On this one we are underway in the English Channel. The weather is getting worse but the big fun starts at night.

We took this one at night (with the deck lights on). It’s hard to see in the dark but the nose went up and down at least 9 meters (29 ft.) We slowed down to about 8 kn. Still, it wasn’t very comfortable.

Here are two views from the main deck at how we ride the ocean swell when we start leaving the English Channel.

Here a look around from the aft deck. 

This one is taken a few days after the Azores if I recall well. Rolling, rolling, rolling…

A good look at the heavy swell on the next two videos:

And here’s a look at the scenery in the Kuna Yala archipelago (San Blas)

22 Days at sea gave a lot of opportunity to learn about the vessel and think about the issues that will come up during conversion project.  Some things we will look into:

• Stability – will we need stabilizers?  Well, we don’t need them but they will make life more comfortable. OK. We had some heavy swells all along but still, this ship likes to roll.
• AC/DC bowthruster.  We had an issue with our DC-driven bow thruster before we left and fixed it but it got me to think about getting rid of all the DC equipment and change the electric motors on the bow thruster to an AC electric motor.
• Stern thruster: we definitely will add one.  The prop effect is minimal with  this prop and its nozzle around it.  The superstructure catches a nice amount of wind.  We bought a 2nd hand bow thruster and will install it as a bow thruster.
• RIBS instead of aluminium tenders.   Safer boarding when coming along side, less weight = lighter crane  requirements = substantial savings and easier structure.  We already figured out a way to do it by widening the top deck and it will look good.
• Our FloScan fuel flow meter was a total waste of money.  It simply was unfit for our situation (and many others) where we have a return fuel line.  Yes, we had two sensors but they don’t compensate for the temperature difference between the fuel going in and the return fuel.  The readings went from 10% off to totally wrong.  A waste of $$.  But, you get what you pay for.
• No bright white or green control lights on the bridge:  amazing how much light those generator engine control lights give when everything else is dark or dimmable.
• A good tank level control system: we knew the one we had was not quite reliable.  That was an understatement. 

Well, the pictures below don’t show it (I’ll post some videos on YouTube.com soon) but when we hit that depression in the Channel, slamming got a new meaning.  The front of the ship made vertical movements of at least 9 m. (27 ft.) and one of these, managed the cover below open by itself !!  Against gravity.  That’s a pretty serious acceleration… 

Yet, none of these waves, in the order of 7+ meter really slowed us down.  Nor would you hear the engine kind of slow.  That 3.6 m. (12 ft.) prop just kept on turning at around 90 rpm.  We did slow down to about 8.5 knots to make it more comfortable. 

This was NOT a time to walk around on deck.   Quite difficult, certainly dangerous.  Sleeping was another story.  Not easy.  So after 24 hours we were glad it was over. Still a lot of swell but no more slamming.

And once we made it to Horta on Faial, the Azores, we forgot about that weather pretty fast. We picked up a new crew member and got ready for the next stretch.  Here in world famous (among yachters crossing the Atlantic) ‘Peter’s Place’.

We made it to Cartagena!  I can write a book about the arrival procedure but I won’t.  On Monday before Christmas, with the help of a pilot we made it to the NavTech shipyard after arriving 3 days earlier to Cartagena.   I was home with Christmas after all.

Below the offices of Navtech in Cartagena. Quite appropriate for shipyard!

We hope to start work in January.

Update: February 2009
We just learned from cruisers that Bruce, the manager of the haul-out facility, a very capable and friendly American, was fired last New Year’s eve due to differences with the marina manager Ross.

That now leaves the repair facilities in the hands of Ross who by my own experience and many  accounts from cruisers is the last person you want to run a shipyard.  The only reason he’s there is the close friendship between his wife and the wife of the yard’s owner. It’s really too sad that one of the few marina’s in this area isn’t living up to its potential due to poor management choices.

So, a new reason to avoid Shelterbay. A good alternative the the Panamarina which is getting better all the time.  Unfortunately, the Cristobal Yacht Club was closed in February.

