Laz area. Lots of wire runs and terminations.
James or Steve – can you specify the Klein crimpers you’re talking about? I recently had to re-wire a fan in an awkward position, and getting the wires crimped was by far the worst part of the project.
These are simple, strong, and make reliable crimps quickly: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000936OTY/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Hello James and Jennifer, thank you for all the information, photographs and the oportunity you give us readers to live and dream all those adventures.
James, I used to have a 26′ walk around fishing boat with twin engines, the fishing grounds I used to go to were 52 nm offshore, the plan was always get up before sunrise, run, fish and get back on the same day, that was as far as I ever went in it, I thought it was so far that I installed two 1500 gph bilge pumps with its own discharge thru hulls each, one with an automatic floating switch and one just next to it at same level with a manual switch, I had changed and installed all brand new motors and all the boat’s wiring, light fixtures and electric switches when I bought it, I had most electric and electronics items connected to one engine with two batteries, the inside the cabin vhf (In case motors died and it was really nasty outside) and the direct switch pump to the other engine with one battery just in case, I have two questions, the first is, for the sake of safety, systems redundancy and knowing the cost of an extra bilge pump with all it components compared to every system you have installed in your wonderful boat, having had all those long ocean crossing plans, would it not had been a good idea to have that extra bilge pump in place, is it common in ocean crossing boats such as yours not to have that extra security?
The other question is, do you think the opening in the boat where all that water got thru was poorly designed by the boat builder not having had that problem before?
Thank you in advance.
Good questions Jorge. The boat has two automatic bilge pumps: 1) 600 gpm pump in the main bilge and 2) a high water bilge pump that is 3,700 gpm above that one. I think this design is good in principle but the second bilge pump should not be 3′ above the first mounted in a location where it can’t pickup lower. If this second pump was down in the main bilge, I think the design would be quite good. We could move the 2nd pump or install a third. We’ll go with the latter and have three pumps: 1) 600 gpm, 2) 6″ to 8″ higher 4,000 gpm, and 2) 2′ higher 3,700 gpm.
We also have the hydraulic bilge pump (manual off/on) that will move an absolutely amazing amount of water. We also have a Honda crash pump as a last resort and a Edson manual bilge pump. I think the overall number of pumps and volumes installed in Dirona is adequate. My only criticism of the design is the placement of the second automatic bilge pump 3′ above the lower bilge pump. With that corrected, the design seems pretty good to me.
You asked if the water ingress point was a design issue or something else. My take is there are three design issues: 1) 1″ hole into locker, 2) open louvers into locker, and 3) all water in the locker over 1″ (or less when boat heeled) will flow into the laz. An acceptable design needs to correct both #1 and #2 or could leave them in place and correct #3. I think addressing the first two is the easier design change and it feel urgent.
You asked why did this not happen at other times in this volume. The leak path has always been there and is a nuisance leak but it has never brought on dangerous amounts of water in the past. Because the leak path is from cockpit into the laz, when there is water in cockpit over a couple of inches, it flows in. What was different here is the sea conditions were worse than we have seen in the past so there was always water in the cockpit and we were carry fuel bladders which both takes up space in the cockpit (halves the capacity which doubles the depth), a smaller volume was closed off a the corner of the cockpit by the bladders where there is a scupper and a deck drain in that area but both often flow the other way so this small corner was often over a foot deep — without the bladders it would be closer to 3 to 6″. Finally, the bladders will settle the boat a couple of inches in the water.
Despite this issue not having been a problem in over 9,000 hours of ocean travel, I still feel like it’s a design problem that is mandatory to address in order to achieve adequate safety margin.
Congrats on the arrival even with a few hiccups on the way! I’m sure you’ll have a blast enjoying the Isle….planning a trip to Blarney? ( gifts await for the price of a kiss) not to mention the beautiful grounds. Thanks again for sharing the fun.
It’s great to be here Mark. We’re having a ton of fun and enjoying not having deadline or firm plans day to day. But, we’re always happy to hear ideas like the Blarney Stone suggestion. In fact, the reason we are in Kinsale rather than Cork was a suggestion from a blog reader. Thanks!
May be worth looking into three.co.uk for a sim deal. They have now extended coverage for worldwide calls as well as data.
In the past, every time I’ve looked at a all in “around the world” cellular deal, we find that it’s either slower, more expensive, or has considerable usage constraints over direct agreements with local carriers. We’ll have a look at the the three.co.uk offering. Thanks for the tip Tim.
Not sure if you are into whiskey James, if so, check out the Middleton distillery not too far from Cork centre.
We’ll probably be back in the area and, if we are, we’ll check it out. Thanks Chris.
Congrats on another successful crossing, I hope to be able to do a bit of cruising in my future. In the pic of you with the customs officials I noticed your HeatStrip radiant heater. How do you like it and what model did you go with? Any issues with corrosion? Seems like a great idea for those cool evenings.
Wow, good eye Greg. That is a Heatstrip radiant outdoor/patio heater (http://www.heatstrip.com.au/). It’s the 1800 watt 240V@50hz unit that gets sold into the domestic Australian market. Heatstrip makes units for most world markets but we are using the Australian version. I really like the Australian outdoor plugs and sockets so we installed one in the Laz for utility 240V and we installed one in cockpit for the heat strip. It’s a bit unusual to be running a 50hz appliance on 60hz power but that’s the configuration we are using.
It’s a fairly inexpensive heater and since we were planning to operate in conditions far harsher than most home or commercial installations, we bought 2 spares expecting it would last 18 months but we would love it so much that it would be worth the hassle of changing it. The Amazing thing is that it’s been on there since Brisbane Australia and it just simply always works. It builds up a gray salt residue on the heating surface but it continues to operate flawlessly.
We just love the heater and use it all the time. Last night after a great dinner at The Steakhouse in Kinsale, we enjoyed a glass of wine outside in cockpit under the Heatstrip. It was a great addition.
James:
The big smile on your face with the customs officers speaks volumes.
Congrats to you and Jennifer on a succesful crossing
The check in procedure was as relaxed and efficient as any we have done. We’re really enjoying Ireland — it’s hard to believe we have only been here two days.
Congratulations to Jennifer and yourself on a successful crossing!!
Just returned from Palm Beach, looking at 47s and 50s. Hopefully Jinhee and I will be enjoying new shores with you soon.
Enjoy your time.
Hiya Don. It’s exciting to see you folks nearing boat ownership. We’re having fun in Ireland.
Congratulations on another successful crossing, albeit a challenging one. A well deserved rest is in order. I have followed your blog since you were traveling the BC Coast in the previous Dirona. You arrived in Ireland as we sat in Von Donop Inlet. To think this Coast was the beginning of your grand adventure. Enjoy.
We really enjoyed the BC coast. It remains a favorite of ours. We hope you are enjoying von Donop Inlet. We’ve been further away from home than Ireland but it still seems amazing to be here. We’re really enjoying ourselves here.
Congratulations James !!
I can see you entering the outer harbour Kinsale….very well done!!
Bill
Just passing Old Head of Kinsale now. A great sight just below the low hanging cloud cover. Only 5nm to go!
Welcome to Ireland!! (Martin Monteith here, if you remember we met you as you returned from round the world as you arrived at West Palm Beach last spring) I’ve been watching your progress across the Atlantic, wow! That was quite the boat ride! Glad you both have arrived safely, enjoy Ireland and hopefully you have some nice weather as it’s beautiful especially in nice weather. We emigrated to Canada from Nortern Ireland 28 years ago.
Hiya Martin. It’s been a while since West Palm. Our adventure has continued and the European chapter is just beginning. Kinsale is great!
As you know, we have crossed the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans and mostly had good trips. This last one across the North Atlantic had worse weather and several mechanical faults so it ended up being more challenging. For sure, the North Atlantic will be the North Atlantic but, if it’s just bad weather without compounding it with systems problems, it’s no big deal. We’ll make some changes to deal with the water ingress problem, we’ll add another automatic bilge pump to the main bilge, and we’ll get additional spares for the steering system.
Thanks for the note.
Looks like you can now bike to the Lidl store and get some nice snacks to replenish your supply! https://www.google.com/maps/place/Lidl+Kinsale/@51.7082091,-8.5180065,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x5aff1daa5bfe28f9!8m2!3d51.7082091!4d-8.5180065
Looks good Ron. There is also a Super Value grocery store in the same area.
Today our plan is to head into Cork and see if we can get a local cell phone account.
should be easy to pick up prepaid sims from any of the carriers – €20 should get you unlimited calls and 5-15GB of data for a month
Perfect. We are heading to Cork. Thanks Colin.
Today is a holiday in Ireland (and most of Europe) …Not sure you’ll find an open store for a SIM card!
Thanks Jacques. That EU holiday doesn’t appear to be celebrated in Ireland.
Are you going to Dingle? We were awestruck by the beauty of that area a couple summers ago. All of Ireland is awesome. Enjoy!
Almost certainly yes, we will be going to the Dingle area on our trip up the west coast of Ireland.
What a journey!
Wonderful to follow you across the Atlantic. Now enjoy the warm hospitality of the ’emerald isle’!
Thanks Chris. It was only a 17 day crossing but it felt like a long one. It’s good to be here.
Congrats James / Jennifer and Spitfire, epic journey and suspense, as they say, anything can happen at and usually do.
But very well organised and executed, you both desire a good rest, I bet the stress on this one has caused more tiredness than anything.
Stay well
Charles.
Thanks Charles. We have done several ocean crossings and, in the past we have seen neither mechanical faults nor weather of this magnitude. We’ll plan several work items and rigging changes to avoid some of the mechanical issues that could have been avoided.
Hey James, Will be great to see your solutions to the avoid some the of the issues you had, I know you will come up with some well thought out ideas and resolutions. Stay well. Charles
Yes, most crossings we complete with things running more or less as expecited. This one suggests several changes. We’ll write them up, post them here, and plan to implement them before the next big trip.
Well you’ll be there by the next time I check in and for all my number crunching at the start, looks like you’ll hit your 300 gallons almost on the nose.
Good Job cutting right across like that is something most pleasure boaters (including the NAP) don’t do esp with just two people.
Hi Steve. Man, it’s exciting to watch day break with Ireland just popping into view as the sun slowly inches up over the horizon. We’re surrounded by working fish boats. The wind is very close to zero and the water is dead flat. Beautiful.
We are currently carrying 380 gallons with 26nm left to go. We’re carrying around 50 gallons more than targeted since we slowed down a couple of days ago to arrive in to Kinsale at 10am rather than closer to midnight. Slowing down saves a lot of fuel. At this speed, in these conditions we could go around 5,000 nm.
Welcome to European Waters – Fastnet to Fastnet.
Regards Erik
Did you see Fastnet right around sunset?
We were close enough that Jennifer likely saw the light but we passed Fastnet at night in the fog. I suppose that is more or less “as it should be” when passing Fastnet. Perhaps we were missing a gale to complete the picture :-).
Irish waters : )
Here’s to Fastnet (pub, Newport RI) to Fastnet Rock! It was an adventure to be sure. Sometimes a bit bigger than we wanted. It’s great to be in Ireland.
Six footer mixed following seas and a low ahead of you? Eleven days with five more to go if you slow a little to keep it in front of you? Hope the three of you are doing well. Excited to see your progress each day.
As unexcited as we are to face yet another couple of days at 30 kts of wind with around 12′ of waves, we’ll probably not slow down to first let the system pass. The current plan is to continue at whatever speed the weather allows.
Haul cheek SSE for a day and then turn NW and take some quarter seas? Sure wish I was there to help! Hope all is well and that the donuts held out.
It would be a good day for a donut. We have a rough day expected tomorrow with 30 kts winds and 14′ seas on 7 seconds. We still have the badly worn bolt in the steering system and we are getting some metal dust build up underneath it. Everything looks right and I can’t see any movement that shouldn’t be there but we are still getting accelerated wear. I don’t want to take on the storm tomorrow without knowing things are exactly as the should be so we plan to shut the boat down today and let it drift while I change these parts for new ones while we drift.
I have the parts needed on hand so the only concern is how the boat will handle just drifting in a good sized swell while I make the change and have a look for any other possible problems.
The primary fuel filters were starting to show increased vacuum yesterday so I changed over to a new one yesterday. That’s the second time in this trip that I needed to change fuel filters. The first one when 73 hours and this second one went 174 hours. On the short side for both but not totally surprising given how rough it’s been. Rough conditions can stir up settled out debris in the fuel system and plug filters more quickly. We normally get 200 to 600 hours on a filter.
Once we get the steering work done today, we’ll be ready to take on the storm with all systems at 100%.
How is Jennifer handling the rough seas? I think I read she gets uncomfortable/seasick when the pitch is above 10 degrees? Does the new band work? Safe travels. Mike
Jen hasn’t been having seasickness problems over the last week so the band appears to be working well enough. When it’s this rough, it’s hard to get a good sleep though so we’re all a bit tired but generally doing well. The boat is running well and we continue to make good speed. It’ll be nice to be in more settled seas though.
Jeez, you are right in the center of it according to http://passageweather.com/ . Are there really 5M waves on your stern pushed by 30 knot winds like their charts show? I always think of me being there on Dirona, but not today. Good luck and hope you find time for some rest tonight.
Early in the day yesterday, those were the conditions and had been for quite a while. The winds started backing off yesterday around noon. The seas take much longer to settle but it’s already enough better that we are sleeping significantly better. I just got up and for the first time in days I feel great rather than lethargic and worn out. Looking at the most pitch and role over the last 15 min, pitch was 6 degrees and roll 10 degrees. Not smooth but much more comfortable.
A floating metronome, ugh. Glad you are through the thick of it. Hopefully you can stay at the edge of the system and get a couple days of rest before you arrive.
Super nice today. We are slowing down to arrive in Wednesday morning so we’re just loping along nice and easy. Only 256nm to go.
You beat my estimate by a day. I cannot wait to see some interesting pictures and see what the final tally was on spares and fixes.
According to AIS, at 200 nm from Cork, you passed by a fishing vessel and will pass to the South of a vehicle carrier named Onyx in about 8 hours. Very cool as you seem to be the only pleasure craft in open water North of the 45th parallel.
I think all those pleasure craft not above the 45th parallel may have a point :-).
Thanks for the traffic update. I expect it’ll get fairly busy as we approach Fastnet rock with both commercial shipping and fishing. We’re loping along at only 6.5 kts to allow us to arrive in the morning rather than around midnight. We’re targeting to arrive at the Marina at 10am tomorrow morning.
We would have been a day to perhaps even two days later with a more normal fuel load. But, on this trip, we have enough fuel for 4,000 nm but are only going 2,800. Even with poor conditions we have been making pretty good time.
I’ll give some thought to summary post but, at this point, the “used up” list would include: steering arm bolt, steering ram rod end, two fuel filters, a grey water pump valve, two vales for the main bilge pump is pretty close to the full list. Where we have some work ahead of us is in some of the design changes we will want to make. We want to add a high capacity bilge pump to the main bilge, we need to exclude water from the aft cockpit storage lockers, and I’m thinking of adding a third high water bilge alarm. We often finish ocean crossings with nothing to do but, after this one, we do have some bigger projects. We’ll add it all into the trip summary that we’ll post sometime this week.
Only 182nm to go!
James,
You said that you have yet to see a rough enough sea to put Spitfire off his grub – even after the fun that had you a few days ago, does that still hold with the moggy (?) still busy gaining weight?
Spitfire adapts fast and he’s doing great. He definitely prefers flat seas to rough ones but, from his perspective, no preference is important enough to give up a meal :-). I’ll bet he isn’t an ounce under 15 lbs.
Maybe you could refer to that in the title of your autobiography, “The Cat With The Cast-Iron Stomach” ?
While you may have started out with some tough conditions it certainly looks great to end the trip. I have seen you over the years on Youtube and such but until this trip had not followed your travels. I would like to say thanks for a great blog and for taking the time even in the “tricky” times. Looking forward to the summary.
Best regards
Kevin Kelleher
Thanks Kevin. It’s great to see Ireland slowly revealed below the fog bank as the sun rises this morning. Conditions are glass smooth, we’re creeping along at 6.1 kts, and watching the working fish boats hauling nets all around us.
Do you filter incoming fuel or only once it is in your tanks? When you fueled on 5/6 you didn’t say it was at the Newport Marina but I assume that’s where you got it. Since the marina was empty the entire time you were there, maybe no one has been using the fuel from there supply. In fact no one may have pulled any significant amount of fuel from their supply in 6 months. Just an (un)educated guess but the fuel you got from Newport may have been “old” and if the sediment all settled out and the pickup is right off the bottom of their supply tank, it may have been quite dirty too.
Whatever the reason I am sure you are glad you have your quad filter system in place so that no matter the quality, your JD is getting nice clean diesel.
Great question Drew. Yes, we picked up the fuel from the Newport Yachting Center. Prior to our purchase they had 7,000 gallons on hand and it’s highly probable that fuel has been there since sometime before the end of the season last year. So, you are right, it is old fuel. Their storage system is an excellent concrete above tank system and they have annual inspections etc. and the most recent one was done weeks before our purchase.
