In this episode of Sailing A B Sea there's no sailing and no maintenance but we do get into our Q & A 2019. You asked the questions and we provide the answer...
Closed Captions (CC):
It's Q&A time for 2019 and before we get
started I just want to say a big thank
you to everyone who's been watching us
from the very beginning. It's quite
amazing to think that some of you have
been viewers, subscribers and even
patrons from almost two years ago when
we first started our journey. We love
reading your comments and we reply to
every single one of them but before we
get into the Q&A if you're a longtime
follower but you're not yet subscribed
you can really help us out more than you
know
by clicking the subscribe button and
hitting the bell icon next to it, also
leave a thumbs up and a comment, that
helps us out more than you can imagine
with promoting A B Sea and also promoting
our inspiring story to other people. So
together let's see how far we can take
Sailing A B Sea in the coming year.
Normally when we're doing talky bits to camera
we like to have sunnies off but we're
sitting at the edge of the little
harbour here at Limni and the sun is
quite low in the sky and the glare is
absolutely amazing so I'm gonna to have
to wear sunnies for this one I'm sorry.
What's our first question? Our first
question is from Frank Schwarz and he asks
"My question is related to your energy
management i.e. how to charge the house
batteries and other batteries on board
A B Sea. I saw that you had to replace the
lead-acid batteries just after a short
period. Are you intending to upgrade to
lithium at one point? Well Frank this is"
something that we've been considering
quite a lot since the incident you
mentioned where we had to buy three new
house batteries because the three that
were only 18 months old were completely
dead. I'll link to that in the
description down below and also on
screen over there.
We haven't gotten around to that part of
the maintenance for winter time yet but
we will be having a really in-depth look
at our batteries. Right now the situation
is we've got three 100 amp hour lead acid
batteries for our domestic use and one
separated 95 amp hour lead acid battery
for our starter motor for our engine. The
charging currently is done by our 600
watt solar array and
that seems to provide plenty of power to
get the batteries back up to 100% as
long as it's nice and sunny even in the
winter. Of course when the engine's
running then the alternator charges the
batteries too. As regards to lithium
batteries they are looking like a good
contender but the only thing that's
holding us back is quite literally the
price, it's not just a question of buying
lithium batteries and sticking them in
place of the lead acid batteries, there's
a lot of other changes that have got to
be made to the alternator, the charging
system, the MPPT controller - that's just a
little tweak that needs to be done to
change its configuration to charge
lithium batteries as opposed to lead
acid batteries. So here's a question Baz
from Denise and Bryan Keith and they
ask "What has been the most unexpected
negative you've experienced so far. Before
you undertook this journey you would
have had some concerns. Have any of those
concerns actually been relevant?"
Obviously the biggest thing that
happened that was very negative was
when we came loose from the mooring in
Javea in Spain, but that was last year
and we've talked about that quite a lot. That was in last year's Q&A as well. This
year? I don't know, you got anything? Well I was thinking when the outside sheath broke away from the inhaul
Yeah yeah yep the furling line
from the headsail yeah we couldn't get
it back through the jammer and we had 30
knots of wind coming at us so... but we
figured that one out. Yeah we did. I think I think
that make the main concern before we
began this journey for me was really the
wind. Yeah. And you know we'd heard a lot
of stories about the wind in the Aegean,
the Meltemi
and I think it was hyped up a lot more
or maybe we just got lucky because it
wasn't that bad this year. No or we just
chose anchorages that
made sure that we were out of the worst
of it ahead of time. Henrik Thystrup asks "What you do
to pass time on a daily basis? On land
people spend weekends and evenings with
family and friends at the theatre or
restaurants. All that's not so possible
living on a boat so how do you cope withfilling your spare time?" Spare time? What's that? That's a good
question but surprisingly we don't have
that much spare time because we do spend
quite a lot of time on the computer
obviously editing videos, we reply to
people's comments on social media and
also write our blogs, which does take
quite a long time in itself. By then
after our meal in the evening
well we usually just either read a book
or watch a movie, something like that.
