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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.