Your question brings up the generic question of how to get only great quality fuel delivered to the engine. One tactic is to filter the fuel using a Baha Filter on the way into the tanks. This is a common tactic with world cruising boats. The downside is that it slows fueling dramatically. At our fuel volumes it’s really not practical to fuel on the way in. It takes 1.5 to 3 hours to fuel us as it is. It might take more than a day with an external filter. It just doesn’t feel practical.
The second approach is avoidance. Only go to locations that sell massive volumes to commercial boats so you know the fuel good. This is a good tactic, doesn’t take any longer, and sometimes leads to actually getting better pricing. However, when in locations like Vanuatu, there is exactly one place to fuel. There is no choice and, for fuel volumes like we take, they don’t stock that much so they call a truck, the truck drops a load into the nearly empty tanks stirring up all the sediment and then we fuel. Pretty much the worst possible setup but there is no choice. So, as much as I like tis second approach of being selective about where you get your fuel, it also isn’t a general solution for Dirona.
Since we can’t prefilter and we can’t always be selective, that leaves us with the third tactic: expect some poor quality fuel and manage it. On this model, we worry less because instead of worry that we might get bad fuel, we more or less expect we’ll get some bad once in a while and design the system to deal with it.
Here’s what we do. All fuel being deliverd to Dirona goes into the two bulk side tanks of 835 gallons each or the on-deck fuel bladders when we are using them. When we tranfer the fuel from bladders below decks it passes through the 25 micron fuel transfer filter. Any fuel leaving are side tanks to go to the wing day tank or the supply tanks (where all engines but the wing get there fuel) also goes through the 25 micron transfer the filter. The Transfer filter is a large RACOR FBO-10 with truly massive filter area. It takes a lot of block that filter. In fact, I’ve never blocked that filter although I have purchased large amounts of rust, small amounts of water, and even some large cockroach-like bugs. The FBO-10 just catches it all.
By the time the fuel gets to the supply tank, it has passed through the FBO-10 25 micron bulk filter. From there the fuel passes through a Racor 900 2 micron filter then goes through the 10 micron on engine followed by a 2 micron on engine. So, all fuel gets filtered at least 4 times on the way to the Deere injectors. See this article for more detail on why we run only 2 micron primary filtration and other aspects of the fuel system design: //mvdirona.com/2013/12/dirona-fuel-manifold/
If while operating we learn that we have a problem load of fuel, we can configure our fuel system to be able to run the engine off the supply tank while at the same time running all the fuel from each side tank through the transfer filter and back to the same side tank. This should allow us to recover fairly quickly if we do have a problem.
Given the frequency of fuel filter changes on the last two fills it’s possible that one of those two fuel loads might be slightly substandard or, perhaps more likely, after more than 7 years and 9,000 hours our tanks are starting to have build ups of asphaltenes and other fuel fall out and, when we hit rough water, this fuel fall out are starting to go back up into solution.
When we left for our around the world trip, we had 48 Racor 900 filters with us and, surprisingly, we used less than 10 on the trip. Most fuel world-wide is surprisingly good.
9-15-17
Fuel availability for extended boat cruising is fast becoming an inefficient hassle not mention outrages fuel costs. Many people now are opting for sailing boats & some without motors-for all their cruising needs.Which direction do you feel diesel & gas are going as fuel for power boat cruisers? Could this be an underlying reason people are cutting their cruising careers short @ selling their powerboats when an equal amount of effsort could secure alternate sources of green clean energy such as wind which is in the grasp of all serious cruisers. It seems that new Zealand & Australia are not very cruiser friendly when it comes to accommodating! Their version of
coast guard broads your boat feeds the unwary tourist a long line of B S
then steels your food & gives to their poor at the tourist expense. when I
sailed I did the research & avoided the haphazard results.Did a lot of anchoring as opposed 300.00 dollars plus for a slip! There has been remarkable high tech improvements in the solar & wind driven electric
energy,perpetual motion mechanics industry. Even compasses have improved. Enjoy the bounties of the sea !
Greetings from land locked London, Ontario 26C and sunny – I looked at your current location – 47° 41.09’N, 32° 37.98’W, almost directly in the middle of the Atlantic
– hopefully the weather is good for you guys, so be safe and have fun!
Michael Ishoj
I know London Ontario well. I went to High School in Ottawa and Jennifer and I lived in Toronto for a decade. Conditions are good right now. We have the doors open and are just enjoying the good weather. Looks like we have some more lumpy water coming but I guess that’s the cost of wanting to cross a bit earlier in the year.
greetings from Furthur in the Philippines, just catching up on your blog. so glad you are having such great adventures. following your route, did you miss SE Asia? too bad.
Hope all goes well hope we cross paths someday.
Hey Brian. Good hearing from you. You’ve chosen a nice part of the world to live in. We wanted to tour Asia but to do that would have added another year to our trip around the world given the timing constraints when the Indian Ocean can be safely crossed. We wanted to spend some time on the East Coast of North America and then head to Northern Europe. It would not surprise me at all if we eventually ended up in the Pacific exploring the area that is captured you.
Have you thought about repositioning the bladders next time? Is there enough room to do so? and how many fuel filters spares have you gone through since the start of your journey from RI. I am glad your both safe.
Greg, the bladders take up volume in the cockpit so it takes less water to fill the cockpit and they block the free movement of water on deck which can also lead to greater water depth. Both those issues do matter but my primary focus is there is a 1″ hole from the cockpit to the inside of the boat and whether the bladders are on deck or not, a 1″ hole just sounds like something that needs to be addressed.
I certainly hope all is safe and well aboard the Dirona. I can’t help you with your journey but I will be in Cork at the end of June should you need any parts or supplies. I grew up there and spent my youth between the harbours of Crosshaven and Kinsale as well as the entire SW coast “One of the most beautiful coasts on the the planet”. I will be leaving Chicago last week of June if there is anything you need from the states or from Norhavn.
Please let me know and safe passage.
Kevin Kelleher
Thanks very much for your offer Kevin. If you were arriving earlier, I might ask for the overtons part recommended further back in this discussion: http://www.overtons.com/modperl/product/details.cgi?i=71746.
Hopefully, we will be off enjoying more of Ireland by the time you arrive. We’re really looking forward to it. Thanks for the offer to assist.
No worries, glad your sorted.
Should you want to avoid the usually busy village of Kinsale you can head out the road about a mile (lovely walk) towards Charles fort and you’ll come across an establishment called The Spaniard. A great melting pot since the 1700’s with good food and known for the impromptu evening music sessions. Also across the road is a little lane that takes you back down to the harbour opposite of where you will be moored. Again an area more laid back with locals and returning vacationers.
Best of luck with the remainder of your voyage.
Kevin Kelleher,
That’s sounds really great Kevin. Looking forward to it — only 1,314 nm to go!
I’m glad you two are safe and like everyone else I’m waiting to hear what happened. The first thing I thought of was a problem with your aft mounted anchor but, I’ll just have to wait and see.
Flooding at sea is not a fun situation. About halfway through my tour in the Navy we came closer than many to losing the boat due to unnoticed flooding in the forward hold which was secured from inspection due to a storm and it was unsafe for the sounding and security watch to go out on the main deck for the only access to that compartment at the time (we later installed a interior hatch for access during rough weather).
We had 83 people to deal with it, two people in the middle of the Atlantic would have been stressful.
Steve, it sounds like you have been through a similar experience. Stressful to be sure regardless of the crew size.
All brushes with disasters usually have more than one mistake or problem. The core problem in this case is the locker has a 1 inch “drain” hole. This 1″ drain hole becomes a “fill” how when there is more than couple of inches of water on the cokcpit deck. Once water is in the locker, it’s flowing down below through the Glendinning shore power cord retraction hole. It’s amazing how much water a 1″ hole will pass.
Well, a unrestricted 1″ pipe at 6 ft/s (gravity) can flow up to 960 GPH. Looking at the pictures I’d say it could have the potiential to flow somewhere between 1/4 -1/3 that which is still a lot more water than I’d want to see.
As far as “puker factor” there is a big difference between two people and a crew who for the most part are still in their teens on a ship trained, drilled and tasked with the rescue or salvage of submarines. And it’s not to say you don’t do an excellent job with preperation but, I’d say we had just a little more in the way of equipment available.
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/32/09320902.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/32/3209.htm&h=366&w=628&tbnid=ZyiIwFv9J-yS-M:&tbnh=116&tbnw=199&usg=__rjKDKxLxHptyr9zZ3pmzrQzbAt8=&vet=10ahUKEwiSyPWn6_LTAhVsIsAKHSjGDIkQ_B0IfjAK..i&docid=srfCNtVlfWHZhM&itg=1&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwiSyPWn6_LTAhVsIsAKHSjGDIkQ_B0IfjAK&ei=_xwaWdLMLezEgAaojLPICA
If you can visualize three decks of the bow flooded back to the superstructure, I doubt it took us 45 mins to find the problem, fix the problem and de-water the forward hold.
It was a bad storm but what I always found strange was the bridge never noticing it was punching into the seas rather than trying to go up and over.
That is a nice looking ship and, having spent time on one US navy vessel at sea, I know the entire crew will have been super well trained.
What I found unnerving is how fast the bilge refilled. Even a fairly small leak can be a very big deal.
Respectfully James, I think the root cause of the water to the bilge situation is not the position of the Gendinning hole but the water getting into the locker in the first place. Sure, if the Gendinning hole is relocated higher up the sidewall as I think you or another mentioned in another thread then this could reduce or eliminate overflow to the bilge in lessor conditions than this passage. If the locker is full of water though, there is going to be overflow. That hatch needs some gasketing as it is leaking water like crazy. If Ireland has anything like a Home Depot store, you’ll probably find a nice selection of “weather strip gaskets (EPDM material is best) in various dimensions and profiles. For about 15-20 bucks in the US, you would have probably have enough weather strip for all the deck hatches at the cockpit. A general hardware store is a common place to locate weather strip products.
In addition, It is reasonable to assume that when carrying full fuel bladders, there is some deflection in the deck and hatch covers. I have no idea if this is significant to widen up the normal gap for water passage but it sure can’t help Gasketing well would if not eliminate then certainly slow water pass through when under the fuel bladder load
Rob, I generally agree with you that keeping water out of the locker is preferable to preventing water flowing below and my thinking is heading down that same path. when you say the locker door is “leaking like crazy” I suspect you may have missed my earlier description of the locker design. There is a 1″ diameter opening to the cockpit in the bottom of the locker to allow water to drain out. Of course, it’ll also allow a very large amount of water to flow in as well. Additionally, there are three full width vents across the front of the locker. The locker door weatherstrip looks pretty good but, between the louvers and the locker drain, massive amounts of water can easily enter. Certainly those two sources are the vast majority of the problem.
It’s a reasonable guess that the deck hatch covers could leak due to flexing with the fuel bladders on top but we don’t have a leak at that location and their is no evidence of the deck flexing. The door you are referring to does have a good quality weatherstrip. It did leak back when the boat was new but I put a new weatherstrip on in 2012 when in Hawaii. I’ll probably replace it again this year or next since this weatherstrip is often under more than a 6″ of water. But, at this point, no problems in that area.
Most of the problem isn’t leaking weather stripping but engineered openings (louvers and drains). Until these are closed, the rest really won’t matter. I do think the right answer is probably to close these two large water entrance points off.
Sounds like a little too much excitement! Glad you’re safe and solved the problem, I look forward to learning from it. Hope conditions smooth out soon and you have an uneventful remainder of your trip.
Thanks Sam. The conditions last night were even rougher but, with boat systems operating correctly, the 20’+ waves don’t really seem that threatening. We both slept well.
If we can pick up speed as the conditions improve, there is a good chance we can ride the blocking high all the way into Ireland. If can’t make enough speed we will get found by another low before the Irish coast. But, at this point, I think we will have the fuel to maintain the speed we need to stay in that slow moving high.
Glad all is well and look forward to the read. Just reading the brief trailer you posted has me buying a ticket.
I am sure at the time it was very nerve wracking but all of us will learn something from it. Glad you won the battle and all 4(boat too) of you are safe.
Thanks Tim. I’ll finish writing it up today and get it posted. Last night was, by far, the roughest conditions we have seen. More rough than when we were battling the water leak. Even though the wave are larger than we have ever seen on any trip, the boat is operating well and not leaking really rough water becomes annoying rather than being dangerous.
I know this isn’t your first “Rodeo” and you’re watching fuel burn constantly whereas I, only a couple times a day but you two sure are making me nervous.
It’s probably for the best I’ll never be anything but a “dreamer” because I’d either be trying to arrange someone to meet me, or seriously considering turning back.
I guess I’m not as much of an “explorer” as I’d like to think. I have to admit you’ve got me on the edge of my seat when I check in to see how you two are doing.
Amen to Steve! When I find you (I think) on AIS at MarineTraffic it appears that you have plenty of heavy shipping company too.
Sorry to fall off line for a couple of days. We have been battling the combined effects of bad weather and a mechanical problem Need to get through 1 more day of difficult weather starting tomorrow morning. Once we are through that and enjoying the blocking high on our way into Ireland, I’ll post more detail on conditions and what went wrong.
We’ll catch up and post more once we get back into better weather and get a bit more caught up on sleep.
Our thoughts and prayers are with you James & Jennifer. Godspeed……………Rob
Thanks very much Rob. We’re 100% back to normal and I had a great sleep last night. Forecast conditions over the next 24 hours are heavier than what we saw two nights but what we saw two nights back was worse that what was expected and it’s looking like this might not be as bad. Either way, no issues expected and there is a very nice blocking high pressure area that should give us very good conditions until we are close to Ireland.
I’ll write up what happened and hopefully get it posted sometime over the next 24 hours.
James. Just read about your water in the bilge issue in the middle of a major storm. If I understand the blogs well, you are now safe. My thoughts are with you. Hope you find the root cause of what happened, and that you soon reach the high pressure zone you are aiming towards. BE SAFE.
Thanks Marc. We are back to 100% operational. Current condition make walking around in the boat difficult with max roll out above 25 degrees and max pitch at 12 degrees. Winds running 25 to 35 with gusts to 40 kts. The weather models say expect around 12′ but many of these waves look to more than 20′ towering over our pilot house. all good on Dirona. I’ll write what happened in the storm a couple nights back.
We are thinking of you and looking forward to learning more about what happened. Please don’t trouble to reply, we are following the blog avidly.
Thanks Micheal. Last night was the roughest water we have ever been in. The weather was directly on the beam and we saw rolls from the largest waves up over 25 degrees. Some waves were up above 20′. The funny thing is we both have been sleeping well. As long as all systems are working correctly and they are again, the boat is pretty comfortable in rough seas. We’re looking forward to smoother water but, at this point the rough water is more of a nuisance that slows us down and makes moving around in the boat require more care.
Marine Traffic sometimes show a boat at the last location where it was picked up by one of their ground stations but our exactly location is always up at //mvdirona.com/maps. We definitely have seen other ships but only a couple each day and, for big portions of the trip, there was nothing around at all.
Actually, (as a non-member) MarineTraffic shows you as a “pleasure craft” that has “position received via satellite. “
Cool. I thought MarineTraffic had hidden all that behind a paywall and I pretty much gave up on it. I’ll go back and give it a try again. I loved it in the early days.
We had one day where we were on the edge of our seat as well. In fact it felt a bit like a rodeo in here :-).
Had we not had a mechanical problem, the weather would likely be less of an issue. This first low is only slightly deeper than originally forecast — what attracted us to take this weather window is there is a blocking high developing over the North East Atlantic that should hold of the worse of the bad weather systems and the rough water at the start of the trip was forecast to be rough but nowhere even close to a safety issue. Sometime later today or early tomorrow, we’ll write up the adventure on our end.
On your fueling question, we left with more than 2,700 gallons which is a lot more than needed for this trip. There have been times when we burning hard to get in front of a passing low but we still expect to land in Ireland with 300 gallons of reserve fuel. Even with some high burn periods so far, we still only need to get 1.18 nm/gal which is easy. When we are tighter on fuel we often run at 1.5 and even far above. We’re good on fuel.
James and Jennifer:
What kind of heavy weather preparations will you be making in light of the heavy weather forecasted?
Mike
//mvdirona.com/2011/10/heavy-weather-preparation/
Ahoy James & Jennifer –
My beautiful bride was not happy that you skipped by Portsmouth New Hampshire before initiating your Atlantic crossing. After the deluxe tour you gave me last fall, she was very much looking forward meeting you both.
Any possibility of turning around and returning to Portsmouth so she could take a quick tour of your fine vessel?
It should only take an hour or so and then you can continue East again. I’ll even buy you dinner at the Wentworth!
Should you selfishly decide to continue towards Europe, I will be forced to visit Tiffany’s (again) for another pale blue box to calm her nerves.
Best………………..Rob
Bob said “Any possibility of turning around and returning to Portsmouth so she could take a quick tour of your fine vessel?”