Yeah. Henrik has another question and
this one I think it's more of for you
Baz. "How much time do you spend on
maintenance on the boat? It seems that
you guys often need to repair as things
are broken. Is that due to the age usage
of the boat? It seems to me that my
friends who have boats don't spend so
much time on the repairs." Maybe they've got newer boats! A B Sea was born in 1995
so she's nearly a quarter of a
century old but she is in good nick for her
age and it may look like we do a lot of
maintenance but really it's preventative
maintenance, lots of small jobs that
you've just got to keep on top of before
they become big jobs
So boat maintenance, it's one of those
questions that starts with, well it all
depends. Murray Westenskow asks
Have we ever been to the US and if so where?
The answer is yes, I was there in ... but not in a boat!
I was there in 1990 to
1991. I was attempting to get work as a
radio DJ over there but that didn't pan
out so I went back to Spain, yeah, and you?
Yeah I was there around about the same
time - separately -
and I stayed in Carmel mainly in
California and where else? Oh yes I did
go to Las Vegas for a two-day seminar
with a guy called Stuart Wilde so
I was actually in the air longer flying
to and from Australia than I was actually in Las
Vegas but I had a great time! 2Moza asks
"Have you fitted any lightning protection
to the mast of your boat or instruments
on board so as if you were hit it's not
a total loss of said equipment? The"
answer to that is, I'm not sure. I would
imagine Jeanneau when they built the
boat put in some sort of lightning
grounding system. I haven't seen it yet, I
haven't come across it as we've been
doing maintenance and fortunately we
haven't really been in any electrical
storms so it's so far not an issue. But
it is one of the jobs on the list to
find out this winter if we do have
lightning protection. Yeah and the way
you're gonna go in and out of the boat
we'll find it. Boston and Piper Elmore
ask, "How do you protect your computers
from the salt air or the moisture that's
on board the boat?" There isn't really
surprisingly there isn't really a lot of
moisture on the boat and even when we're
using the computers up in the cockpit
during the warm summer months we're just
at anchor and there's not a lot of
moisture so there's not really any
protection needed. Mmm I mean the boat's
been closed up for a while, it's rained a
lot while we've been here and it's as
dry as a bone inside so we're very
fortunate in that regard. Obviously we
don't take them up on deck when we're
sailing because you know you can get
water splashing over but we do sometimes
work with them on deck but again it
doesn't seem to have been an issue so
yeah fingers crossed on that one. Henrik
Thystrup has another question. "How do
you plan which islands to visit and for
how long?
There must be zillions of islands to
visit and explore but finding the right
ones must be difficult. Secondly on what
do you base your decision on when to
start your winter stay over
and when to continue the journey? Is it
the weather?" I think the weather answers
all of those questions. Yeah. When we
began the journey from Turkey earlier
this year and we crossed ... we went as far
up the north of the Turkish coast as we
could and then crossed over to Samos
to enter Greece, our plan was to go as far
west and north as we could before the
Meltemi wind really kicked in which
blows from north and then zigzag down
through the islands using the Meltemi
wind as power. However our plan fell
apart when we had 30 knots of wind and
we were going from Samos to ... I'll put the
name of the island on the screen at the
bottom. We were going to this island, we had
a plan of four different anchorages
that we thought we could stop in. When we
got there they were all busy or
impossible to anchor in because of the
wind situation, so we had to ditch that
island and as the day was getting late
and the wind was blowing 30 knots from
the north the only option we had was to
go south. So that first decision to go
south at that point really laid out the
plans for the rest of the summer sailing season. Yeah it did. Other decisions about choosing
an island, obviously we look at anchorage
and you know which way the wind is
going to be blowing while we're there so
is there a safe protected anchorage that we can
stay at? Does it have provisions? Because
obviously you know it might be a
beautiful island but we can't spend too
much time
where there isn't a place to shop.
Internet connection is important.
Yeah internet connection is important.
Very important to us yeah, so yes. Now as
regards to what made us decide to haul
out. We actually planned to haul out at the
end of November because there was a few
little places we wanted to see up here
in the Evia - north Evia area, but the
exhaust elbow engine situation forced
our hand a month earlier and we really
just wanted to get her out as soon as
possible because the exhaust elbow was
not only blowing soot into the engine
compartment, it was also blowing in the
exhaust fumes
so technically A B Sea's engine was choking
on her own exhaust emissions so that
wasn't good and we didn't want to push
it too far
2Moza also asks "Will you be doing the
work on the boat or farm it out to the
shipyard where you are on the hard?" We expect
to be doing 95% of the work ourselves
simply because it's saving - cost savings
but I'm leaning towards getting the guy
at the boatyard who just sands hulls. I'm
thinking about getting him to do the
hull sanding because it is dirty work,
it is toxic work and you need the proper
equipment to be able to do that and he
has that because I've seen him do it on
the other hulls. Yep, and he'll do it probably
far better and far quicker than we could
do, so yeah. Yeah we could ...
