Date: Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:06:32 -1000 From: "Dave Cooper" <swansong@gmn-usa.com> Swan Song is now in Honolulu, Hawaii having completed our cruise and passage from Venezuela to Hawaii. Much of it was "hurry up" cruising but we did have a chance to stop in many out of the way places as we usually do. Anchorages where few have been and there isn't another boat in many miles. The total distance traveled since Nov 1st was just shy of 8000 nm. Swan Song and its systems performed better than I'd hoped and let me relax more than anticipated. Swan Song is a 1975 Taiwan built boat and the Detroit Diesel is original and never had the head or pan off. So I guess one could say that there is a lot of goodness out there in older boats. No reason to shy away from them just because of age ;-) We encountered flat calms and seas/winds a bit bigger than desired. Seas to 25' (my crew a Hawaii veteran swears they were 30') with steady trade winds of 30-35 kts gave Swan Song a real test. Nothing in the boats structure worked, no bulkheads, no drawers or doors that didn't open as always, etc. 2 days of dead on the nose westerlies out of Cabo San Lucas tested our water tightness and also our teeth. About 50 hours of steep 8-12 ft head seas made for slow going but again showed Swan Song to be very solid boat. ~2650 miles was the long leg from Cabo to Honolulu. We used a little over a 1000 gals and arrived with 700+ in the tanks so fuel management turned out to be a non-issue. We carried our 1500 lb 15' tender up on the boat deck and she remained firmly attached for the entire passage. Lots of folks have asked us how our anti roll tank, aka ART, performed. My crew said it was absolutely amazing. He would not have believed it if someone told him. An example is that we shut down once a day to check fluids in the engine/transmission. As most trawlers do Swan Song comes beam to the wind and seas when she loses way. So each day when we stopped we would sit parallel to the seas. ART just keeps on working and SS sits without rolling as the waves pass under us. Works as well in the small seas in the middle of the passage as well as the large ones at both ends of the passage. Underway it keeps most of the rolling under 5 degrees with an occasional roll towards 10 or so. The largest roll was a braking wave that hit us broadside just about 10 hours from Hawaii. Perhaps a 30 degree roll but I don't think any type of stabilization other than a Sikorsky heavy lift could help with those types of waves. The largest following wave stood us on our end with a pitch angle of perhaps 50-60 degrees. Looking almost straight down to the bottom. One wave that slapped the stern hard as it broke on us. No green water aboard at any time fore, beam or over the stern. However we did have quite a bit of sea foam from some of the tops so we weren't dry out on the decks for sure! We did have our drogue rigged and at the ready to deploy and we came close to doing so but the cross seas settled down about 8 miles from Koko head and we just kept surfing down wind down wave till the lee of Diamond head. Several items of note: No fuel filter changes were required. I'm running on the same Gulf Coast filter installed in Panama 5000 miles ago! The alternator belts that drive our 250 amp 28 volt alternator were changed in La Paz, Mx. This alternator runs everything when the main engine is on. The genset never ran for the entire passage. As such the alternator runs the AC units, the deep freeze, fridges, hot water heater, all house loads, etc, etc. The belts are still in very good shape after 500 odd engine hours. The alternator can pull up to 7kw so these belts are really carrying mucho HP yet still last.....Gates Predators....don't leave the dock without them ;-) We broke the crock pot. Never use it to store the glass lid ;-) The stbd side bilge hose allows water to override the loop in really big seas on the starboard side. The loop is 3 1/2 ft above the static waterline but that's obviously not high enough! Household fridge, freezer, all the AC units, the watermaker, autopilot, instruments, running lights, pumps, etc performed perfectly. Lots more interesting stuff that I can't recall. oh yea...fish 6 Swan Song 0 ;-) I any case Hawaii will be our new base for some cruising, where to, how long and when I don't know but Swan Song has the legs to take us anywhere and the sea keeping to get us there in relative comfort. As always YMMV.... Dave & Nancy Swan Song Roughwater 58 Limin in Ala Wai Marina, Waikiki, HI -- Georgs Kolesnikovs Editor & Publisher, Circumnavigator http://www.circumnavigatormagazine.com

----- Forwarded Message ---- > From: Patrick <alohaboat@yahoo.com> > To: Georgs Kolesnikovs <georgs@trawlersandtrawlering.com> > Sent: Tuesday, June 30, 2009 6:51:37 AM > Subject: Re: [PUP] Where is Swan Song? > > > > > > ----- Original Message ---- > > > Date: Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:06:32 -1000 > > From: "Dave Cooper" > > > > Lots of folks have asked us how our anti roll tank, aka ART, performed. My > > crew said it was absolutely amazing. > > Dave was kind enough to invite me aboard SWAN SONG about an hour before he > departed Cabo for Oahu. I was given a quick tour of ART. ART is located on the > pilothouse roof top. It is a model of simplicity. I was not able to experience > the effectiveness of the device, but hopefully Dave will give me a demonstration > on my next trip to Hawai'i. If ART works as well as Dave claims, this could be > a very simple and inexpensive solution to stabilization. > > Congratulations Dave and Bill on a successful voyage. SS is a true > passagemaker. > > Patrick > Willard 40PH > ALOHA > La Paz, MX