Don’t tempt me :-). This trip has already had more “adventure” than any other previously done and while working on a problem we did have the boat turned 180 degrees to reduce the severity of the wave conditions while I worked outside. However, the plan is still to go to Ireland. You and your wife should come visit us there!
Good question Mike. On any trip that is longer than the accuracy period of a good forecast, we prepare for the worst. The anchor is secured by a large steel pin, the storm plates are on to protect the big salon windows, the deadlines are on protecting the smaller ports. Everything is secured. The dishes cupboards are back with foam, the interior furniture is locked down. All deck furniture is held down with trailer straps. All interior cupboards are latched down securely. Having done that before leaving on this trip, there isn’t much additional work we can do to prepare.
Could you show video of the rolling sea’s and have you see any other traffic?
We’re on a satellite connection so uploading video is expensive. It looks like we have a few days of difficult weather in our near future. We’ll try to take some video of that and other parts of the trip to give a view of what the trip was like. But we’ll likely not post the video until we are back to less expensive connectivity.
Lows, hose and tidal flows. The water finally looks nice but 50° days with winds make it a bit chilly!
Yes, it’s been really nice. Today we took the forward bladder down. 367 gallons down below and the bladder is all folded up and tucked away.
That massive system that we have been watching for days is now predicted to be slightly bigger with 30+ kts of wind and 20′ waves. We’re looking for options to miss the worst of it but it’s a big system so avoiding it entirely is possible. Heading way south doesn’t appear to help. Heading north actually would help but we don’t want to head up into the ice zone. The two options we are thinking through is go super slow for multiple days and avoid the center of the storm but it’ll be an unpleasant 3 or 4 days in big beam seas. The other option is to proceed on the current course and speed and then turn into the weather and spend a day super slow with the bow to the weather waiting for it to pass.
I am glad I do not have to make that decision! All thing being equal though, I would take a bad day with total control of the roll of the boat versus three days of nausea and the possibility of a freak wave. I am watching with great interest and anxiety.
Although I know the answer will be “Wherever he damn well wants!”, the question is where does Spitfire sleep when the going gets tough? Is it snuggled into the off watch on the floor of the MSR, or is it up in the wheelhouse as part of the Duty Watch? Keep safe, Colin N47 Albatross.
Spitfire doesn’t appear bothered by the rough water. He alternates between sleeping below when one of us is sleeping, sleeping on the pilot house settee or off watch birth, or sleeping in the salon at a location where he immediately see any feeding bowl location. Rarely, it gets rough enough that he’ll curl up in the master stateroom head sink. He can wedge in there tight and be completely stable. There a picture of him sleeping in the sink: //mvdirona.com/cache/TravelDigests/Trips/atlanticocean2016/atlanticocean3_TravelDigest.html
You’re probably right Timothy although there is a point where the conditions are worth avoiding at even high cost. In our boat, I would do a lot to avoid 30′ waves and, if the forecast says 20′, there will be some at 30′. We try very hard to avoid dangerous weather but don’t worry as much about avoiding comfort weather.
Glad to hear you are safe and had everything you needed to handle the situation! Starboard laz at 2-3 gpm ingress? Deck drains, AC pumps and a few other thru-hull fittings are all in that area. There are also two below the waterline intakes just forward of that area. 10 hours is a long time to deal with water.
You’re right — 10 hours is a ridiculously long time. The boat is rolling 20 to 22 degrees, pitching 12 to 15, and some of the investigation was done outside at the transom standing in 8 to 12″ of water with waves rolling over the transom every 5 min or so putting a foot or so of water into the cockpit. Part way into this emergency I realized I was not thinking as clearly as needed to. I realized that I was sea sick. Not vomiting but not operating at normal mental acuity levels. After applying a Scopolamine patch, that good better. But in seas that rough, moving stores around to get access to the leak takes time and, if anything is not tied down, it quickly becomes a heavy projectile inside the boat.
I’m just glad we have two bilge alarms or we wouldn’t have noticed until it was too late. I’ve read of many fish boat losses where the helmsman starts to notice something not quite right. The boat feels lethargic and slow, they investigate quickly, but it’s too late and the boat capsizes within seconds. Getting to the problem early is absolute vital.
Course change to avoid fishing grounds?
Yesterday we were in water well over 75F and often pushing us along at a combined speed of over 8kts. Around 2:30am last night we started to lose it and the water temp fell from 75 to 61F. My guess based upon all the data we have is the we probably were north of the Gulf Stream. Since it’s such a massive boost to speed, we went to the south trying to find the warm, fast running water.
The water temp has crept up to 64F but is nowhere to the 75F we were seeing. Almost all references I have seen have the current running way south but we were in it yesterday. This note on the Grand Bank has the Gulf Stream even further north. I’m not if the Gulf Stream is north of us or South but the course diversion south was my best guess at where it might be.
Well I hope you find it soon, if I’m calculating it right you’ve got a 417.5 NM safety net at current rate of fuel consumption. I know that’s more than I seem to think but, I guess I subscribe to the old saying that “You only have to much fuel if you are on fire”.
I hope you two (three counting Spitfire) are enjoying the trip.
Yes, you are right on the fuel situation. We adjust our speed such that we arrive with the planned fuel reserve. For this trip, the reserve is set to 300 gallons which is only 360 nm at the current burn rate or up to 480 if we are conserving more.
We normally set speed purely on fuel economy but there are enough low pressure systems in the area that we are going along quickly until around Friday to get past the path of a low coming up the coast. The next weather system is a strong one coming down from Greenland with expected sustained winds in the 35 to 40 kt range with 18′ seas on only 8 seconds. Fairly ugly. I’ve not fully investigated the model but it looks like a good strategy might be to slow way down Friday morning and run dead slow over the weekend. We’ll still take some big conditions Saturday and Sunday but, by slowing down, we give the storm to start to subside somewhat before we get into the worst of it. If we do that, it’ll lengthen the trip a day or two but avoiding the worst of those conditions would seem to be prudent.
Grateful for your postings – follow your course daily.
Especially admire your Maretron screen-shots giving all the details.
Does the Maretron fuel meter include the content of the bladders – and am I right in assuming that you are drawing from the bladders from the initial start of the journey??
Keep knocking …. Best wishes.
Yes, the Maretron fuel reading is the full fuel load including the forward and aft fuel bladders.
It turns out that bladders are stable in two conditions. First when completely full and the second when fully emptied. In the middle, or even just slightly less than 100% full, the fuel sloshes around really hard. It’s more weight moving than I like and it’s hard on the bladders. When filled to the absolute top, they are almost a solid and nothing moves at all. Knowing that, we run off the below deck fuel until we are down around 450 gallons at which time, we pump the forward bladder down completely. We’ll do that tomorrow. Then we’ll run until we are around 700 gallons from the top on the main tanks. Then we’ll pump each aft tank down again in a single operation.
Tomorrow we will have the forward fuel bladder empty and it’s contents below decks. Five or six days later, we’ll pump the aft tanks below decks. We like to get the fuel load below decks as soon as possible.
Glad to see you are on the move with a May 25th arrival. It looks like some crappy beam seas early on before it levels out. Safe travels to the three of you!
Yup, crappy beam seas. Just like you said Timothy. It’s like you were here :-).
But it’s already somewhat better than it was when we left so no real complaints at this point. Only 2,730 nm left to go.
Thank you as always for your responses. Whenever you are on the move I check your path against Passage Weather, NOAA and NDBC. I am excited to follow you on your 18 day journey and to see all that the new sights have to offer!
Conditions are great right now from a weather perspective. We’re currently working against a very strong negative off shore tide but it’ll change soon. No surprise the tides are strong since we are just south of the Bay of Fundy where the largest tides in the world can be found with ranges as high as 53′.
Later in the trip we expect it to be rougher than it is now. First in the area due south of Greenland we expect 12′ waves on the forward port quarter and then later in the trip getting close to the extremes of the weather forecast, 15+’ is expected but on the stern. I hate wind on the bow so that first set will likely be the least pleasant of the two.
150 South of Nova Scotia with a starboard swell and a slow pace? You keeping your sanity?
In nice conditions, we can run like this forever without getting bored or frustrated. I always have things to do at work and projects on the boat or something I want to lear so it’s never boring. What really sucks at sea is rough conditions. You get tired, doing anything is a struggle, and it just sucks your strength, reduces fuel economy, and slows the boat.
The weather models continue to suggest that we’ll spend a week or two on this trip, getting bounced around.
Are you going to drain the bridge bladder today? Is the fuel consumption about where you thought you would be? PW shows 20 knot headwinds and a current against you? Jennifer and Spitfire doing well?
You might be better off with a course well south of the tail of the Grand Banks, stay away from the Labrador Current, much nicer to keep in the NA drift. Following you from Newfoundland.
Yes, good point. Yesterday we ran most of the day and part of the night in 70+F water so it certainly was the Gulf Stream but surprisingly far north. We were running over 8 kts for lots of the time. Further complicating things is the tidal currents heading into and out of the Bay Fundy are absolutely massive even 100s of miles out in the open ocean.
I appear to have lost the Gulf Stream with the water temperature having fallen down to 61F. We’re trending south looking over the last few hours but the water temp continues to fall. It may be we are searching south when it is actually north of us but that just seems too far north for the Gulf Stream. We’ll keep trending south to see if we can find it. It’s good for 1.5 kts or better if we can refind it
We were surveying on the tail of the Grand Bank in mid-April, temperature was between 2-3 Degrees C and extended about 50 nm southeast of the 500 m isobaths.
This shows the Gulf Stream heading over the Grand Banks and then over the Flemish Cap: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Banks_of_Newfoundland. We have to run south of the current ice line which will have us at least 20nm south of the southern tip of the shallows.
The reference above suggests the Gulf Stream will be north of us at that point but your comment implies we might be better even further south. If you know the approx lat and long where you believe the gulf stream is running on the basis of your recent survey could be helpful. Thanks for passing along the data.
That Wikipedia reference is not accurate the Labrador Current always flows around the tail of the Grand Bank heading to the west onto the Scotian Shelf and a branch flows to the east of Flemish Cap then clockwise around the Cap. The Labrador Current basically determines the southern extent of the iceberg limit. The Gulf Stream is always south of the 500 m depth contour off the southeast Grand Bank. I have seen it as close as 20 nm (last November 2016, temperature 23 deg. C). On April 13 2017 we surveyed south to lat 41 deg. 20 min long -48 deg. 40 min with a water depth of 3400 m and the surface to 1200 m depth temperature was still 0nly 3-4 deg. C. This suggested to me that the Gulf stream was still a bit further south. That said it can meander further north quite quickly and your planned track 20 nm south might pick it up.
If you click on the SST image in this link it will give you a better idea how the Gulf Stream loops north and south. As you mention you might be in one of these loops now. http://www.bio.gc.ca/science/newtech-technouvelles/sensing-teledetection/composites-en.php?comp=data&year=2017&month=3&day=1&data=data&group1-0=sst
Eugene, thanks very much for the advice on currents in the area. We really appreciate you taking the time to get us that data. Thanks very much.
Your only 289 miles out? Heavy head seas James?
Yes, weather on the bow for the early part of the trip. We are not terribly efficient into heavy winds and climbing large swell on the nose. Much of yesterday we were running in the Gulf Stream with speeds in the 7.5 to 8 kt range and water temperatures up over 70F. We appear to have lost the current and we’re now back down to 6.4 kts in moderate seas.
Janes
At what readings are the roll and pitch numbers you report indicative
of calm, moderate and rough seas?
That’s a good question Rod. We are currently seeing the trailing 60 min max roll and pitch at 10.7 degrees and 10.0 degrees respectively. I don’t have hard and fast numbers and it really depends upon the speed of both (especially pitch). Looking first at roll, much less than 6 or 7 degrees is very comfortable, More than 10 or 12 we chose to sleep on the floor, and more than 20 is getting really rough. Looking at pitch, the numbers are lower. Less than 5 degrees is comfortable. Much more than 8 or 9, we choose to sleep on the floor, and more than around 12 or 13 can be obnoxious. Pitch is super sensitive to frequency and even 10 degrees can be annoying in short seas.
Sleeping on the floor sounds like it’s really rough but it turns out it just works well and we sleep better. In these conditions we could sleep quite easily on the bed but it turns out we sleep better wedged between the bulkhead and the bed. We find we sleep better when we move less so elect to take the floor around 10 degrees of roll.
Current conditions are a good example of the sensitivity to wave frequency. We are seeing 10 degrees of pitch and 10.8 degrees of roll but its actually not that rough with the reasonably long frequency. I suspect I would still chose to sleep on the floor if I was heading to bed now.
Early this morning it was surprisingly rough and, in those conditions, you have to be careful moving around the boat. It easy to slip or make a mistake and miss a hand hold. Both roll and pitch were more then but the wave frequency was shorter as well.
James
Thanks for the info, As you say wave frquency is a great determinator of calm or rough conditions. Would it be possible to monitor/report on the wave period with your system?
I’ll give it some thought Rod but I can’t think of a reliable data source for wave heights. I might be able to get it from the reading the rising and falling altitudes on the satellite compass but that requires us reading it far more frequently and I wonder if it would be accurate enough to be useful. Other than that, I can’t think of a source for wave period that we could use.
Great to see you and Jennifer (and Spitfire, of course!) back “on the road” again! Here’s hoping for calm seas and no mechanical surprises.
What’s the source of your pitch and roll data, James? Something built into the boat, or something you added? (I’m thinking an Arduino and a couple properly placed sensors might be all you need, but maybe it’s more complex than that.)
The pitch and roll data is from the Furuno SC30 sat compass. It delivers very precise location, heading, pitch, roll, yaw, and altitude. Of course we have (many) backup GPS and electronic compass as well in case of SC30 failure. Your solution would be about 100x less expensive :-)
“Nothing smooths rough seas like a creme-filled donut.” Quote of the year!
Hope you have a good run across the pond. Looking forward to the next chapter – thanks for sharing this incredible journey!
Thanks Jamie! We knew we were heading out into fairly lumpy conditions this morning and there is a minor low that will brush against our track a few days out. BUt we like the high predicted to build over the North East atlantic over the next week. All indications point to bumpy but safe first part of the trip and we’re hoping the high helps stabilize the latter part of the trip.
Jennifer and James
Smooth (or relatively) seas for your Atlantic crossing.
With all of your systems go you will have an enjoyable trip.
As with all of your followers (groupies?) I await your updates with great anticipation
On this one Rod, we don’t expect an enjoyable trip. At least part of it will be in the 10′ to 15’range. We always aim for enjoyable and often find it but it’s hard to reliably get in the North Atlantic. Waiting for June might help but it can be tough to get across the Atlantic without some low pressure systems finding you. We like the current conditions because there are no dangerous lows and a large high pressure system is just starting to build in the North East Atlantic that should hold off future lows. The high pressure system is producing 10+ waves on our path and bigger further north but the models suggest our crossing will be lumpy but quite safe.
Thanks for the mini-lesson on the weather. As an inland boater, long term weather isn’t a big deal since there is always a port near by. I’ve watched your other long jumps and you seem to do most of the weather forecasts well.
Topic switch: The new stack outlet is now in a box outside the stack. That looks like something I’d shin smack on a regular basis. Is it tucked out of the way or is there a bigger first aid kit?
Topic switch: Your issues around the lift TV has convinced me to do an easier mount. I was pretty much convinced with the prior mess on the lift, but the controller issue sealed the deal. Thanks for saving me serious boat dollars.
Thanks Foster. This particular crossing we expect to be a bit rougher than usual but we generally like the weather we are heading out into. It’s predicted to be a bit rough not scary or dangerous.
You were asking about the stack plug and if it was in the route of nearby shins. Fortunately not, The closest route that runs ear the plug is the one from the fly bridge stairs to around the stack. The plug is far enough back that there is no interference with that diagonal route. I don’t expect it’ll be a problem. We also have the storm plates and some bulk marine board stacked just behind the plug so it’s not the furthest protruding element in that area.
The TV lift was surprisingly challenging. We solved the problem and didn’t need any parts but it took the best part of a day to get resolved. We like the lift but needing to spend a day to get it working again was annoying.
Looks like you will be leaving soon so good luck and enjoy the trip.
Will be following along as usual and hope you have time to grab some video with just the normal ambient sounds you all put up with. You may think that it would be boring but can say there are more then you think who would also love actual sound videos while underway. :)
It’s harder than you think to do video with good audio tracks in the wind. The reason why movie producers use boom mikes with exotic vibration insulated mics and cover the mics with “dead cats” (wind noise damper) is because cheap, poorly placed microphones without wind and vibration damping really produce a poor result. The ambient noise ends up loader and this noise ends up dominating the actual sounds. All you get is engine noise, wind noise, and clunks and thunks. The noise is way loader than it should be and it really doesn’t sound much like what we see being there.
