Know Your Boom

While in Fremantle, we also found and fixed a problem we didn’t know we had. Our boom is carbon fiber and hollow. The main outhaul goes into the boom about a fourth the way back from the mast. Three-fourths the way back there is a cross-member inside the boom to support reefing lines. At the end of the boom there are two rollers to guide the outhaul line up and out to a clear, handy place to attach to the sail. It would make sense to run the line straight back and clear to the rollers. Unfortunately we found that the line had been run OVER the cross member, from which it had to cut sharply down to meet the first roller. So as the sail worked, the Spectra rope sawed into the cross member and the cross member sawed into the Spectra line. The line is now reversed and cleared and no great damage to the cross member.

Location: 33° 59 S, 114° 39 E
Tuesday 12:00, 03.06.2007

The Schooner Maggie B was at 33° 59 S, 114° 39 E at noon on March 6th. We are still on Western Australia Summer Time, which is nine hours later than Universal Time. We were making 4.4 knots on a heading of 160, as the SE’erly was dying out getting ready for the land breeze. By 1300 we were motor sailing at seven knots. We are off the Marguerite River, and will pass the “corner” of SW Australia this afternoon. We have come 138 NM from Fremantle in the last 20 hours, and have 1563 NM to go to SW Tasmania.

Last night at 0200 hours we were under full sail, close hauled and had a medium sized ship approach us from our port side at 15 knots. Both eyeball and computer said that we were going to get very, very close, so even though we had right of way, we tacked away, which allowed the ship to pass safely less than a mile from us. They didn’t reply to VHF calls nor seem to notice us in any way (deck lights were on highlighting the sails).

We had a lot of work done in Fremantle. Getting the three sails off, repaired and back on again was a huge job. Rips and wear fixed up plus five battens replaced and sewn into their pockets (see if they can get out now!). Sailmakers W.A. did a great job and provided lots of good advice. We just about lived at Wilson Marine, a chandlery, getting some new Australian blocks from them, which hopefully will last better than our Lewmars. The Chart and Map Shop is one of those stores I shouldn’t be allowed into. Every sailing and adventure book, map, chart or poster one could imagine. John Mason of Creations Wood Gallery made our lovely compass piece. We polish the kangaroo penny daily. Ian Duperouzel at Yanmar Diesel had everything we needed, or found it if it wasn’t already in stock. Taylor Marine took in our Furuno gear, tested everything, and reinstalled it so that it now works fine. But not having found a problem means that the gremlins are still in the box somewhere, ready to kill again. Finally, Yacht Grot, the “interestingly” named ship chandlery supplied us with lots of new rope so that all our running gear can be wear-free. While they had just what we needed, at a fair price, the colors are such that we have had to learn new names (”Haul on the fuchsia reefing line!”).

All four of us found Fremantle such a nice place we all could imagine living there.

The Fremantle Sailing Club is by far the best Yacht Club we have been to. Great showers (Hannah and Bori took so many hot showers that they should be clean through the end of April). Free wireless internet in the bar, which has 12 different beers on tap. Very good food in the restaurant. Lovely people. One totally impressive thing is that one of the big varnished boards up on the wall is a listing of all the club members who had sailed around the world. Sixteen!

We managed to embarrass ourselves when we went over to fill up on diesel at the Club. We have high-tech air/fuel separators on each of the fuel tanks. In them, there is a one-way valve. That valve, after a year and 16,500 miles and a bit of salt water corrosion, can change from a one-way valve to a “no-way” valve. If that happens, and you have a filling line with fair volume, your diesel filler becomes rather like the man in the restaurant in Monty Python’s “the Meaning of Life” after “one last wafer-thin mint.” Not nice for anybody around. Of course, the air/fuel separator, once found and disassembled, fills its compartment (the Captain’s closet) with a fine mist of diesel. Sigh. But all fixed now.
We also found and fixed a problem we didn’t know we had. Our boom is carbon fiber and hollow. The main outhaul goes into the boom about a fourth the way back from the mast. Three-fourths the way back there is a cross-member inside the boom to support reefing lines. At the end of the boom there are two rollers to guide the outhaul line up and out to a clear, handy place to attach to the sail. It would make sense to run the line straight back and clear to the rollers. Unfortunately we found that the line had been run OVER the cross member, from which it had to cut sharply down to meet the first roller. So as the sail worked, the Spectra rope sawed into the cross member and the cross member sawed into the Spectra line. The line is now reversed and cleared and no great damage to the cross member.

The Commanders Weather should be posted on the web site. We have great conditions now, but a front with a fair bit of power is headed our way towards the end of the week, which should make our life in The Great Australian Bight somewhat interesting. Not sure yet how we’ll play the pressure, but we’ll take it carefully and respectfully.

Owen made a great Fritatta for breakfast with a pile of our fresh veggies. Perfect way to start out for those of us who were interested in solid food.

All is well.