Dave: Kathleen and John Douglas made the same journey two or so years ago. They have a 50 ft. Seahorse Marine Diesel Duck Sedan. You can get details of their experience at https://roundtopdr.wordpress.com/2015/07/ or Google M/Y Laysan. Asrar Zubair -----Original Message----- From: Passagemaking-Under-Power [mailto:passagemaking-bounces@lists.trawlering.com] On Behalf Of passagemaking-request@lists.trawlering.com Sent: Friday, August 04, 2017 9:00 AM To: passagemaking@lists.trawlering.com Subject: Passagemaking-Under-Power Digest, Vol 117, Issue 1 Send Passagemaking-Under-Power mailing list submissions to passagemaking@lists.trawlering.com To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.trawlering.com/mailman/listinfo/passagemaking_lists.trawlering. com or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to passagemaking-request@lists.trawlering.com You can reach the person managing the list at passagemaking-owner@lists.trawlering.com When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Passagemaking-Under-Power digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Swan Song (Dave Cooper) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2017 09:36:59 -0400 From: Dave Cooper <villadecoop@gmail.com> To: passagemaking@lists.trawlering.com Subject: [PUP] Swan Song Message-ID: <CANF4GrbBMs0KVxZifn97U8VtG2eTzuo8_MSE9Y0Pk=be4Zxj6w@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Long but could be interesting. Swan Song is now in the Long Beach Area after a 2800nm passage from Honolulu. Up wind, up wave and up current! Weather forecast's were way under the actual wind/seas that we encountered on the passage. The HNL LAX rhumb line passage isn't one that any sailboat makes and that few non-commercial powerboats due either. Swan Song is a single engine vessel with no backup which makes the number of sister ships that have made this passage drop to very low numbers. We couldn't find nor anyone on either end that could come up with a private recreational vessel that has done this run. Must be someone out there and if you know them please let me know as I'd like to salute them and compare notes. Biggest issue was trash. We were stopped 5 times with trash in the prop/rudder. Running 24/7 there's 12 hours of darkness and with big head seas you can't even see the trash in daylight till its on the wave in front of you. We were roughly 500 miles south of the Gyre so hadn't expected so much trash. In 2008 coming from Cabo San Lucas to HNL we never saw virtually anything nor caught anything on the prop/rudder. This time there were thousands of pieces that went by us. Swan Song's prop and rudder are behind and above her keel. I can't imagine how many more items a twin prop rudder system would pick up but it sure would be more than Swan Song's configuration. Even a setup with a offset 'get home engine/prop' would get fouled and given the size of the trash more than likely would be made unserviceable from a bent prop/shaft/strut. We have an onboard air system that is specifically set up with a dive air system on hose(s). My experience using tanks offshore in a seaway puts you at increased risk as the tank(s)s/BC add way to much bulk and weight. When the boat is going up and down many feet on each wave the danger of getting disabled by not moving with the boat is high. Being able to wedge yourself under the boat and become part of the movement add a huge safety factor, IMHO. In any case we had a bad wrap @ 2150 one night and had to shut the boat down as the 8" line cutter didn't have a chance. ART, Swan Song's zero speed stabilization system, which works all the time. so . Underway or sitting beam to a sea makes no difference in it's operation. Up/down or pitching are still happening but rolling is well under control ;-) The wrap turned out to be about 15' of 1 3/4" high modulus line woven into netting all trailing behind. Pete lost the coin toss, suited up and went down with my 'Hook Knife' He managed to cut the line free with a couple pulls of this incredible knife and then unwrap it all. We pulled it aboard as his souvenir and so that folks can just see what you might have to deal with. Any case, I think that an onboard air system is something that all passagemakers need to seriously consider as the world's oceans get more and more trash. Doesn't matter how many engines/props/rudders you have they will get fouled and you will have to clear them sooner or later. We had two powertrain issues. one was the front seal in the transmission started leaking badly. 3 qts a day so we fashioned a catch tray and were able to capture most of it and return it to the transmission. The 2nd issue was a blown diaphragm on the fuel pressure sending unit. It managed to spray several gallons of diesel about before I saw it and shut down the engine to repair it. A mess but was all cleaned up and underway in a couple of hours...again ART steadies the roll so that working in the engine room with tools isn't a worry I have a policy of shutting down the engine at noon every day and doing a close detailed inspection of fluids, belts and all other parts. Before shut down the IR gun is swiped over the engine to make sure there are no unusual 'hot spots'. Over my many years I've found that this shut down along with the hourly visual engine room scans allows one to keep ahead of surprises in general. 2800 nm 18 days 1200 gal of fuel used! Not bad for a 100,000+ 60' trawler ;-) Swan Song is for sale(BST) but if she doesn't sell by October in California we're heading south to Cabo San Lucas and then on down the coast to the Panama Canal. Then into the Caribbean and who know's from there?? Florida, Cuba or the British Virgin Islands..... can't let her sit around too long as she was built to be off the dock and on the sea not a dock queen ;-) ------------------------------ Subject: Digest Footer _______________________________________________ Passagemaking-Under-Power Mailing List ------------------------------ End of Passagemaking-Under-Power Digest, Vol 117, Issue 1 *********************************************************