However, you are not the first to make that request and so we’ll make sure we get some storm footage up with full ambient noises. There is a blocking high over the North Atlantic which generally is good news. The constant string of lows pounding through will be slowed. The 500mb charts so us operating in a nice, safe area. We don’t expect any unsafe weather but the high is actually strong enough to produce some large wave conditions so it’s a good news and bad news things. Rougher water than comfortable but no dangerous lows are expected. The good news is we’ll likely get some video that is at least interesting and we will try keeping the sound on even though it will suffer from the flaws I outlined above.
Thanks James and am aware of the bad sounds you can get but your Indian Ocean video turned out okay and one of my favorites for that ambient sounds. I am getting excited for you 3 and can’t wait to see that boat underway.
Ironically, we only get video on the better weather days. On the truly nasty ones, we’re tired, the boat is getting hammered, and we just don’t feel like shooting video. Really rough weather can be taxing. On this crossing we have a few permanently mounted cameras up off the water so we are much more likely to get interesting video.
The coastal low coming through Newport Rhode Island is fading but at one point last night we had gusts to 38kts. Right now it’s dropping prodigious amounts of rain but the winds are down below 15 and falling. It would be nice if the rain backed off a bit for the fueling today.
I know you always prepare for the worse but really hoping the weather just moves out of the way for you so you end up with way less then even expected.
I am sure I can speak for others when I say we will be watching, enjoying and for some strange reason even a little bit of concerned caution. Just another aspect of real time blogs.
I will also be watching those temps as I am still curious about the painting of the keel cooler and the performance you get from it. I know the waters will be colder but still should show some signs of something on a trip this long.
Hey Tim. We’ll post the full navigation instrumentation display occaisionaly so you can key an eye on the water and engine coolant temps and figure out how our painted keel cooler is doing. With nearly a year on the new setup, I’m getting more and more confident that painting is a win overall.
I expect we’ll leave late tonight or early tomorrow morning. At this point, the low pressure system heading northing isn’t moving that fast so tomorrow morning is the most likely exit time.
It seems like the lower route, while 12 hours longer, is the smoother route so far? How long before you commit?
South is definitely smoother. We won’t leave until Saturday night to Sunday morning so we won’t have to make a call for a another day and a 1/4. Even later than that it’s possible to starting heading more east than north so it’s possible to shift between the two routes depending upon conditions.
James
With all your communications sytems would it be prohibitively expensive to watch a 3 hour sports event (foor example) when in the mid Alantic?
Rod
PS Back from NZ and Australia trip so can more easily comment etc. Followed the website daily though
We have frequently watched NFL games over cell links but never on satellite. Our experience is a game will run roughly 1.5G and sometimes a bit more as long as you don’t crank the resolution too high. That’s under $14 these so easy to afford. On the satellite system, it would be roughly $300. So not completely crazy but quite a bit of money. It would be kind of cool to do a super bowl partly in the middle of the Atlantic and we probably would be willing to pay that for the Super Bowl or some other big game. We’ve not yet tried it but it’s a fun idea.
By the way, just to get a perspective how bad it can get, if we were using BGAN rather than Mini-VSAT, the full game bill would be just under $11,000. They don’t make games THAT big :-).
Hmmm. Super Bowl party in mid-Atlantic … in February….
Yeah, good point John. February in the mid-Atlantic probably wouldn’t be a party.
And, speaking of the Mid-Atlantic, it is looking like we might get underway for Kinsale Ireland this Sunday. We have really been enjoying Newport RI but are looking forward to starting to explore Ireland.
Thought of you last night when i watched this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08jprh0
We are planning a West coast cruise next year.
Wow, incredible photography and videography. Hopefully we’ll be underway this weekend and get a chance to see Ireland in person three weeks from now. Thanks for sending along that link Declan.
“Fair winds & following seas” seems somewhat inappropriate for a power yacht. Perhaps something like “best of Sargasso conditions” or simply “calm seas!”
Thanks John. Fair winds and following seas” actually still works fairly well for a power boat. You would think we would be immune but wind on the nose can take off a couple of knots and make for an unpleasant ride. Our run form Hawaii to Marquessas was one of those memorable runs where its not even close to unsafe but it wasn’t that much fun either. Following seas if not extreme can add speed. Our preference is calm conditions but following sea are a close second.
This morning we put in the furnace exhaust plug (prevents sea water getting into the boiler), installed the storm plates to protect the larger salon windows, and moved the SCUBA tanks to their below decks location making room for the fuel bladders.
That’s a fantastic weather prediction tool you have. Finding out now about 26′ seas – off the beam no less – is much better than figuring it out a week out! Have you compared the forecasts from a week ago to the actual conditions that have developed? I’d be curios to see how accurate they can forecast that far out.
Yes, we have been watching the North Atlantic weather closely for the last few months now interested in both the overall trends as things improve heading into summer and also the accuracy of the predictions when compared against actual. We’ve seen many exactly right and a few that were off by quite a bit — things tend to change quickly in the Atlantic. In the case we are showing, the prediction showed a smaller system but the wave heights and magnitude we would have seen had we been underway were almost exactly what the forecast predicted. Overall model accuracy appears to be quite good. The problem is that no model looks out reliably three weeks and it’s almost impossible to be out in the Atlantic for that long and not see a couple of lows. So, the goal ends up being one where we try to engineer things to minimize the severity of the weather encountered rather than really being able to avoid it entirely.
Long time reader,1st time commenting. With all the cruising you and other Nordhavn owners do how closely do you get followed by the various manufacter? Are they making production changes/enhancements based on your real world experience. Thanks for shareing your travels!
I’m sure some manufactures will see our web site once in a while and some of our designs do catch wider interest. For example, the power system changes we made (//mvdirona.com/2014/08/a-more-flexible-power-system-for-dirona/) have caught the interest of many Nordhavn buyers. Mike Telleria at Nordhavn has produced a very nice design that employs many of the same techniques in an elegant approach. This is now available for new Nordhavn buyers and many other boats have employed some of the same or closely related ideas on boats already in use. Manufacturers likely see our web site occasionally. Perhaps he most amazing example of service I’ve seen was us posting a problem we were having and soon after getting an email from the Service Manager at Cascade Engine (Deere) with advice.
We get great legendary support from American Bow Thurster (TRAC), Nordhavn, Cascade Engine Center, Furuno USA, Lugger, Northern Lights, and KVH Industries (satellite). Emerald Harbor Marine commissioned the boat and electronics systems and they still are still super helpful in answering question and finding parts even though it’s been more than 7 years now. We frequently send ideas or suggestions to Maretron, KVH, Northern Lights, and Nordhavn. For most components on the boat, we have had neither ideas nor problems but we still are super impressed with how fast they answer questions. Village Marine (Watermakers), Steelhead (crane) and Maxwell Winches are good examples. Nordhavn (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hC490NTIJM) and John Deere (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh5ZS85mgIM&t=4s) have done videos about some of our systems or the trip.
From your interest in the AC and foiling, you might to check out the preparations for this year’s competition. A local resident of Bermuda is posting some great shots on YouTube under the name MyislandhomeBDA. All six teams are now there practising hard.
29 days to the start of competition in the 35th America’s Cup! Really looking forward to the racing. These are the closest thing to Formula 1 race cars on the water. Thanks for sending the link David.
Laundry on land, paper plates and four minute showers at half flow? 15 gallons a day over the last two weeks is pretty miserly. It explains why the drain does not clog up as much :-)
It’s about 1/2 of our normal water consumption but, if we stop running the dishwasher and don’t do laundry, it really doesn’t feel that restrictive.
I see the picture of you in the cockpit and Dirona sitting a little higher than normal? That was before making the water right? Do they offer dive and anode services at the marina this early?
Yes, good eye Timothy. The boat does raise noticably in the water as it drops fuel load. When the picture was taken we were down 1,100 gallons of fuel which is about 6,600 lbs and down 200 gallons of water which is about 1,600 lbs. In total, we are running 8,200 lbs light or a bit more than 4 tons. Roughly equivalent to 3 average passenger cars.
We won’t need a zinc change at this point but we do need a bottom clean so will get a diver under the boat before we leave.
I make Eaton/Aeroquip EZ-Clip/cage hoses for the AC units of my old cars. I love being able to make the exact hose size I want and with the right fitting. It is a little more expensive but being able to make a clean hose is worth it. Nice work on the stainless hose. How did you do the actual hose cut?
The route selection (reduction of options) takes you close to the Azores. Not gonna stop for sure?
I recently read about the affect of reduced water depth on freak/rogue wave height. The old 100 fathom rule was mentioned. It was interesting reading but made me want to stay away from any shallow water in open sea!
The Advantage of the Aeroquip hose is it looks great and it’s super strong. I remember one race we were in when the oil filter cartridge fell off and was hanging on Aeroquip hose while bouncing off the track. The hose took the abuse for the remainder of the race. The reason why I have a supply of it on the boat is our craine has many high pressure plastic hoses running from the Laz up to the boat deck and then out to the appropriate hydraulic cylinder inside the crane. Eventually one of these hoses will chafe through so I have aeroquip and fittings to replace a hose when that happens.
You are right the route selection does take us close to the Azores. In fact for the first week or so, there is no difference between the routing to Azores and Ireland since ther factors force us south off the great circle to the same location. Our intention is to chose a good weather window, get under way, and after being underway for a week, make the decision on Azores or Ireland on the basis of 1 more week of weather data.
Rogue waves, whether caused by sea mounts or other factors, are a concern. They are rare but likely fatal so it’s worth taking all reasonable precautions to avoid them.
Change of tack!
Spitfire in the UK may be a problem, so best forewarned. (Eire of course not in UK.)
The UK has rules about animals entering using only approved routes and carriers, some by air and some by commercial ferries. As far as I know, and I hope I am wrong, you will not be allowed to bring Spitfire in unless you comply. I know you have all the shots and paperwork, but maybe some research is required if not already done? The penalty is six months in quarantine which would be heartbreaking.
As I say, I hope I am wrong!
Missed you in Capetowm, so hopefully cross in Ireland or UK. I am in Lisbon at the moment but heading north for Dublin in August.
Colin N47 Albatross
Colin,
Thanks for the warning regarding Spitfire. There actually is an approved way to bring a pet into Great Britain by private boat: enter from the Republic of Ireland. Pets from ROI do not have to enter GB on an approved route or on an authorized carrier; and there are no systematic compliance checks on ports of entry. And ROI allows pets to enter on private boats following the standard EU compliance process. Otherwise, you are correct. From any other country, a pet can only be brought into GB on an approved route and carrier.
Sorry we missed you in Cape Town and hope to see you somewhere in GB/ROI. We’ll be in Glasgow from July until mid-August, then plan to cruise the west and north Scottish coasts. We might end up in Dublin in November, but haven’t got firm plans yet.
–Jennifer
Hi Jennifer, that’s a relief! To be honest, I hadn’t thought of EU, ROI, UK as that would be very useful for us as well. Sometimes, one cannot see the wood for the trees…….
Safe crossing when it comes; have you read the account of an Atlantic crossing on Dauntless, aKK42? Actually, his recent return to the Caribbean is equally informative and shows what can be achieved in an older boat with less experience than yourselves.
Keep safe.
Colin
So happy you’ll soon be heading this way! Does your N. Scotland Cruise plans include the Caledonian canal (Loch Ness etc.) ?
If yes, that would be an ideal spot for a parallel ride : You on the water, me on my e-bike and meeting at locks, docks and the like.
Depending on approximate arrival date I may still be able to make it to Kinsale for your arrival, but Ferry connections between France and Cork are **not** plentiful (just once a week)
We’ll see
Hey Jacques! Yes, we do plan to head through the Caledonian Canal and through Loch Ness. We’re really looking forward to it. All that stands between us and the adventure in Ireland and Scotland is the infamous North Atlantic. Apparently our “ferries” aren’t running that frequently either :-).
Great. Indeed, the weather should cooperate first. Doesn’t look quite that rosy at this point though. We’re having average February conditions here in SW France, both on the coast and inland!
Yeah, it’s still tough out there. Haven’t seen a reasonable opportunity to cross yet this year. Hopefully soon.
Yes , same observations here. Mostly beam seas and “opportunities” to broach…Not a good picture right now.
Holding off until I see you guys reaching past the Azores ( or eventually stopping there! ;-) ) .
We’re still aiming for Ireland before end of the year Jacques :-)
We crossed in June 2015 from Halifax NS to Crosshaven Ireland sailboat 19days. The ice was so bad that we had to drop down around the Tail of the Bank. FYI The Royal Cork Yacht Club(worlds oldest) was a great place to enter Ireland. The staff was very helpful. The west coast of Ireland is fantastic don’t miss Skellig Michael (last scene of latest Star Wars Movie) and the Arron Islands along with Inish Bonfin. Watch out for the occasional gale we sat for three days with 52knts highest gusts.
We are presently in Scotland for another season then on to Norway. Not live a board’s so we come home every year. Maybe we cross paths sometime.
S/V Homarus
Thanks for the tips. Your current trip closely parallel our plans. We are aiming to explore Ireland and Scotland and then proceed over to Norway just as you do.
This year the ice is already south of the southern end of the Grand Banks. Our plan is to do a longer trip and leave from Newport RI and head to cork. I suspect our trip will be roughly the same time period as yours. We would like to leave earlier than June to be able to enjoy some of the summer in Ireland and Scotland but the counter pressure is North Atlantic weather is much more settled in June. We’ll watch conditions and see how it plays out.
Hi James and Jennifer, If you will be cruising the NW of Scotland, the Clyde Cruising Club guides are excellent. I think that they are now published by Imray and come in several manageable volumes covering specific areas. Hope you have a good crossing of the pond, and look forward to reading about your adventures.
Regards
Rob Heath S/Y ‘Norman James’
Thanks for the cruising book tip Rob. As much as some cruisers say the journey is the destination, it’s hard for us to look forward to the North Atlantic. It’s the site of Ireland as we approach that we are yearning for.
I understand why you and Jenifer view this voyage with some trepidation, but have the two of you considered taking some crew with you . I know sailors are a self reliant bunch, but more eyeballs for the ice, big waves require hand steering, how rough weather tires our body because we use our muscles so much more holding on or moving about, and mal de mer which will also affect the crew, but hopefully not all.
Our strategy is to stay below the ice line as tracked by the International Ice Patrol. Rather than run risk and push through with all the precision required by that tactic, we’ll practice avoidance and run further to the south. That shouldn’t be a problem. We have seen rough water in the past and have never found conditions requiring hand steering. It’s impossible to completely eliminate all risks but we try to run with sufficient redundancy, parts, and training such that we will never have to hand steer. It is true that bad weather can be tiring but that’s not really a primary concern either. Our biggest concern is perhaps the least likely to be encountered, unexpected survival conditions. More people on the boat can help with tiring conditions or with situations requiring precision operation like running in ice. But, increasing crew size, is only modestly helpful in dealing with a survival storm. It is highly likely we will see two lows and highly unlikely we’ll see survival conditions but it’s the latter that concerns us.
Hey James – haven’t checked in for a while but, your burned outlet got my attention. In the house I built a few years ago, King County required AFCI breakers for all the bedrooms for just this sort of issue. I learned in the process that AFCI and GFCI breakers play nicely together and wonder if that’s another possible layer of safety.
Hey Shawn thanks for pointing this out. That looks like an excellent extra layer of safety — they are a bit expensive at $28 but it still seems totally worth it so I’ll replace them all on Dirona.
I just ordered 10 of them. Thanks for the comment.
I know you are getting excited about your trip across the “pond”.
As a reader living vicariously through your blog posts let me tell you that I, as well as everyone else who reads this I am sure, want to wish a safe and enjoyable voyage! I am very much looking forward to your trip to Europe and hope you have a splendid time. Thank you for sharing all of your adventures.
Bon Voyage!!!
-Drew
Thanks Drew. The challenge on this one will be timing. The best time to cross the North Atlantic is mid-summer but we would prefer to go earlier and spend some of the summer in Scotland and Ireland. We would like to be as early as possible but stay as safe as possible.
The GFI did not trip before it burnt? A Taymac cover and a whole bunch of 5200? Does that socket get used often?
It looks like the worst possible failure mode where some current flows between poles in the socket but not enough to trip the 15A breaker. 15A is a lot of power and can produce dangerous heating. It appears that it was leaking power between the poles for quite some time prior to the breaker opening. The lower 1/4 of the GFCI burned away and 2″ of the feed wires were burned. I removed the old burned up unit and removed the 5200 that sealed the square stack opening. Then removed foam core material, and used epoxy to seal up the stack core. I put a marine board plate over the hole and mounted to it an outdoor safe power box. It’s a 100% sealed up aluminum box with only two openings. One in front that is sealed by the outdoor certified socket cover and one in the back that is sealed by the power wire outdoor safe gland. I pulled a new wire replacing the damaged one. The power box is now externally mounted but it doesn’t look bad and it is weather safe.
I don’t know if the GFCI failed to open or did open but the socket still leaked current between the poles perhaps due to water intrusion. It’s a good thing that the breaker protected the circuit correctly. If that breaker had failed to open, then there is a 30A breaker “north” of the 15A but that would require twice the fault current to release.
