Susanna and I are about to embark on a longer adventure, sailing north towards the Barrier Reef on S/V RaRa.
In preparation for the upcoming journey I have tried to document some of our preparations to the boat in particular below. There are also some significant changes to lifestyle, decluttering of our unit etc, but that’s for another story I think.
I know many of the MHYC Cruising members sit on massive experience and skills in this area, but for us it’s the first really long cruise we’re preparing for. If you think we’ve missed something or you disagree with the points below feel free to leave a comment or let us know elsewhere.
Navigation aids and passage planning
RaRa has a few tools to find our way, without hitting any rocks on the way (hopefully).
Our main chart tool is the B&G Zeus S Chart plotter that has C-Map charts. I have noticed that these charts were quite out of date although the plotter is only 2 years old, and e.g. was completely missing the new Shellharbour marina! Hence, I’ve been trying, and finally managed, to update the charts – which even for me as an IT professional was not straightforward. I can now see the Shellharbour marina details 🙂 I had wrongly assumed, that the chart plotter which is connected to the internet, would automatically download updates to the charts, but no, you have to manually select areas where you want updates to be applied. I guess it saves data usage, but I think it would be improved by some form of automation.
As an electronic backup we have both Navionics and C-Map charts on mobile devices (iPad and iPhones), in case the Chart plotter somehow fails. Important to remember to download the charts needed for the near future in case we’re outside internet connectivity.
If and when all electronics fail we will also have a full set of paper charts on the boat, which in combination with compass readings, log readings, logbook tracking etc should help us find our way. We even carry a Sextant, but in all honesty we would need to learn more on how to use it before it would be of any practical use.
To make sure we have internet access for most of the time, we have complemented the mobile WiFi modem (and our mobile phones) with a Starlink subscription. Starlink hardware is relatively cheap ($300), but the ongoing roaming plans are quite dear if you want the unlimited use ($195 per month). We will try to get by with the $80 per month for 50GB, as we also have the mobile phone data plans to draw from when in mobile coverage.
Weather forecasts will be a combination of internet services from Windy, BOM, Seabreeze and Predictwind. If/when we run out of internet coverage we will listen to the forecasts on VHF. I haven’t yet decided if we buy some premium version of Predictwind but planning to start without it and see how that goes.
Books we’re learning, and get inspiration, from for passage planning include:
- Cruising the NSW Coast, Alan Lucas
- Cruising the Coral Sea, Alan Lucas
- Beacon to Beacon Guides
- 100 Magic Miles of the Great Barrier Reef
- Rob’s Passage Planner
Lucas’s guides and Rob’s Passage Planner are getting a little old and unfortunately are no longer being revised it seems, but still provides a lot of valuable information.
Obviously there is also a vast amount of online info incl
- Marine Rescue NSW & Marine Rescue QLD
- NSW Bar Crossing live cameras
- Marina websites, sailing blogs etc
Power management
The batteries we have are one 200Ah, 12V Lithium Iron Phosphate house battery, and one normal lead acid start battery (which is only used to start the engine).
We have three ways of charging the two batteries on RaRa; 1 – Alternator, 2 – Solar panels, 3- Shore power, and the main devices using the (house battery) power are: Fridge, Freezer, Autopilot and Starlink. We can hence adjust our power draw if needed by turning off the freezer over night, manually steer or disconnect from the Starlink Internet. We’d obviously prefer not having to constantly check the charge levels though and concentrate on the sailing instead.
Our existing solar panel bank was about 10 years old and only gave a max of 100W in good sunny conditions. This is not enough to keep the house battery charged, and we don’t want to have to run the engine for charging in normal conditions. So we decided to upgrade it to a solar bank of 450W with two hard panels and one flexible one mounted on the Bimini.
Safety aspects
The boat is Cat 4 certified, so that’s a good starting point I think.
Last year we invested in an AIS transponder, i.e. we can both see and be seen on the AIS network. This, I believe, is super important especially whilst sailing at night or in low visibility conditions. I’m aware that It doesn’t replace a radar completely, and unfortunately we don’t have one of those, so that’s a risk we’ve decided to live with for now.
We’re unlikely to be carry a life raft, since they are bulky (not sure where we would put one), expensive and requires servicing, and we also plan to stay fairly close to the shore. We are though upgrading our PFDs to the ones with hoods and also adding personal locator beacons, probably the AIS kind, rather than EPIRB.
We’re choosing not to invest in an SSB radio or SatPhone as we believe that the Starlink is a better solution offshore anyway
A couple of things we need to practice further are:
- Heaving to in various wind conditions
- Using the Drogue (not yet tried it…)
- Steering using the emergency tiller
- Hoisting and using the storm jib
Tools and Spares
Related to the conundrum of how much stuff to bring on board is the question about what spares and tools we really need. Who knows what repairs we will need to do along the way?
Some of the things we’re bringing are:
- Spare oil and fuel filters, engine oil, and impellers
- Rope splicing tools, hand-stitcher for sail and canvas repairs
- Electrical wire, crimping tools, fuses and butt connectors to fix various electrical issues
- Heat gun, hacksaw, spanners, drill and drill bits, pop rivet gun, various hand tools
- Sewing machine (maybe, we’re still pondering if that’s worthwhile)
- WD40, Sikaflex, Gaffa tape, polish and wax
- and quite a lot more
Comfort at sea
We’re seriously considering getting one or two “Flopper stoppers” to set up in rolly anchorages. Nothing brings the mood down as much as losing sleep due to the boat constantly rocking sideways. I’m curious to hear other peoples experiences of how efficient they are, and whether a homemade one is as good as the (expensive) ones you can buy.
Insects so far hasn’t been a huge problem in Sydney, but we’re planning to fit some homemade Mozzie nets to at least some of our hatches. Unfortunately, the official products Lewmar offers are way too expensive we think. (a few hundred dollars per hatch).
We may also reinstall cleaned curtains or sew some new ones to keep the Queensland heat at bay. We don’t have air conditioning on the boat.
Storage on the boat is obviously limited, and we’re looking into both decluttering stuff we don’t need as well as looking at some creative solutions to storing the things we think we do need.
Food and drinks
Our plan is to stay close enough to civilisation to do food shopping at least once a week. Meat and fish to be vacuum packed and kept cold in the fridge or freezer.
Emergency food, mostly cans and pasta will last us another couple of weeks should it be needed.
Our fresh water tanks hold 206 plus 160 liters, in total 366 liters, which should be enough for two people considering our plans to visit marinas on a regular basis.
Documenting the adventures
Should you want to follow our steps, we plan to use https://www.noforeignland.com/, a service new to us, but we got it recommended as many liveaborders use it and it’s free. Just search for RaRa.
There will also be updates on social media accounts, and maybe something on YouTube or the RaRa blog, which is still TBC.
Anyway, we’re mighty excited for our upcoming journey and want to continuously keep in touch with our dear Cruising friends in MHYC.
Niclas on S/V RaRa
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