Original post:
As part of our trip to Cartagena, we decided to make a de-tour to Panama and spend a week or two ‘at home’ before going to our final destination.  We contacted Shelterbay Marina in Cristobal (Colon), situated in the former US Army base Ft. Sherman. 

As we are a big vessel, we expressed our concerns to the marina about our draft but manager Russ told us, ‘no problem’.

Well, upon arriving, it turned out to be a problem after all and the only place they had for us was somebody’s work barge.  Since we didn’t have much alternative, we settled for this very basic arrangement (no electricity, Internet and a dangerous improvised gangway to get from the barge to the shore.  We also assumed they would certainly give us a really good deal on the standard rate because our berth was not close to any marina standard and not even an official dock space (eating in their surplus capacity).

But, upon making our case for a substantial discount, were we wrong! They could not care less.  We finally paid even more than the quite expensive Flamenco Marina (in Balboa).  Apparently, their business is so slow, the tactic is to try to squeeze money from whoever enters their waters.  Repeat business?  Who cares?  Worth of mouth recommendation? Not at Shelterbay Marina.

To add insult to injury, we received a call the 2nd day from manager Ross to either leave or post a $ 100K bond !!  Needless to say we were enraged. But luckily, the repair yard manager told us to safely ignore ‘manager’ Ross and stay put.

We did but unfortunately we had to cut short our stay in Panama to only 4 days.

The bottomline: don’t expect any customer service or sense of fair business practice from the owners and manager of Shelterbay Marina.  This way, they’ll surely have a long way to go before this project goes anywhere.

 p.s.: the administrative staff at the office was very friendly and apologetic about the whole affair.    Time for a management shakeup!

Well, it took a little longer than planned before we left and we took it easy going an average 9 knots but we made it.  Stellendam, Horta, St. Maarten, Cristobal (Panama) and Cartagena.

With an average fuel consumption of 2300 liters (600 gallon) a day, running the our Deutz engine at between 575 and 600 rpm we did a little better than expected and decided to make a stop in Panama first before heading to Cartagena, but not before spending another 3 days in Kuna Yala (San Blas archipelago).

No technical problems of any kind. Hardly any lubrication oil consumption, solid as a rock in a pretty heavy November storm coming out of the English Channel….More to follow soon.

Cartagena is the home of Navtech, a Dutch owned shipping yard.  Cartagena is not known for yacht conversions but we’re confident Navtech will do a good job.  Cartagena is the shipyard port of Colombia as it’s the home of  Colombia’s Navy yard which has a long presence there and a large pool of qualified workers.

Our first stop will be Horta on Faial, an island in the Azores.

From here, two crew members will return to Holland and three will continue, including myself. I’m flying to the Netherlands November 5 and we plan to leave November 10.
 

Estimated arrival Faial: November 17, provided we have decent weather which is not typically the case in November .  On the other hand, with our type of vessel, it wouldn’t seriously slow us down. It would give us some great pictures. Because have you ever seen a picture of a yacht in bad weather?

The next stop will be St. Maarten, about a 9-day crossing from the Azores. We may buy some fuel here if needed but that depends on our consumption during the previous crossings. We could easily take enough fuel to make it non-stop to Cartagena but we want to arrive as empty as possible at the shipyard.

Above and below Sint Maarten’s ‘Great bay’ where we plan to drop our anchors. 

Visit us to stay informed.

We’re going over!  In November we’ll make the trip from Stellendam (just below Rotterdam) to Cartagena, Colombia with a stop at the Azores and St. Maarten. 

The crew will consist of an  experienced Dutch fishing trawler captain and engineer from Urk, each with over 30 years of experience on these type of vessel. The captain will be French. Olala!  Qui. But, with over 10 years of big yacht experience and engineer papers, he’s perfectly qualified and very willing to come along.  I’ll be there to and we hope to have one more Dutch/Norwegian or French person on board. 

The folks from Urk will leave the ship again at the Azores and return to Holland

The ship is now in dock for a safety check and some pre-departure maintaince so we get all the paperwork done so we can leave the 11th at the latest.