Does Nordhavn do service bulletins :-) Having an outlet on the stack is convenient but that location is just asking for trouble. It looks like the pipe flange above it is causing the water to flow right into the original outlet and the stack is already a water “ramp” anyway. I like your solution as it moves the outlet from the stack water flow/pipe flange and will reduce the new cover exposure to just incidental splashes or rain contact. The Bell-Taymac plastic products are good quality and a nice price. I am not a fan of the metal stuff.
I think you just figured the whole thing out Timothy. The socket was well sealed against the elements from the outside and it was well insulated against water intrusion on the inside as well. I just went up to the boat deck and looked more closely at the exhaust cooling vent directly above the socket. The exhaust cooling vent is sealed on the outside but, on the inside, there is exposed foam core visible. The water is flowing down the inside of the stack when it’s really wet, entering the foam core of the stack at the exhaust cooling vent, and flowing down to the socket and literally filling it up. Since the socket was well sealed against water entering (or exiting), it just filled up.
When I replaced the socket I corrected the exposed foam core problem at the socket by cutting back the foam and filling the void with epoxy. Since it’s bad news to have water entering foam cores, I’ve now got another job ahead of me to remove the exhaust vent, cut back the foam, and epoxy fill the void to seal off the core. Then replace the fitting. Still, I’m glad we found the issue.
The socket was installed when the boat was being commissioned so that one isn’t a Nordhavn issue.
At least you can get to the problem area somewhat easily and it is not like chasing down an AC drain line inside the boat!
Yes, the exhaust cooling vent is easily accessable but I’m sure, like all projects, it’ll bring it’s own form of challenge. In this case, the challenge may be the generous application of 3M 5200 between the large flange and the stack.
Are there any other outdoor receptacles on the boat and if so, what did they look like? I like Timothy’s rationale and particularly like your moving the receptacle outside the stack and enclosing it in it’s own limited combustible box. Looking at the first picture you took when you discovered the failure, and not knowing much about marine receptacles, the cover didn’t look particularly sealed or sealable, almost resembled a domestic outdoor receptacle and receptacle box. Any receptacle can fail, and as you noticed, there was significant heating prior to the breaker tripping….thankfully there were no readily combustible materials in proximity! That said…how does the new box seal up when closed? the only reason i ask is i wonder about the ever present salty air and it sneaking it’s way in behind a worn weather strip?
Again, thanks for the detail and sharing the incident!
I’ve seen these electrical boxes partly buried in commercial gardens so they do appear to be quite water tight. There are only two openings at the front and the back. The back is a water tight electrical gland. The front is a large foam seal that also appears to perform well.
I suspect the old solution, although less robust than this one, actually was water tight as well. I think the box was sealed against water intrusion on both the outside of stack bulkhead and the outside of the stack bulkhead However, the hole through the stack bulkhead was not properly finished and exposed foam core was exposed. The same problem can be seen 6″ above where the stack exhaust cooling vent again has exposed core material.
It appears that water entering at the stack exhaust cooling vent is running into the electrical socket. Since the socket is well sealed, the water can’t run out and builds up inside the receptical leading to the fault. It’s a super interesting fault mode.
I’ve sealed the core properly at the socket using epoxy, will seal the core material at the exhaust cooling vent also with epoxy, I’ve closed off the hole where the socket was installed, and mounted a water proof electrical box with a single water proof gland at the electrical entry. There are no other electrical outlets outside of the boat.
I believe the new configuration will perform well.
Just to add some thoughts here….I know that anywhere near the coast and I mean right on the beach or water, there seems to be bad outlets(on outside of houses) due to salt intrusion no matter how little. So my thought is would it be better to delete outlets on the outside and just run a cord from somewhere close inside to supply power to whatever is going on.
For sure, it’s simple to just eliminate the socket but, just as a boat can be built to exclude water, so too can a power outlet. When I’m power washing outside, having the door held open by a power cord is annoying — I find the socket pretty useful. Timothy figure out the issue: the socket is well sealed so water can’t get in on the outside or inside of the stack but water was flowing down from above in the unsealed foam core and actually filling the socket up with water. The problem is two holes through the stack neither of which had the foam core sealed off correctly. Annoying but not that hard to fix.
I epoxied up the exposed core at the power outlet when I replaced the outlet. I’ll do the same at the exhaust cooling vent on the next nice day.
Doesn’t look like that will be a problem again.
FYI mostly because I just so happened to need it today for something similar, this is a product I use and keep on the truck for hard to deal with leaks. Comes in black also but doubt you’d have any interest in that.
I know it bonds to metal, wood styrofoam and plastics although I’ve never tried it on fiberglass.
https://www.grainger.com/product/NU-CALGON-Rubberized-Spray-Coating-1ANJ9?s_pp=false&picUrl=//static.grainger.com/rp/s/is/image/Grainger/1ANJ9_AS01?$smthumb$
I’m pretty confident the current approach will work well. Thanks for the pointer to the rubberized spray coating. Yet another possible solution to keep in mind when I face leak issues. Thanks for sending the link Steve.
James. I noticed your wing engine Rpm high set point is 1800 RPM
Like you we have a full Hydraulic package. I run the Wing at 2000 RPM while using Hydraulics. Am I over doing it?
Tom Felt
N52/74
No you are absolutely not over doing it. In fact, I run my wing at 2,600 RPM when I want full hydraulic thrust and 2,400 RPM otherwise. The standard 40hp wing engine can’t fully drive the hydraulic system at full output at less than 2,600 RPM. What’s happening is the thrusters if both in use at max output will draw 40hp and the wing cat full rated RPM can just barely produce 40 hp.The best possible solution would be to have a higher HP wing engine but that isn’t an option. It’s biggest one Nordhavn was comfortable installing.
What’s done is the hydraulic pressure (and therefore the thruster HP) is turned down such that the wing engine will not be stalled. At around 3,200 PSI, the wing is happy, won’t get stalled, and you only need to run it at 2,000 to 2,400 RPM.
It all works well as delivered but I wanted the thrusters to be able to put out their full 18hp rather than down around 14.5 HP. So I turned the system pressure up to 3,800 PSI which is the hydraulic system design pressure. At this pressure, the thrusters will produce 18hp which is fairly high. But it took me a while to get it to the point where the system would run stably at that output.
By transferring some hydraulic load to the main engine at idle the system can drive the thrusters easily at 3,800 PSI (18 hp) and the wing is not close to stalling. In this configuration, I get full hydraulic pressure output with the wing at 2,600 RPM and the main idling. At lower wing speeds, power falls off but even down at 1,800 RPM, the wing won’t stall. It just produces less hydraulic pressure.
Where I ended up is a stable system that will produce full output with the wing at 2,600 and pretty high output with the wing at 2,400 and less and less output as the wing engine RPM is dropped. I mostly just run it at 2,600 on the logic that its rated to run at those power levels non-continuously and our needs never run even remotely close to an hour.
Your wing will be very happy for it’s entire life at 2,000 RPM. Mine works much harder but is still comfortably within the manufacturer usage specifications.
Have you investigated Kymeta for satellite connectivity? Still in trials, but looks like high speed global satellite coverage for much less cost than mini-VSAT.
Yes, I have seen Kymeta and it’s good to see another competitor entering the KU-band Mini-VSAT market. There are a couple of big trends currently happening in the satellite world that are really helpful to customers:
1) low cost commercial satellite launch systems are emerging fast and competition is increasing. It’s going to be MUCH cheaper to deploy a constellation of satellites. I expect we’ll see a large number of Low Earth Orbiting startups able to jump in to compete with Iridium and Globalstar. LEO systems have to do frequent satellite handoffs as satellites orbiting the earth every 90 min come into view and leave it. This is exactly the same thing that happens on a freeway when you are making a cell phone call. 20 years ago, call drops were common. These days cell handoff is far better and call quality is pretty good even during handoff events. I expect that LEO systems will get better quickly but right now, when using Iridium for business calls that might last 30 to 60 minutes, the experience isn’t great and drops are common.
The space launch systems required to lift bigger, heavier satellites up above LEO systems to run geo-synchronous is still more expensive but I expect these prices will fall there as well as more competition emerges and there is more lift capacity available.
Leo systems are getting less expensive quickly, quality is improving, and GEO-synchronous system costs are falling as well but much less quickly.
2) The second big innovation in satellite communications are companies like KVH are innovating and producing ever smaller and less expensive Mini-VSAT systems. Smaller antennas allow them to be used on smaller vehicles at much lower cost than the more than 1 meter antennas that used to be the norm. As less expensive on-premise equipment becomes available, more customer buy, volumes go up, and prices drop yet again.
KVH is also buying large packages of bandwidth world wide and making it available at more reasonable cost to end customer. The combination that KVH has brought to market of lower cost, smaller antennas, world-wide coverage, and more affordable bandwidth is causing a rapid growth in Mini-VSAT usage in Marine, RV, and aircraft markets.
Whenever a business finds a successful equation that customers like, and KVH has clearly found that equation in Mini-VSAT, they experience rapid growth and competitors always enter the market. Kaymeta is the first major competitor I have seen in this market segment that doing their own antennas and reselling KU-band bandwidth at favorable pricing.
Kaymeta appears to be using a phased array mobile station as a way to reduce antenna cost, steer it more quickly, and reduce profile. KVH has been using similar technology in one of their recreational vehicle antennas. I think both companies are onto a great idea that could offer another very large step function in antenna cost reduction.
The satellite world is a complex one where the massive cost of a satellite constellation and the relatively small initial market can yield financial short falls. Both Iridium and Globalstar have had to file for banckruptcy protection in the past. What KVH and Kaymeta are doing is innovative. They are buying large blocks of traffic from existing constellation owners and focusing their innovation on station cost and the rest of the service offering. Essentially they are satellite-less satellite service providers in the same way that most modern semi-conductor producers are FAB-less. It’s a good model. The downside is they are still having to pay significant markup to the satellite constellation owners but the good thing is they are not carrying the massive debt required by a satellite communications plant.
It’s still very early days for Kaymeta. At this point, they have only invited a limited number of customers into the service but early pricing appears quite good. They appear to be bringing some interesting innovations to the KU-band Mini-VSAT market and there is no question that competition is good for the pace of innovation and good for customers.
As KVH, Kaymeta, and others grow the KU-band market, I look forward to one of these player growing their customer base to the point where they can own their own satellite capacity. The combination of lower cost satellite lift systems and applying the same level innovation to the satellite side that has been dropping cost on mobile antennas has the potential to produce another step function in sate communications cost reduction.
0835 and 13.6 Knots heading 148 degrees?
We are now coming around to the north and slowing as we leave the powerful river current. It was great enjoying the “free” speed but the current against the swell was a bit rough. It nice and smooth now.
Ahh, see you are headed back to Morehead City.
That is close to the fastest speed that Dirona has made right?
Yes, this is the longest run we have done at anywhere close to these speeds. It’s mostly the Gulf Stream driving us north but we’re also running fairly hard at the same time. It’s a good test of all the systems that we can run 24×7 at 2200 RPM (~200hp) and no vibration and the ER is running under 30F deltaT even with high power draws at the same time. All good to see.
We can’t quite make it by Tuesday night so we’ll slow it down and cruise in slowly for a Wednesday morning arrival in Newport.
No vibration, all the time spent with the motor mounts and alignment of course! Hey, AIS shows you are pretty much all alone out there right now. Four footers on your starboard beam?
Hi Timothy. The wind as moved around to be right on our stern and the swell is pretty small. It’s dark here now but I would guess only a couple of feet. We are definitely all alone out here at this point.
We’re running to arrive at 9:00am in Newport on Wednesday.
Just chugging along with a gentle breeze and the seas on your starboard stern quarter?
Yup, nice and gentle out here right now. Winds are currently 15 kts and conditions are good. We’ve past a few fish boats out working and have seen a few of the large metal RADAR reflecting markers that the fisherman in this area use on large offshore pots. We are currently 94 miles out of Newport and we expect the frequency of trap sittings will go up as we get closer to shore. We’ll need to be careful. Other than that, all good on Dirona.
Are we there yet? Shaft cutters get any action or were you able to avoid all the pots?
We avoided the pots — there weren’t that many — but it was rough last night. 25 kts with gust beyond directly on the bow. We were pitching more than 20 degrees and, even with the stabilizers, still rolling more than 10 degrees. I’m looking forward to arriving. We expect to at the Marina just before lunch.
Are you wedged in between mega-yachts or do you have some breathing room?
I believe the norm at this marina is essentially as you said Timothy. Lots of mega-yachts. But this time of year, there are none. We actually are here prior to the Marina officially opening so we are the only boat in the entire marina. The marina crew is in the process of putting the docks back in the water and re-installing power and water on the docks. It was very nice of them to make a spot for us close enough to shore that we can plug in. There won’t be water available anywhere near the docks for a couple of weeks but it’s fun to be the only boat in the Marina.
We were the second last boat in this Marina last year and we’re the first one here to open the 2017 boating season.
Yes, Timothy, I think you are right that the normal state here during the season is “lots of megayachts” but we’re currently the only boat in the marina. Technically, the Marina isn’t yet open. The crew is in the process of reinstalling the docks and re-running power and water. The docks are in but no power and water. They put us in a location where our power cord can reach a shore side socket which is a good thing since it’s only 38F here. There will be no water for anywhere close to the dock for the next couple of weeks. There’s a new WiFi system going in so no WiFi either but it is fun to be the only boat in the Marina. We were one of the last boats here before the end of the season last year and we are the first boat here to open the season in 2017
One of the best stern shots of Dirona. She looks so good by herself there. Sucks about the wifi and hookups but a week early is still a nice offering from the marina.
Newport is a great place with many restaurants. It’s surprisingly cold here down in the mid 30s in the morning but we are enjoying the change.
Hey James,
From looking at the strainer, I’d be wondering what the inside of the heat exchangers looked like.
Since you two are heading to Europe if you make to Germany (although I understand it’s big in the UK) you might be interested in checking out this product.
I don’t claim to understand how it could possibly work but I’ve seen it on cooling towers for various applications and it seems to work just fine. At least for a couple of years, it’s fairly new to this area, or at least I never saw one until a couple years ago and there really aren’t any older applications around to judge that I’ve seen.
http://www.merusonline.com/
I have no idea of the cost as they came specified on those jobs I’ve seen them on and have never individually bought or seen a broken down equipment price where they were included.
Your question on the condition of the heat exchangers is a good one Steve. Most boaters I know have regular bottom cleanings that include cleaning the through hull openings, they clean the raw water strainers frequently, and annually run chemical through the system to clean it out. Even with these procedures, we often hear about plugged systems. On ours we clean the strainers when then get dirty and have never done anything else. We check for growth at the intakes when the boat is lifted but have never found any. We haven’t ever flushed the system with any flush products. I periodically check for outlet flow and it continues to look good but, other than that, I’m don’t have any other way to check system condition other than to pull a hose and have a look.
I bought a new basket last year and it would not fit in the strainer. I had to cut the top with aviation snips and fold the handle over on itself :-)
I actually thought I could think of something however, everything I thought of was either to expensive, time consuming, or something wouldn’t do myself unless I suspected a problem.
If I was looking for something quick and easy to indicate a possible problem I’d probably take a Delta T across the indoor coil while in the heating mode but I’d have to know the capacity, airflow and temperature of the inlet water for it to be a indicator.
A Delta T across the evaporator in the cooling mode outside 18-22 (Dry Bulb) degrees F would probably make me dive deeper into the system.
Neither method will tell you if your system is performing at it’s maximum efficiency however, it’s fast, easy and can indicate it’s time to look harder, especially once you’ve seen a benchmark.
I’m a big fan of preventative maintenance when it saves time or reduces equipment failure rates but, on this topic, it’s hard to know how often the HVAC cooling system needs to be cleaned. I’m convinced that many owners end up doing far more HVAC cooling system service work than needed. The challenge is knowing when service is time well spent. Your idea of using deltaTs on the system sounds like a good one but, without a baseline it’s hard to know what’s good and what isn’t.
On HVAC cooling system cleaning and raw water impeller replacement, I’ve adopted the policy of replacing or cleaning when needed on the logic that replacing or cleaning more often doesn’t make the system better or reduce costs or time investments and insufficient of either won’t reduce the system lifetime.
I do agree there are people out there that spend to much time or money on HVAC maintenance, however most generally it’s been my experience that on a properly installed unit, the power supplied, or lack of necessary maintenance is usually what kills a system.
Equipment will handle 50/60 HZ just fine, it will also handle plus or minus 10% on voltage. What it can’t handle is a phase imbalance of over 1%. That is most likely not going to be an issue on Dirona.
While I was contemplating the number of ways insufficient maintenance can shorten the life of a HVAC system I realized there one a fairly easy test that would possibly interest you.
If any of your units are drawing more than 80% of nameplate data, there is most likely a problem developing.
That’s a good idea Steve. The units are in difficult to get to places but I could fairly easily put a clamp ammeter on the power line and see what they are drawing. What I’ve been doing so far is fairly primitive in that I clean the air filters when they get dirty, clean the raw water strainer when it collects a load of growth, and generally not much else.
