We show you 10 important things we did to prepare our boat to cross the Pacific Ocean as we set sail from Patagonia to sail to the South Pacific Islands of French Polynesia and beyond!
If you're planning a long or short sailing passage, there are plenty of good tips to keep in mind!
#sailing #explore #riggedbymarlow
Website & Blog: www.sweetruca.com
Patreon: www.patreon.com/ruca
Instagram: www.instagram.com/rucasailing
Contents:
0:00 - Intro and about us - After rounding Cape Horn and sailing the fjords of Patagonia, we are preparing our boat to sail over 4000 miles across the Pacific Ocean to French Polynesia.
1:59 - (1) Spare Parts - Carrying spare parts on board our sailboat for long stretches in remote waters is very important. We carry almost everythigng we need to repair our sails, electrical system, engine, and watermaking system.
4:09 - (2) New Running Rigging - After 18,000 miles of sailing and two trans-Atlantic crossings, our running rigging was becoming worn. We replaced our mainsheet and jib sheets with Marlow Grand Prix 78 10 mm dyneema cored lines. We also replaced our jack-lines and made a mainsail/boom preventer from Marlow D12 Dyneema. Dyneema will improve our sailing performance, decrease weight, and increase strength.
8:34 - (3) New Sails - Like our running rigging, our dacron mainsail and jib had seen a lot of wear after sailing halfway around the world. We replaced them with Evolution Sails Expedition Membrane sails custom designed for our boat by Andy at www.180sails.com (Evolution Sails Chicago.
9:17 - (4) Rig Inspection - We aren't afraid of heights! We made many trips up the mast, hoisting both Kate and Curtis to the top of the mast to look over every bit of our standing rigging to ensure there was nothing that would chafe or rip our sails and all the metal and carbon fiber bits were in good condition with no corrosion, cracks, or pitting.
9:56 - (5) Autopilot Maintenance - We rebuilt the autopilot ram for our B&G H5000 autopilot. We also show you the spare autopilot ram we carry, just in case we have an issue, as we rely heavily on our autopilot to steer the boat while sailing doublehanded across oceans.
10:54 - (6) Reliable Batteries - We had a LifePO4 battery failure (likely the BMS) as we sailed up the fjords of Patagonia, Chile. We sourced new batteries and replaced our existing 600 amp hours of lithium power with an upgraded drop-in LifePO4 battery system to ensure reliability as we sail across the pacific ocean.
11:39 - (7) Safe Environment - It is important when sailing offshore that the interior of the boat is set up well for people to move about safely. Our boat is designed to have good places to lean against and may grab rails. However, for our sailing dog, Roxy, it is more difficult to grip the glossy wooden floor. We installed rubber backed carpeting throughout the boat to assist our dog with walking and gripping in the large waves of the pacific ocean.
13:01 - (8) Food Provisioning - Food is double or tripple the price in French Polynesia vs Chile or the USA. We provisioned our boat with at least 90 days of essential foods to ensure we could save lots of money over the coming months. In case of emergency, we are prepared with many days of food aboard.
14:10 - (9) Fuel - Diesel fuel powers our 75 HP Yanmar 4JH3-TE engine, which also powers our alternator for battery charging when there isn't enough energy from the wind generator and the solar panels. We also use diesel if there is an emergency or we need to get out of the way of a large storm, hurricane, cyclone, or other danger!
14:49 - (10) Weather Routing - We carefully study the weather patterns in the Pacific Ocean, which are always changing due to La Nina and El Nino. We choose the best route to cruise across the pacific on our sailboat, avoiding upwind sailing, heavy seas, and dangerous storms.
More about us:
We are Kate and Curtis, sailing aboard our 46 foot long performance cruising sailboat. Sweet Ruca is a year 2000 J-boats J/46. Before selling our house and cars and buying a boat to sail around the world, Kate was a middle school teacher and Curtis was an entrepreneur. Before setting sail as cruisers both of us spent many years racing sailboats and have earned many trophies, including winning the Chicago-Mackinac race.
We are experienced sailors who enjoy the feeling of a well tuned boat, and we love sharing the journey and inspiring you to get on the water. Like you, we watched youtube sailing channels before we left and hope to bring saling to you like other channels such as SV Delos, Gone With the Wynns, Sailing Nahoa, Sailing Uma, and La Vagabonde brought beautiful and relaxing sailing videos to our TV! Click subscribe and come along for the ride as we share our sailing tips, weather routing secrets, and boat rigging and re-fitting projects with you.