I mean we could use our time better
doing something else probably. Yeah. And
he's the expert at that, Low Light Guy
asks "I'm curious if you guys are
planning to do an Atlantic crossing to
the Caribbean for 2020? For 2019 what has
been your best sail yet, to which city or
country?" Yes we do plant across the
Atlantic. When that happens is still an
undecided, simply because to exit
Gibraltar and get
the Canary Islands at the right time of
year has to be done I think in the autumn
Now whether we can make it there for the
autumn of 2020 is unknown because we're
still in Greece, or whether we have to
wait another year and get down there in
the autumn of 2021, not sure yet. Yeah you
know cuz you have to take into
consideration we might want to get some
extra equipment before we leave the
Mediterranean and things like that
as well so yeah it's big undecided right
now. So best sails this year... Sailing to
Levitha, that was a great one wasn't
it? Yeah that was quite a quite a good
one until at the end it got a bit, bit
too bumpy and yeah confused seas at the
end but yeah the majority of that sail was
very good. Yeah we had about 25 sometimes
30 knots and we flew along yeah actually
yeah it was great. Ooh, do you know what, I'd have to look at the ship's log to recall!
We have had some - we have had
some great sails yeah but I think for us you
know, the sail is a learning curve
every time we sail because the wind's always
different, the sail set is always
different, yeah we're still learning to
trim the sails, yeah, so yeah each time
it's a learning curve. It is yeah, so we
should get better with it in 2020
because we're gonna have some longer
passages as well probably. Sailing Etanche - very nice French pronunciation there
hopefully, asks "How is it living on the
hard until Christmas?" Well I think you're
probably best answering that one. It's
great! I'm not I, look like, yes I'm a
landlubber, but yes I love being on sea
when I'm on the sea. For me though just
actually being surrounded by trees and
being able to walk on land especially
now that I can now I've got
both feet working - and having a view of
the sea lapping against the shore as
opposed to being in the middle of it, I
love all of those things and the people
here at the boatyard are very very
helpful and very nice. I'm enjoying the
availability of as much water as we want
to use and nice hot showers but every
time I look out the balcony at the sea I
think I just so want to be out there.
It's funny isn't it how we're slightly
different in that regard. Yeah yeah
Noone Anybody Knows has asked "Are you
approached by strangers selling illegal
substances? Is the use of these
substances open and obvious or are they
somewhat hidden from the authorities? Do
you encounter openly aggressive
individuals that make you feel
uncomfortable or threatened i.e. verbally
abusive, unsolicited sexual offers male
and female? I haven't had any of those!
I'd say no to all of those!
No there isn't any open and obvious
use of drugs, we've certainly
never been approached by anyone offering
those drugs. They have very strict
penalties in Greece, oh especially yes in
Greece and of course Turkey you know I should
imagine it would be the same. Yeah. So it's
just not not worth messing around with
that sort of stuff. Even if you wanted to.
But I think the only time I ever felt
slightly guarded was when we were in
Istanbul. Mainly - not just because it's
Istanbul - it's just because it's such a
big city and there's a lot of people you
know. Well that's where predators live! In
big cities yeah. The rest the time
everyone we've met has been absolutely fantastic. Having said that even Istanbul really the worst
that we had apart from being you know
conned by the hotel people, which you
can watch, the worst was really being
bothered by people trying to sell us
carpets and - Touts - Yeah yeah but other than that no, not at all.
Steen Kigerrider, sorry if that's the
wrong pronunciation, can we call you Steen for short? "How long did it take you before in your own minds
feeling more or less confident yacht
skippers after running aground in Spain?"