There really is no need to do anything else unless a problem begins to develop. Since this all started over my wondering what the condition of the condensers were, really the first indication you’d see of a problem there, is increased load on the compressor.
Once you have the nameplate data of your units, you could simply add the blower and compressor RLA and test at any easy access.
If you are showing more than 80% of the sum total, then it’s a matter of is it the blower, the compressor, a run capacitor for either, a pitted contacts or lack of efficient heat transfer due to a dirty condenser.
From the size of that strainer I’d bet that they all share a common inlet so unless you started seeing increased load on all your units I’d guess it was local to whatever unit you where testing at the time and probably not a condenser heat transfer issue.
But you’d know to keep an eye on it until you found out what it actually was.
Otherwise, no sense doing much of anything if you don’t suspect a problem. I clean a lot of condensers during the year but I don’t do it simply because I like dragging out the hoses, chemicals or pump and getting wet.
Sorry Steve, I didn’t mean to imply that condenser cleaning was a waste of time. I’m sure it’s worth doing and likely improves efficiency. I’m really just admitting we have used the heck out of them with me only cleaning the air filter and the strainer for the last 7 years. They seem to be doing fine but it’s possible that a good clean of the raw water system will help. Most folks I know take off the inlet hose, pump concentrated cleaners through, let it sit, and then bring the system back on line.
As you guessed it’s a shared inlet, strainer and pump system with the 5 HVAC units spread throughout the boat and each with it’s only outlet.
Hey James,
I took it that you really had no good way of checking the condition of the heat exchangers other than pulling the hoses and looking, which seems to me like unnecssary work if you aren’t suspecting a problem.
At first I couldn’t think of a way either until I got to thinking of how poor heat transfer effects a system and why I do many of the initial tests I perform when I walk up to a system.
Many like that 80% of nameplate by themselves don’t really tell you much, but they will indicate a necessity to dive deeper and IMHO is almost perfect for checking heat exchanger condition without pulling the hose.
It’s of course absolutely useless if the system is low on refrigerant however, you’d probably notice a lack of cooling. or my case I’d see a Delta T across a coil I didn’t like.
I’m not a big fan of chemically cleaning a heat exchanger unless it’s necessary. With Air Cooled condensers, most have a coating that it is detrimental to remove. In the case of water source equipment, in order to really clean a heat exchanger, you have to get to bare metal or you are wasting time and money. Any chemical strong enough to get to bare metal is also going to be strong enough to etch or remove soft metal. My normal “chemical” of choice is 10% muriatic acid which, over the years I’ve come up with a fairly simple plastic bucket with lid and acid pump system to contain the smell, fumes and splash hazards. It has the advantage of when done, either a couple boxes of baking soda or enough water and all you have is an inert nasty looking liquid I can flush down a toilet if necessary. It isn’t something I’d just pour in and let sit. I pump it through until it quits foaming which is an means it’s finding nothing to react with then neutralize before placing the equipment back on line.
I didn’t mean to indicate the heat exchangers on Dirona had to be cleaned. I was just trying to think of a fast easy way to see if cleaning might be something to think about.
Anyway, it looks like you are getting into position for a “Jump across the pond”, good luck and I look forward to reading about it.
Woo hoo, you are moving! It does not look like you are going to be turning right soon. North Atlantic route?
Hi Timothy. We are indeed underway bound for Savannah Georgia where we expect to be for a week or so. After that, we’ll head up to Rhode Island and our current thinking is to go directly from Rhode Island to Cork Ireland once the weather looks favorable.
The RI to Ireland route is a little over two weeks non-stop? Full bladders and plenty of peanuts?
It’ll be closer to 3 weeks at nearly 3,000 nautical miles and, yes, we’ll need at least some deck fuel for that run. We almost always run all the bladders when we use any since more fuel is option value. Either more speed or more flexibility and arriving with fuel is fine too since it’s so much cheaper here and the boat is more stable with some fuel in the tanks. More likely than not, we’ll use it and just run a bit quicker.
Enjoyed your new article in Passagemaker Magazine. Nice cover picture with Chatterbox Falls.
Hey thanks John. The location of the cover shot is Cascade Falls in Prince William Sound Alaska. It does look a lot like Chatterbox Falls but we have never seen Chatterbox without a bzillion other boats except in the winter.
Got it! You do have to be careful of camera angle when in P.L. Inlet and all the way North until past Desolation Sound. Within our Salish Sea cruising lomits Homfray Channel & Toba Inlets have been wonderfully free of boat crowds. Enjoy Savannah!
You have an incredible cruising area. One trick we have used when going to busy areas like Predeaux Haven is to go in the winter. It’s like a trip back in time. We have been alone in both Predeaux Haven and Princess Louisa in the winter. Arguably it was even more beautiful with snow covered peaks surrounding us.
The TimeZero screenshot had Bermuda and the Azores as possible waypoints but what were the other waypoints? SE of Newfoundland?
Timothy,
The yellow lines near Newfoundland are the ice pack extent in May of 2016 using the International Ice Patrol (https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=IIPHome) iceberg charts. The most current chart is at http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=iipCharts&Current.
The other waypoints are mostly from Jimmy Cornell’s World Cruising routes and are for avoiding hazards or picking up favorable conditions. The one closest to New York is to clear Nantucket Shoals and the one south of Newfoundland is to clear the Grand Banks. The two just east of Nova Scotia and south of the horizontal yellow line are for ice avoidance. If we were departing from Nova Scotia with no ice, we could continue from the Nova Scotia waypoint to the Grand Banks waypoint. Otherwise we should proceed to waypoint below the yellow line before turning eastward.
The waypoint about 350 miles north of the Azores is from Cornell’s Ocean Atlas and is for avoiding low pressure systems coming off Nova Scotia. Cornell’s recommendation there is stay south of 45N until east of 30W. And the waypoint 350 miles northeast of Bermuda is for getting as quickly into the prevailing winds as possible on a departure from Bermuda to Northern Europe.
And that yellow bar down by Florida is the Hurricane restriction line for our boat insurance. We’re not covered for named storms south of that line between July 1st and October 31st.
Jennifer
I did not realize that a straight shot was not an option. I am excited to hear more about the route planning!
Dirona’s range with deck fuel in average conditions is out at 4,000 nautical miles so 3,000 should be comfortable. But it is a long haul. The biggest concern on this trip is weather and, when you are out there for extended periods, you can chose to go at the statistically right time of year but there is really no weather report that can help. You can get a much shorter trip by leaving from further north but then one has to wait for the ice to clear. When leaving earlier, the challenge is a longer run due to ice further north and less favorable weather earlier in the year. Going even 30 days early just about guarantees some unfavorable weather on the extended run.
Hello Jennifer and James,
Have been following your journey since South Africa and have enjoyed it immensely. I live on Cape Breton Island and unfortunately just missed you at Baddeck. I see you are heading to Cork and thought you might find it interesting to visit Safe haven Marine. They are a speciality boat builder primarily focused on pilot craft. I own a 42′ Interceptor model that we used in charter fishing in NS but she now serves as my personal boat. Have a safe trip across the pond and hope to see you in the future.
The Safe Haven website shows incredible shots of their boats pounding through breaking surf. Really nice photo work and they obviously are making an incredibly tough boat. We would love to visit Safe Haven while we are in Cork. Thanks for pointing them out Marc.
As cars clearly are an interest for you and you are visiting the UK, you might be tempted to visit the Goodwood Festival of Speed. It is near Chichester in the south of England. It runs from Thursday 22 June to Sunday 24 June. It is essential to pre-book. Their website will give you an idea of what wil be there. It is impossible to cover it all in a single day – even three days would be a stretch.
That looks like fun. Particularly the hill climb with everything from F1 on down competing. We’ll probably be way north during that time of year but thanks for the pointer.
A visit is definitely one for the bucket list of any car fan. All entries are, I believe, by invitation only. They cover all eras from the earliest to the latest – including concepts. Apart from the F1 cars, the rest are very accessible and you often get the chance to talk to owners, drivers and mechanics.
Back in the 70s, if you bought the “expensive” full weekend Super Ticket at the Canadian Grand Prix for $25, it included a garage pass. You could walk around talk to Formula 1 drivers and mechanics. I loved it. Goodwood sounds like fun.
I am hoping a large provisioning post is coming soon :-) :-)
We are in pretty good shape on provisioning right now. We need to take on some groceries soon but don’t want to stock up too much due to restrictions in bringing meat products into the UK. We’ll probably pick up some groceries while here. Then head up to Savannah and spend some time there. Then we’ll do a run up to Boston and pickup what we need for the cross Atlantic run.
Daytona should be covered in bikers now.
Absolutely right! Estimates have the bike population temporarily up to 500,000 during this years Daytona Bike Week.
You need to come up with a way to comment on the recent highlights posts.
That 7 marine stuff is so hot. Not that I could ever afford it lol. The sprint cars are something I would love to see live, maybe one day.
Enjoying your journey.
Seven Marine is crazy expensive but I love the idea of using a high performance automotive engine that is sold in higher-than-marine quantities as the source of teh primary power plant. On the sprint cars, if you are interested in seeing them, the World of Outlaws tour has a stop in Canandaigua New York which isn’t far from Toronto.
Sounds like you had a busy day. Do you have to fly to VA or are you going to start planning the next leg?
We’re working on the next leg and exploring different jumping off points for a cross Atlantic run and exploring different routes to Ireland. The North Atlantic can be difficult from a weather perspective and the shorter crossing distances available further north are restricted by the ice flows brought down by the Labrador current in the spring and early summer.
So you may cruise back up the East Coast and then cut across? No Azores in Dirona’s future? It looks to be a shorter overall trip cruising up the coast and I am sure fuel will be a non-issue going that way.
That’s the current thinking although a run to the Azores and north is still in consideration as well. The run north and across is the more likely right now but we’re still working through options.
I just saw some video of the Azores in not so pleasant weather two days ago. Pretty rough waters and surge. Once you start going that way you are committed? Going North you could pick your final crossing window. Will you be using the bladders again?
Regardless of the destination we end up chosing, we probably will run fuel bladders to maximize our speed and give us as much option value as possible.
Be sure to check out Kinsale in Southern Ireland
http://www.kinsale.ie/
Great spot with a nice harbor etc
Kinsale looks beautiful. We’re really looking forward to getting across the Atlantic. We wish we could cross earlier in the year and get the new adventure started.
Edinburgh — we weren’t nuts about the Tattoo, but we loved the Fringe Festival. We are now sailing out of Bali en route to Singapore, but we are letting someone else do the provisioning and the navigating.
Hey Karen! Sailing out of Bali sounds pretty good. I’ve not been in Singapore for many years and I was only there for a short work related visit but I liked it. Try not to let the 24×7 watch schedule where you out on the way to Singapore :-).
The FBP looks an extremely well thought out series of boats from a quick look at their website. Are you tempted? I imagine there are capacity limitations at the buider and long delivery times – I think I read it is a five year wait for the smallest version.
The FPB is a super interesting design. Definitely a departure from the industry on most dimensions and some of the design points are impressively good. I really enjoyed the visit and you can’t spend time with Steve Dashew without learning. It was a super interesting day.
I understand your concern with the lead times on new boats — that’s the reality when looking at any successful builder. But there are currently 5 FPBs in the brokerage market and available without build delay. When we contracted to have Dirona built it was two years ahead of delivery mostly because we were not in a rush at the time. Dirona was actually built in only 10 months.
I’ve been watching setsail.com for almost two years. Very interesting on how they are built. Been watching mvdirona.com for just over a year. I love your eye for the sights and your a geek at heart like me. Really liked the article on your router modifications. Between this blog and the Dashews its been fun reading, watching and dreaming.
Thank You
Greetings from Ruskin – That new Amazon building is a monstor
What do you think about their argument that speed helps safety in being able to get away from weather?
There is no question that the less time you spend at sea, the safer the trip. 1 week trips have good weather visibility, 2 week trips will have poor weather when you leave, 3 week trips are a complete game of statistics. Less consecutive time at sea is a very good thing.
The second form of safety that comes from speed is routing around bad weather or out running it. I’m a bit more skeptical of the effectiveness of this defense mechanism in small boats but it is still a positive factor. Weather systems are reported to average 20 kts. The closer a boat can get to this speed, the more effective the “run from weather defense” can be. At our current ocean crossing speeds of 6.75 to 7.75 kts, this technique isn’t very effective. At 10 kts it would work much better. And, if it were possible to get close to 15 kts, the technique would be come very effective.
The short answer is, yes, I believe that speed adds safety at sea. I wouldn’t want to give up strength to gain speed but, with equally well built boats being compared, speed is safer.
Nordhavn, a FBP, imported beer and friends. We are all jealous. Just add some race cars and a few quad core processors and I would be in heaven! ;-)
100% agree Timothy. On the race car front, we’ve been at Daytona International Speedway the last 3 days and we’ll be there today for the 500. Lot’s of fun.
Tiffany and I really liked the Ranger R-31 CB but at $300K (boat show special) we decided to stick with the original longer term Nordhavn 40/43 plan. Great looking boat and some really nice features would make for a easy to handle boat!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/daleo1/albums/72157678674880952
The Rangers are incredible in their space utilization and the attention to detail. They look like very good inland and coastal cruisers but they will never cross oceans and can’t take a fraction of the weather that a N40 or N43 could take.
Hi James,
Regarding: “The tan grocery bags are Earthtote Reusable Bags from reuseit.com”
You also find big bags in two sizes at “IKEA” the Swedish furniture store (for example in Seattle).
In Germany you have to pay 0,50 € for each.
BR
Horst Brochhagen
Thanks for the Ikea tote bag tip Horst.
In Daytona for the 500 I assume?
Yes your right Steve. We’re spending the next 4 days at the speedway with the Daytona 500 on Sunday. Last weekend we went to Velusia Speedway Park to see the opening races of the World of Outlaws Sprint car series. 900 hp in 1,400 lb cars racing on a dirt track. Awesome!
Tomorrow we’ll be at Daytona Speedway to watch the Twin 125s (now called the Can Am Dual). These two races set the starting positions for Sundays race.
I was reading about the Great TV Repair of 2017. I was going to install one on the Quo Vadimus and now I’m happy I didn’t. I don’t have your patience, hour three would have started with the sound of a sawzall firing up.
What did you do as far as cable management to make sure it does not happen again? Once you had it apart was there a way to create access ports to get into it if you have to again?
If I have a tough situation like I did with TV lift, my goals is to come up with a solution so it doesn’t happen again. In this case I need two things: 1) a solution so the wire doesn’t get tangled up in the gears again, and 2) some means of servicing the lift when it gets stuck since it’s certain it’ll eventually happen again perhaps due to some other problem.
On avoiding the wire getting run over again by the gear set, I’ve shortened the wire and use a bungy to keep tension on it towards the center of the TV away from the gears. I think that one is well solved. Where I don’t have a good answer is how to make the system mroe servicable if it fails or jams up again in the down position. The recommendation from the manufacturer is to take a sawzall to the TV base/motor assembly and cut off the gears. Once that is done, the assembly can be removed and replaced. This will work in most cases but its a $2,000 solution. And, if the system fails in the very bottom position, I can’t see a way to cut the gears out. If that happens, the only solution I can come up with is 1) break the TV to get access to the bolts behind the TV or spend a day doing what I did of making special tools to remove the bolts without damaging the TV. I suppose it would aloso be possible to drill into the teak work with a hole saw but I would rather break up the TV than cut up the permanently installed teak work.
If I were intsalling one in the future, I wuold make sure that there is a provision for service without unreasonable difficulty.
You have a lot more patience than I do. Once up I would have removed the top teak, cut a set of holes in the top of the TV box for future access and then used velcro to put the teak back on top.
I hear you Timothy but pulling the top off the box only gets you access to the box that surrounds the TV. You certainly can drill through it which will get you to the TV. But, without the TV out (or broken up), the 8 screws holding the TV box to the lift platform aren’t commming out. With patience or without it don’t see a solution that doesn’t get those 8 screws out and, if the TV is in, they are not accessable from above.
Will the TV fit out the bottom of the cabinet if it was stuck in the down position (perhaps with the doors removed)? How much room do you have the mount in the back? My TV mount has two strings you can pull the will tilt the TV down to access behind the TV which would allow enough room to either unscrew the TV, unscrew the lift, or whatever you need to do. I know they also make quick release VESA mounts but I have only seen them for monitors, not large TVS, and I’m not sure how you would access the tab to release the TV.
Thanks for the ideas Drew. Unfortunately, the TV is far larger than the forward opening so it’s not comming out the front and its not possible to unscrew the TV in the down position. With modifications to the top, it might be possible to use your idea of using a quick release mount. On this model, the top cover would need to be removable as would the top of the TV box. Then it would be necessary to release the TV and lift out the top.
A variant of that approach that I like is to make the decorative top removable and then put in 6 holes in the top of the TV box to allow the 6 of the 8 screws that old the TV box in to be removed. If I only use those 6 and not the 2 under the TV, I think it probably would be possible to release the assembly using this approach. Good idea.
After a couple of beverages: I would take the teak top off, then cut the top off the tv box at the butt joints. Screw 1″ square dowels on each inside of the box of wood (and maybe a couple on the back) so the cut out top would sit back level. I would then remount the cut top with a couple counter sunk screws into each dowel. Then velcro the teak top back on the top of the box covering the hole and the “whole mess” I would have made out of the TV box. :-)
I think that would nail it. If I used 6 screws instead of 8 to hold the TV box on to the base (two are directly under the TV screen), then I think the approach you outline would work well. The only part I’m not sure about is the 2 scews under the TV but I’m about 90% they would be accessible from above through holes in the top of the box. Nice solution.
I’m just amazed in a Nordhavn, that the “thing” is manufactured in such a way as to require the destruction of something to fix the other thing. Notwithstanding your legendary resourcefulness, trying to do it in a seaway a thousand miles from anywhere means I guess you don’t have TV until you get somewhere else. :(
I largely agree — equipment installations should be designed for service. If we were to build another boat, I would ensure we had a good solution for the TV lift. The ideas below from Drew and Timothy would be ways to get my existing desig more servicable.
Because space in boats is at such a premium and boat purchases are usually made on the basis of what was “stuffed in” rather on whether or not it’s actually servicable. As a consequence, many manufacturers end up “building in” equipment. After 8,500 hours, rounding the world, and fixing just about everything that needed fixing myself, I would say that Nordhavn does pretty well by this measure when compared to other manufacturers. There will always be service tasks when you wonder how any human being can possibly service the item and these situations are super annoying but, from my perspective, there haven’t been that many on Dirona.
James
Cautionary note: I have found that bungee cords under constant tension loose their elasticity and become weak, thus losing their ‘pull’.
Maybe another entry into the maintenance schedule “check TV bungee’!
Yes, bungees do fail and so would need to be checked. I ended up shortening up the coiled cable that runs from the bottom of the TV up to the TV base where the motor is housed. This coiled cable is now pulled a bit more as it approaches the top and the coil takes up the slack as the TV goes down. This puts slightly more load on the cable and there is risk that the coil will not continue to be able to take up all the slack as the TV lowers years from now. But it looks like it’s working fairly well and the load on the coiled cable seems very small. It is likely a long term solution.
James
Can you repair the mother board?
PS Now in NZ not missing Niagara Falls winter at all!
I’ll bet you are enjoying being down in New Zealand. What a great country. Hope you get a chance to visit Fiordland.
The motherboard is technically repairable but, from my perspective, with a new board at $160, it’s not ecnomically efficient to service it.
It is interesting (but normal for you two) that you keep mobo spares. It is hard to find “new” boards like the DH77DF. Those 1155 boards support my favorite Core i7 processors and they can still hold their own after all these years. I see the fan was already on the other board. Did your flight spare already have a CPU installed?
Good eye Timothy. The board is indeed a DH77DB and the processor is a I7 3770S running at 3.1Ghz with 16GB of memory. Because the parts are fairly inexpensive and the computer is a very mission critical componnent controlling operations like generator auto-start and electrical load shedding, we have all the spares for the entire system on board. We keep them in original shipping boxes and in plastic bags so the humidity doesn’t get them. In the picture, I’ve installed a new CPU but not the memory and I’m reattaching all the cables. The CPU didn’t need changing but I swapped in the spare while changing the board and kept the old CPU as the spare.
When I ordered all the original parts, I ordered two of everything but accidentally got three motherboards. So, even though the DH77DF is no longer in production and we have had one failure, we still have 1 spare of everything including the mobo.
Welcome to Daytona Beach – your arrival brought back great memories. My mother-in-law lived in the condo’s that pass to port on your way into Halifax Harbor. Great view looking north and south on ICW. Spent many a day watching boats come and go. That was 25 years ago. Hope it is still as nice as it was then.
It is a great area but, for an ocean going trawler, there’s not much water here. Last night we saw 6’7″ and we draw 6’7″ :-). Can’t beat the scenary and the weather though.
Yes – running the ditch in FL can be “interesting”. I always feel like I’m in deep water when I see 10′ on the gauge.
Is the Great Loop completely doable with the N52? I know you have the hinged mast, but I thought the draft was too deep on the N52.
What sort of issues have you had so far, if any?
The great loop has a low bridge in Chicago that limits air draft to 19’1″. Dirona’s stack can be folded down but to do that requires a crane and every wire that runs up the stack has to have a service loop in it to allow the bend. I’m sure some don’t at this point but, technically, with a bunch of work, Dirona could slip under the bridge and technically could do the Great Loop.
The only issues so far has been thin water. We haven’t touched bottom on the ICW but have gotten close several times. If you look closely at the track, you’ll likely see we have gone back and forth looking for deeper water before continuing at a few locations. But, other than thin water and needing to time some of the bridges that only open on schedule, no issues on the ICW.
Halifax Harbor looks like a sweet spot to dock for a few days. Nothing to see but municipal buildings around there? Do you at least get a view of the smaller planes in approach? Surrounded by coastal cruisers?
Yup, we are surrounded by coastal cruisers in a very nice marina. A bit thin on water but that’s the norm in Florida. We are here for the World of Outlaws dirt track sprint car racing at Volusia and the Dayton 500. We also plan to head down to the Miami Boat show while we are here.
You continue to bring back memories James – started my “FL Career” right across from the speedway’s main entrance at GE Simulation & Control Systems – visual systems for flight simulators and US Navy ship controls. (No longer there) Big benefit of that location, spending lunch hours watching NASCAR drivers dial-in their unpainted cars in the weeks leading up to the races…for free. Could literally stand right by the fence at the finish line. Amazing view. The twin qualifier races are always exciting.
BTW – if you are going to continuing south on the ICW, there is a gentleman on activeCaptain who goes by the handle Bob423. He’s in a 42′ Beneteau sailboat who does extensive exploration and writing about what he finds along the way. Here is his blog – http://fleetwing.blogspot.com/
” Cruising Tips” on the left side could be of interest including downloadable tracks from his trip south this year. He weather Hurricane Matthew at St James Marina, NC so his data is very recent.
It sounds like you Daytona Beach job was an ideal work location. Access to the beach, great weather, and walking distance to Daytona International Raceway. Kind of cool.
Thanks for the tip for going further south on the ICW. Our current plans are to head north again after Daytona Beach. On this trip, we’ll probably run offshore and head to somewhere in the Boston to Newfoundland area. We’re not sure exactly where at this point, wherever it is, that will be our jumping off point to head to Northern Europe.
Are you going to be able to check out Cochise while you are there? Curious as to your thoughts on the FPB brand. I believe the Dashew’s are around Ft.Lauderdale.
Yes, we do plan to visit Cochise while here. After spending a really educational day at Circa Marina, the yard in New Zealand where FPBs are built, we’re looking forward to seeing the finished product.
I saw Bill’s post on his blog about the trip; looks like you had a great day on the water (for a FPB) to check her out. The only concern I think I would have on the design would be when piloting in the flybridge helm with a low angle sun; was there a lot of glare coming off the solar panels? You probably didn’t encounter the condition but I wonder if it was mentioned. I know a lot of the design characteristics you are enthusiastic about on Dirona runs in contrast on Steve’s boats (single & wing vs. twins, wet vs. dry exhaust, etc.) so I’m curious to hear if anything in your mind has changed.
Have fun this weekend; looks like Daytona is heating up to be quite the spectacle!
It’s great to see Bill Paralatore back writing. He created Passagemaker Magazine and is now publishing a boating related blog: https://www.followingseas.media/blog/.
Drew, you are right that we have a single engine rather than a twins and dry exhaust rather than wet but I’m not stuck on either. In fact, on larger boats, I’m hard over in preferring twins. On smaller boats like Dirona, I still would really prefer twin engines but their our some negatives. Twins take more space. On larger boats, who cares? But in smaller boats, you need to give up some fuel tank space to go with twins and twins are just a tiny, tiny amount less efficient. The net is in smaller boats like Dirona where there are space constraints, I prefer a single engine to get more range. On larger boats with ample fuel supplies, I would always chose twins. I’m not sure where the line is but likely up around 60 to 65 would have us able to get the range we want with the advantages of twin engines and that would be the direction we would go. But, as much as I like twins, I won’t give up range to squeeze in another engine. We much prefer twin engines if they can be had without range penalty.
The wet exhaust vs dry stack conversation is much more complex. Both have advantages and disadvantages and I’m comfortable with the disadvantages of either. We would be perfectly happy with either. If forced to make that decision again for Dirona and there was no difference in cost between the two, I might slightly lean towards wet but its a very slight leaning and it wouldn’t impact a buying decision for us.
The FPB was really fun. We were out in 25 to 30 kts of wind and the boat was dry and comfortable. We’ll write up the experience in a blog but a short summary of what I found most notable was: 1) speed. The boat is comfortable well over 10 kts and we were often up over 13kts, 2) tracking. Steve left me on the helm while he took pictures entering the Fort Lauderdale channel and it took almost no helm input to keep Cochise running mid channel, 3) comfort at sea. We were out in medium chop and the boat was stable even when left in neutral and just allowed to drift and find it’s own place in the swell as we ate lunch. It’s a surprisingly stable platform.
Steve Dashew has little respect for design Dogma. He loves to challenge long held industry beliefs, he’s never afraid to abandon “what has always been done” when there is a better solution possible, and he’s always exploring what works and what doesn’t. Time on one of his boats is always educational. It was a super fun day.
James,
I noticed you said Dirona draws 6’7″. The Nordhavn website says the 52 draws 5’11”. Does Dirona have a different hull configuration? (or is it just all the extra electronics weighing it down ;))
We live on Dirona and have no house or storage box so there is no question Dirona is carrying a lot. We also have a massive number of spares further increasing our load. Our anchor is on the high side of average and we carry a 100′ more chain than standard and all of it is slightly heavier. Thereis no question, we are on the high side of average and it wouldn’t surprise me if we were the heaviest of the entire 47/52 series.
However, even with all those caveats, given that we weight more than 110,000 lbs, I suspect the 90,000 lbs and 5′ 11″ draft spec for the N52 is optimistic.
Florida, woo hoo! Are you on a mooring in St. Augustine? There was a loaded 40′ Nordhavn named Chinatsu Tiffany and I got to see last March. This 55′ in Brunswick must have been the next their next boat!
We are on anchor in a nice little spot with a great view of town. We’ll probably head in tomorrow to explore a bit.
I just got the last nagging issue fixed on my open source router project so I’m in good spirts. The last issue was completely unrelated to the router — the nav computer NIC was dropping massive numbers of packets when under load. Changed it and all is rock solid and throughput is excellent. We now have a Netgear R7000 running DD-WRT serving the boat. In this configuration we have 3 WAN ports so WiFi, Cell, and the KVH V7 satelite connection are always there and always available. We have a mobile app that allows switching between any of the three and we’ll later implement automatic fail-over between them.
I am always so impressed that you and Jennifer can do so much of your own software and hardware customization and upgrades. From NMEA to networking to communications you always have the latest and most robust systems and equipment on a personal yacht. I hope someday you write a book on preparation and provisioning for powerboat ocean crossings and include a bunch of chapters on all that you do.
Thanks Timothy. After writing one book (https://www.amazon.com/Waggoner-Cruising-Guides-Secret-Coast/dp/0935727299) our conclusion is books just aren’t the best approach to communicate broadly these days. We now end investing deeply in the blog and pretty much all we write will end up there. We still feel just as passionately about sharing what we have seen and learned but the web site seems like the most effective way of doing it. More people read the web site than will end up seeing The Secret Coast.
Good news about the open source router.
Couple of questions:
(1) What is an “NIC”?
(2) What happens when you are away from the boat and there is no cellphone connection, either at the boat or at your location? One of the reasons I am hoping to use Iridium is the global coverage. With a fixed satphone on the boat and a portable one in my pocket I am hoping that I will always get the message if the boat shouts for help. Of course there are costs involved in having two satphones but it still looks like the best option for us. Even in the UK we have found ourselves at anchor with no cellphone connection on the boat, and when we go hiking we are often outside cell coverage. Does my approach make sense to you?
That’s the approach we take: keep the boat connected rather than trying to have the boat monitoring system connected on a dedicated system. Our connction choices are WiFi, Cell, or Satelite. The plan works as long as the satelite system you are using can provide general IP connectivity just as you get with WiFi. This is what we get form our KVH V7 mini-VSAT system. Our Iridium system doesn’t provide general IP connectivity and instead provides a restricted, very low speed link where only their special email system can connected. This won’t easily work for your application but any system that allows systems on your network to send email will work fine in your application.
You were asking about Iridium. We don’t have a fixed mounted iridium system which might offer direct ethernet connectivity but the base station based Iridium systems might. You need something where you can set up the system and leave the boat with it staying connected and your boat lan on the internet and able to send email. Easy to do with WiFi, Cellular, and our V7 sat system.
A NIC is a Network Interface Card. This is what computers use to connect to ethernet or Wifi. A better name is a network controller since the network interace card is seldom a PCIe plugged add-in card these days. It’s usually just components on the computer motherboard. The computers attachment to the boat network wheether wired or wireless if often called a NIC.
I see you rode the GA/FL border for a bit. Submarines across the way?
Yes, you can see the buildings of Kings Bay Submarine base from where we are anchored. We took the tender over there and took some pictures but the light was poor and Navy security maintains a fairly wide exclusion zone so the general public can’t get much closer than the ICW channel that passes the base. We would love to see a big Boomer escorted in or out but there have been no movements during our stay in the area. However, we did go the Submarine Museum in nearby St. Marys.
I have never had a USCG inspection while underway. Did they call you on the radio as they approached and tell you to continue at the same speed? I assume they had no issues with Dirona.
It’s the only time we have been boarded while underway. Once before we were inspected in the Seattle area at anchor. The only other boarding was in Australia and it was again at anchor.
In this case they radioed us and asked when we were last boarded and send they wanted to put a crew on board. I asked if they wanted us to pull off the channel and they said they would just do it where we were in the channel and underway. As you can see from the video they managed to do this without even touching our boat.
As you guessed Timothy, no issues were found.
Hello James,
Does your camera when looking backwards give a “mirror” view?
That was rather confusing as it looked like they were running up your port side and yet they appeared to board on your starboard. Same thing on the pickup.
Yeah, I thought the same thing about the video transitions Steven. The reason the camera is set up as a mirror view is for boat operation. We could reverse the view when editing the movie but then the on-screen time stamps are reversed as well since they are put on by the camera.
I’m not 100% sure that the mirrored view really is the best view for docking. It seemed slightly more intuitive when I installed the camera but not fundamentally better. I’ll try changing the camera to non-mirrored and see how that works from the helm. It actually might be the better choice.
I would be curios if you like the normal camera view for docking. I added a regular HD camera when I did the engine cameras and the electronics upgrade. I have only backed in once so far and my brain was ok processing the view. The reverse image cameras from Raytheon and Garmin are $400-$500 on Amazon and a lower resolution but with a small 10″ monitor ( https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8601/30420668626_3c321c2cbe_h.jpg ) it probably would not be much a difference. Does Dirona have full res cameras and does it matter?
Yes, these are 4 megapixel cameras so the available resolution is pretty good. They can be configured to show standard view or mirror view so changing that is easy. In my initial testing, the mirror imaged seemed more intuitive but I’ve switched back to standard for a while and we’ll see how I like it.
I haven’t had the cameras long enough to be able to recommend them but the resolution is great and they are fairly inexpensive at only $75: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010LH48F4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I am very excited to see your post about the new Netgear router which can connect via WiFi, Cell, or Satellite. Do you think the same hardwear and software would enable connection via Iridium instead of mini Vsat if a suitable interface with Iridium is available? As you may have noticed from the Owners Group there are some owners who are wondering if a boat monitoring system can be built which uses Iridium when that is the only connection available.
Our approach to alarming and reporting of alarms via email is exaclty the one you are contemplating. Peter Hayden mentioned the same things: rather than buying an alarming systems that needs a dedicated connection, why not just use the connection already on the boat? That is exactly what we do. Before leaving the boat for an extended period, we make sure the boat is well connected so we get any and all alerts.
That approach works fine and requires no special hardware. The downside is you have to remember to do it and it takes time.
We would like to make it super easy to switch connections and potentially even automating the switching of connections. The platform we are experimenting with is a Netgear R7000 router running an open source protocol stack called DD-WRT with custom routing in support of mulitple concurrent external (WAN) connections. This configuration does allow quick manual switching of external connectivity and it would support Iridium as well as it supports our WiFi, Cell, and KVH mini-VSAT.
The good news is that the approach we are working with does indeed achieve those goals. The downside is there are connection drops every few hours and faults when network taffic levels are high. However, it works so well in achieving our multi-WAN goals that we are willing to put up with some other issues. And the more we like it, the more we invest in finding solutions to the stability issues or at least better understanding them. It’s a work in progress.