I think because we had very little true
sailing while we were in the western
part of the Med in the region of
Spain and then when Mike and Elaine were
on board helping us get across to Turkey
we probably motored 80% of the way
because there was no wind and we had a
date deadline, I think we didn't really
become competent and confident until
probably when we finally left Turkey and
entered into the Greek territorial
waters. Yeah I think what we have
certainly learned is to trust our eyes and our ears you know, as well as our
instruments. Yeah I'd say that this
season has been more of a learning curve
Samantha Kerridge asks "What heating have
you got? I'm wondering about economy and
how well it works." We ... the only heating
we've got will only work when were
attached to shore power it's just a
little electric heater blower. Yeah. There
is no other heating on A B Sea. Yeah. We have
no plans to go too far north so
hopefully we won't be needing heating
Yeah. Hot water bottles! Hot water bottles
work and a few extra layers of clothes. Yeah
anders Jakobsen asks "Is there any reason
to haul out rather than for the
maintenance?" Yes here in Greece, yes
Sailing tax. There is a Greek cruising
tax yeah which you have to pay if you're
in the water. When we're out of the water
we don't have to pay that. Now our Greek
cruising tax comes to around about a
hundred and twenty eight euros a month
whereas out on the hard here is only a
hundred euros a month, so it's a win
financially from that aspect but also
we don't want to be at anchor during the
winter months when the Mediterranean
storms can just pop up and they blow
real hard. I was looking at Windy a
couple of days ago and looking at a
storm in the middle of the Mediterranean
Sea in between the Spanish Balearic
islands and Corsica and it had peak
gusts of 60 knots so you can imagine how
much wave action would be built up by
that kind of wind and even yesterday
just looking at out of the balcony we
had 35 knots, yeah maybe 40 knots from the
South and the bay is exposed to
the south so you know so at anchor or on
a mooring with that sort of wave action
it's just not going to happen and our
budget doesn't allow us to stay
long-term in marinas because they're
just so expensive
Sail Ho asks do you need any extra
insurance to stay in Greece for the
winter?" No our boat insurance which we
pay annually that covers us whether
we're in Greece or pretty much anywhere
within the given
latitude/longitude zones of the
insurance clauses so no extra insurance
to stay in Greece for the winter. Henrik
S Pedersen asks "Do you have a bucket
list of dream destinations and will your
son visit you?" Our son visiting us is my
bucket dream ... Luke ...
A bucket list of dream destinations. That's kind of
difficult to put into an easy answer. My
dream destination would be somewhere where I
could scuba-dive every single day. The
Mediterranean you can scuba dive every
single day, the water is beautiful
crystal-clear but there ain't nothing to
see. It's been overfished unfortunately. For a long long time. So dream destinations. Do
you know, what I'm actually looking
forward to getting to the Caribbean and
I know the Caribbeans been overdone by
every YouTube channel out there but I
just like the the look of the place
really, I want to check that place out
Yeah I mean I'm really looking forward
to continuing our sail through the
Mediterranean because we are looking at
seeing more of the Ionian which is on
the other side of Greece, Peloponnese
which you know is not somewhere that's
relatively well visited by sailing
channels I don't think, and yeah Malta
we're going to Malta, I'm looking forward
to that. Scuba diving there. Yeah, more
more parts of the coast of Spain and
some of the Balearic Islands hopefully
maybe France cuz that's where we
originally did our very first journey
when we were young so we were thinking
we'd like to go back there
so yeah I'm actually looking forward to
to seeing more of the Med because there's so
much, the countries are so different as
well, the cultures are different in such
a small area really. As to our son
visiting, we hope he's going to visit
May of next year yeah depending on his
work and savings. I think to us the
biggest thing, yeah yeah yeah can't wait
to see him
Daryl Graimes asks "What size is the
engine and seeing as the boat is nearly
25 years old how many hours are on the
engine?" Okay
hours on the engine is 2 4 7 4, 2474. Now
the engine, I'm gonna read this engine is
a Yanmar 4JH2TE diesel 59
horse power so yeah she is an older boat
the hours are very low and I think the
engine has been overhauled at some time
time in its life I mean properly hauled
out and put back in. We hope you enjoyed
this Q&A for 2019 and we hope it wasn't
too long and boring for you. Yeah it's
been very thought-provoking for us so I
really like to answer these questions
because it gives us a chance to review
the sailing season. Yeah thanks. So thank
you to everyone who popped a question
into the comments section and of course
if you're watching this and you've got
any more questions pop them into the
comment section below and we will do our
best to answer them for you yeah
till then Cheers