This is excellent – if you are willing to share your thoughts as you make progress I’m sure there will be many who want to follow your lead. I am going to concentrate on two things. First, I want to follow the Pendana II experiment from the Owners Group using Z-Wave for sensors, WiFi matrix, and controller. My motive here is that I don’t want to pull wires through our 12 year old boat. I’d rather replace small batteries in sensors once or twice a year. I already do that with our smoke and CO alarms. Then I need to find the right Iridium interface. Our boat already has an Iridium antenna. The reason I want to use Iridium is cost, and there will be others with the same motive, but there will be some who will prefer Iridium because they want guaranteed global coverage for remote monitoring. Just to make it clear, I am not in this for business. I just want to find something that works for our boat and I’m happy to share if I succeed. BTW the Pendana II system uses a Peplink router but he sounds less than happy about it. Let’s hope your Netgear+DD-WRT combination can be made to work reliably.
The folks from Technomadia (http://www.technomadia.com/) have a very detailed site about this sort of thing; here is the link https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/. The are currently testing mobile routers which would use mobile WiFi (or MiFi as they call it) when available, then switch to various cell phone providers (since they are RV focused (although they are boat shopping now)) but I don’t see why it couldn’t interface with any type or mini-VSAT or whatever with an Ethernet cord. Just thought you might be interested in their research into mobile routers and cell boosting antennas. I just started reading through their site so I am still learning a lot.
Thanks Drew. You are right that what they have done with their commercial product is a good part of what I want. What I’m trying to do is essentially what the the developers of the product you reference have done. Peplink is another leader that does much the same things (and a lot more). Arguably I should just use a commercial product but I’ve gotten interested in figuring this one out.
Unfortunately, I’m learning that one of the reasons these mulit-way commercial products are so expensive is it requires a fair amount of understanding and work to get it all figured out. I’ve not given up yet but have to admit that what I have built really isn’t (yet) a great solution.
James:
Communication question: Do you use an Internationa; SIM card for your mobile phone? If so which one?
Many thanks
Hi Rod. We’ve never come across an International SIM deal that is as inexpensive and fast as getting a local SIM. Most have data more expensive than local. Some only work at 2G. The upside of international SIMs is you don’t have to go in and get a SIM but, in all locations we have been, that’s just 5 or 10 min and that’s has been our approach so far. I’m told that you can’t get a SIM in some countries in Europe without a local address. The only place where we have seen that restriction was Australia and they were OK with us using the Marina.
In the countries we have visited thus far, using local SIMs has been the better choice. We’ll learn about Europe next year.
Are you about ready to make the Georgia run?
The weather is looking good to leave tomorrow early morning (1/25) and that’s the current plan.
It looks like a 100 mile trip down there. 14 hours total maybe with the current against you?
The route we plan is 89 nm. We figure we should be able to average 7 kts. Some sections are shallow with shifty shoals so we’ll need to be careful and slow through those sections but 7 kts seems reasonable. Figure about 13 hours. We would like to get in before nightfall so we’ll need to use very early, run a bit faster, or both.
I forgot to set GE back to nm. I should caught that ;-) I look forward to seeing you on the move again. I hope you, Jennifer and Spitfire are doing well. More submarine visits in your future?
I have not immediate plans for submarine visits but we always take every opportunity we can get. However, while down in Daytona, we hope to catch up with Michael who was responsible for me gettig the opportunity to spend some time on the USS California.
We should be underway just shortly past 5am tomorrow.
It looks like you got an earlier start than expected? Safe travels in the final leg!
Yes, we decided to leave early to have some time to pick up a load of fuel when we arrive. We’re down to 340 gallons at this point having not filled since we arrived back into the US back in September. It’s amazing how long a tank can last.
We set the alarm for 3:50 this morning and, hard to believe, but we were underway at 3:59 :-)
Great move on leaving earlier than planned. It looks like you are just about there. Safe docking at the Landing and for a clean full fueling for Dirona!
We got into the marina at 3:30 and finished fueling at 5pm so it worked out well. Nothing says “flexibility” better than 1,750 gallons of diesel.
Well, I hope you are in a good spot the bad stuff seems to be all over you two right now.
You’re so right Steven. We have seen several massive electrical storms and seen wind gusts to 31. We have a nice tucked away anchorage in Hilton Head NC that is working out great. Our plan is to do the 1 day trip to Brunswick GA in the gap between this weather system and the next.
James, a friend recently turned me on to your site, and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading about your adventures around the world. Charleston is an amazing place, and I hope you enjoyed your recent time there. As you make your way south, I thought I would suggest my favorite place in all of the country, Cumberland Island, Georgia. You may have seen it already, but if not, I can’t suggest it enough. The King’s Bay naval submarine base is right across the intracoastal as well.
Happy traveling and thank you for sharing pictures and information from your journey.
Thanks for the tip on Cumberland Island and King’s Bay Spence.
That section of the dock sure did get crowded. I guess it is to be expected since that area is still good for boating even in the winter. However I did not expect to see it so crowed all the time.
Yes, the marina is super busy and there are boats comming and going all the time. Just a bit further north, the season was over but here in Charleston there is a lot of activity.
Hello James,
Glad to see you two are enjoying Charleston.
I have to ask as I’ve been wondering about it for sometime. I’ve read a lot about putting exhaust socks on for various reasons (all of which make perfect sense), but I’ve always wondered why people didn’t simply install a rain cap?
http://www.simplyfilter.com/89460c-nelson-global-products-exhaust-accessories-p/89460c.htm
I’m sure there is a reason, I just can’t figure out what it is. They seem to work well for construction equipment, over the road truckers and we even had them (just bigger) inside the exhaust stack on my ship during my Navy time.
Is there an advantage I don’t grasp with a sock you have to put on and take off over something that’s automatic? I’ve used the “flappers” and even a tin can with a rock on farm equipment all my life and never had a problem with water rusting an exhaust.
Obviously you’d want something better looking than a tin can but some of the automatic rain caps are rather nice looking and well made.
I share your curiosity on the topic and, like you, I’m super interested in simple solutions that can be automated. In asking boat builders, why not just put a flap on the exhuast as used in construction equipment, I’m told the noise of the flap touching down at lower engine speeds. If you go to a construction site and watch equipeent that is near idle, you’ll see the exhaust flap is way low and bouncing off the pipe in a distictive clacking/dinging noise. Boats spend a lot of their time at low engine speeds so this is reported to be a problem.
A secondary concern is binding up due to weather and lack of use on a recretional boat. I find myself thinking that the issue of noise and binding up can be solved using thoughtfull engineering and modern composits. For example, a carbon fiber flap would be quiet.
Another approach that is far from perfect but still fairly effective is to angle the pipe out and cut the end such that rain has to be considerably off verticle to go down the pipe. Some will dribble around and this is dealt with by putting 3 cuts in the bottom of the pipe right near the opening so any that does make into the pipe, still leak out. This technique is deployed on Dirona and seems to work fairly well.
My focus then swung around to “is it really needed?” The fact that fisheran and commercial boats use tin cans suggests that it is worth doing but I just did nothing for 4 years and it never accumulated measurable water at the drain and rarely sooted the decks. We’ve seen torential rains and not found anything measureable in the pipe but it’s clear that, in worst case conditions, it would fill the exhuast so we have started to cover the end of the exhaust when the boat sits for a while.
I’m naturally curious so I’ve experimeneted a lot with when it soots and when it doesn’t. Sometimes, when covered, it still drops some soot. Usually when covered, it does not. If run hard for 10 to 30 seconds before stopping and then covered, it almost never leaves any soot. When just covered but not run hard, it’s improved by seems more likely to sooting.
My conclusions: 1) enigineering a flapper that is not annoying would take some work and experimentation but it certainly looks like a solvable problem (sooting is just not a bad enough problem for me to go after it at this point), 2) running hard before stopping to clear the pipes makes a big difference, 3) avoiding rain or condensation in the pipe, makes a very big difference, and 4) there is risk that a monsoon could fill the engine (unlikely given exhaust opening design but the downside is sufficient large that it’s probably worth covering the exhuast).
I have to admit I never thought about the noise when the engine is at idle, and yes I have known them to stick in the open position on equipment that doesn’t get used much.
Soot when burning fossil fuels is always a byproduct of inefficient combustion so your practice of running up the engines is going to deal with that whereas a rain cap or sock will have no effect on that particular problem.
Anyway thanks for the answer.
I can always find your boat by those gray sat domes now. :)
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You went on anchor for awhile. Can you elaborate on what was up?
I see you are right. Even though we have moved further down the dock, we are still visible in the marina web cam.
We didn’t head out to anchor. Just did a quick loop from the head of the dock to the new position further down. We were scheduled to leave the middle of last week but we are enjoying it here and requested to stay longer and the location for the remainder of our stay is down the dock a ways.
I’ve been scouring your blog to try and see what Dirona’s flybridge instrumentation looks like. I found a reference to a Maretron DSM250 monitor (//mvdirona.com/2016/09/maretron-n2kview-on-dirona/) but nothing else seems to have been mentioned. I know you use Maxsea a lot for planning and also for displaying ARPA targets (//mvdirona.com/trips/boston2016/boston1.html?bleat=6%2F12%2F2016%3A+ARPA) and I wonder whether you have a VDU on the flybridge that repeats the Maxsea information, or do you have a flybridge plotter that can switch to a Maxsea view? My reason for asking is that we have to refit our N40 instruments this year and I’m finding it hard to decide what to put on the flybridge.
Hi Michael. Down below in the PH, we run a navigation computer with 2 19″ displays with Maxsea and Furuno MFDBB also with 2 19″ displays. We also have 2 pilots and 2 VHF radios.
Our equipment in the flybridge can be seen here: //mvdirona.com/blog/content/binary/Dirona_Flybridge_Helm_IMG_3464.web.jpg.
We have a Furuno MFD8 to display the Furuno Chart plotter and RADAR data. We have the DSM250 to show the Maretron NMEA2000 data but we now mostly use an Android system running n2kview and display the same screen up top as we have down below. Up top we have 1 VHF radio and a remote for one of the radios down below so we have two VHFs up top as well. There is a remote head for the autopilot as well and it can control whichever pilot we are currently using. We sometimes use an Android device displaying Google Earth (if there are no charts) or Navionics charts (augmenting the CMAP charts we also use) up top as well.
Generally we only use the flybridge helm for 1) when entering dangerous waters such as uncharted reefs where the visibility from higher up gives a better view into the water, 2) in beautiful areas when we’re sightseeing near to shore such as in Alaska along the glaciers, and 3) on really nice days where we just want to enjoy being outside or even a meal underway up top.
Thanks James. I didn’t know that Furuno Chart Plotters could output their screen displays to non-Furuno screens. That’s not something the Furuno dealer is likely to suggest! But the message seems to be that you can access all your data from the flybridge one way or another, just not in quite the same way as you do in the Pilot House. I guess the DSM250 can only show a fraction of what’s on the 19″ Maretron “Under Way” display your regular readers are familiar with.
Right. The DSM250 can only show 4 data points so it’s only a tiny subset of the data shown on the other display. But I have Android devices running Maretron N2kview that show all the data that is down below and I often just bring this up to be able to show all the same data. We still use and like the Maretron DSM displays. I use a DSM150 to show the 4 tank levels in the engine room when for use when I tranfer fuel. I have a DSM250 on the aft helm and another at the PH. And we have a DSM150 showing inverter and generator draw and some warning lights in the galley.
The Furuno MFDBB is a black box version of the Furuno MFD that displays on standard screens. In our case I have 2 19″ displays showing the Furuno data. For screens we use Lenovo 19″ displays. Up top on the FB we use an MFD8 to display the data directly on a built in Furuno display.
We repeat any one of the 4 screens in the pilot house (2 displaying nav pc data and 2 displaying Furuno MFDBB data) down to the Salon and to the MSR. This allows us to have access to all the PH data in the salon or MSR. Normally this display is repeating the N2kview screen but sometimes it’ll be on chart plotter or RADAR.
Looks like snow coming your way. I was looking back at past posts, most of the voyage has been in nice to exceedingly hot weather. You had some cold days in Baltimore. Is this the first real snow you’ll have on Dirona?
Yes, we have seen snow on Dirona in the past. This one is from back in 2012 and you can see a cat on a nearby boat out exploring the layer of snow: //mvdirona.com/2012/01/more-snow-and-freezing-rain/
The snow predicted for later today will be the first we have seen on Dirona since 2012.
Hope you made out OK, I see that the weather got really cold there. Love the tour of Charleston that you’ve been on. We were there 18 months ago and had a great time. I’m guessing the Bay Street Biergarten is different in January, when we were there the courtyard was full of people playing games.
Stay warm!
We managed to get the Beirgarten while it was stil warm so we ate outside and every table was in use. You wouldn’t do that today though :-).
The original Yorktown was actually sunk during the “Battle of Midway”
:)
This Yorktown in Charleston is safe from sinking. The water line goes up and down as the tide comes in and out which strongly suggests that it’s actually on the bottom at least on lower tides :-).
Hello James,
Well, from your personal tracking I’d say you two cram a lot of sightseeing in on your visits to various towns.
I do hope it’s not really that accurate though, if it is you either walk a lot on the freeway, or drive a lot on the sidewalks. :)
Steven, we try hard to walk on the sidewalks and drive on the freeway rather than the opposite but, hey, when in Rome, do as the Romans :-).
The track you were looking at does actually have an explaination. It’s us riding our bikes all over town. The freeway bridge has a 1 lane protected area for pedestrians and bikers so it’s not as dangerous as it looks. Our routes throughout the parks and town were a combination of city streets and walking/riding paths.
Nice shots of the Market Pavilion, which we enjoyed too. Although I was a bit anxious about falling into the pool after a couple of their delicious cocktails.
Yes, totally. We loved the view and ambiance from the Pavillion Bar on top of the Market Pavilion. We felt kind of lucky to even find it. As we were riding our bikes into the downtown area I just happened to look up and notice the roof top resteraunt. Jen’s instant answer was “that’s where I’m going!” We had a great time.
Took a screenshot from the webcam at the dock. Was way bigger then the snapshot you get from that camera.
Hope the new year brings you many more great stories to share.
Keep Floating!! :)
Forgot to add the link. ;(
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Looks great! Thanks Tim.
What better way to bring in the New Year than cruising! Fantastic. Have a great 2017 James Jennifer and Spitfire and thanks again for letting us share in the journey.
Jamie
Happy New Year Jamie! We’re not on the dock in Charleston South Carolina and looking forward to starting 2017 exploring the area.
James and Jennifer
Best wishes for 2017 and may you contnue to have calm seas and warm(er) weather!
Looking at the photo of the Maretron display: Why the discepancy of the non-operating wing engine temp, 94.7F and the engine room temp of 91.4F?
Thanks Rod and best wishes for you in 2017 as well. You were asking why the Wing engine is 95F whereas the engine room is only 91F. The snapshot you are looking at was taken at 7:54AM and we left the anchorage at 5:20 this morning. When leaving the wing engine was running to drive the hydraulics to run the anchor windlass. Technically the hydraulics can be run on either the wing or main engines but, when docking, undocking, or lifting/dropping anchor we use the wing engine since the main engine is usually idling under these conditions and won’t be moving enough hydraulic oil for full power hydraulic operation. Running the wing ensures it’s well excercised and tested daily so we know it’ll be there when we need it and, even using it this frequently, we still only put 75 to 150 hours on the wing engine each year so it doesn’t change oil change frequency.
The reason the wing is still warmer than the ER is it was hard at work 2 1/2 hours earlier and was still cooling down. Normally the wing engine is actually a bit colder than the engine room since I measure ER temp right over the main engine at the hottest part of the engine room whereas the wing is right at the air inflow point and it’s usually a few degrees cooler than the rest of the ER.
That was a strong weather system you sat out! We hit it on an eastbound flight from Nassau to London overnight Thursday/Friday – the turbulence was so bad at one stage that the cabin crew had to strap in. Not the worst I’ve known but very bumpy with lots of wind shear.
I don’t doubt it was rough flying over top of that storm system. Even down here at sea level we were seeing gusts to 38 kts. Even though there is close to no fetch in the anchorage, at one point there were 2′ waves rolling through. Big enough that we decided we needed to pick up the tender.
It’s amazing that 12 hours later, we’re out in open water with 10 kts of wind and only a foot or so of swell.
As we get closer to the New Year where did you think you be when the ball falls?
This might be it Timothy: Cape Lookout North Carolina. Current weather reports has the wind kicking up so we’ll likely stay here for a while. Our next destination is Charlestown SC and we plan to start heading there once the weather system works it’s way through. The current report suggests we might be here on New Year eve.
What a cool route you took down there. Some places look only a couple hundred feet wide! Last time you were there you were really active with the tender. Any side trips planned since you will be there a few days?
Yes, the route south was a lot of fun. It’s affectionately known as “the ditch” and it’s both narrow and shallow. We really enjoy river runs and the intercoastal waterway is a lot like a river with lots of changes of scenery and many population centers. I think in the primary season, we probably wouldn’t enjoy all the crowds but it’s great in the off season.
We draw 6’7″ and t