I received an email yesterday which I thought I would answer here. My comments are preceded by ***
-Ken W
———–
Ken,
I didn’t want to post these questions on your site for fear of posing questions useless to others. However, you can post if you wish.
I was surprised to see “strickly for fun” up for sale. Any idea why??
*** Hopefully it’s ok with Scott Strickland if I post this… Here’s what Scott told me during the Nordhavn Atlantic Rally. Teri, Scott’s wife, wanted a house in Minnesota, and Scott wanted a boat. As happens in many households, Scott and Teri negotiated a compromise. Teri agreed that Scott could get a boat and they would cruise the world for three years, after which she would get her house in Minnesota. The last I heard, Scott was on “overtime”, and they were entering their fifth year of cruising. Teri has been a good sport, but now it is her turn….
What is the latest on Nordhavn’s resolve to your chiller/AC issues. I posted before on the site saying I felt Nordhavn should step up on this issue. Have they?
*** Nordhavn would love to “step up.” I am generally Nordhavn’s biggest fan, but this is a case where they and I respectfully disagree. They believe that my air conditioning chillers could easily be fixed, and have offered to fly their team anywhere at any time to get my units working. Cruisair has basically offered the same thing. I put up with these chillers crashing my electrical system for a year, even though they were worked on by three sets of mechanics (Nordhavn, Emerald Harbor Marine, and J3 Systems.) I’m superstitious. My philosophy at my company was always that if someone wasn’t delivering, but had a really good excuse, then I’d give them another chance. And, if they didn’t deliver again, but had an even better excuse, I’d give them ANOTHER chance. And, then if they didn’t deliver again, but, had the best excuse in the world: I’d move on. I’ve arrived at that point with my chillers.
*** The biggest issue is that my chillers draw an enormous amount of current when they power on. The electrical system on my boat should have enough resilience that at most my lights should blink for a second and nothing more, but it hasn’t worked like that. My chillers tend to blow fuses or trip breakers when they start. I do believe they can be fixed, but I’m a “three strikes and you’re out” kind of guy. I’m swapping to three-phase chillers with soft starts, and I think that overall it will be a huge step forward.
Occasionally you ask for suggestions of what to post. After reading your latest post regarding David Sidbury’s recent experiences, I wished there was some video of the boat handling the situation, i.e. water over the bow, roll, etc. I follow many cruisers sites but hardly ever run into any recordings of rough weather at sea or at anchor. Maybe something you can capture in the future. You may have extensive opportunities on the Japan trip. 😉
*** The biggest problem with posting video while at sea is the huge amount of data that video represents. At $70 a megabyte (my Fleet 77), it could easily cost $1,000 to post a 10 minute video. I suppose I could wait to post video until I reach the nearest wi-fi connection. I will take a video camera on this trip, and try to post video.
btw, I think the Japan trip is “ballsy” if I can speak manly for a moment. I know there are others saying don’t go, think twice, etc. Don’t listen, its awesome!! Make a new path and be adventurous. I know you will plan carefully and travel safe. You have the resources and the greatest boat built for the trip. Where would the Flanders be if they hadn’t pursued their dreams. Be smart and go for it. Best of luck!!
***Were it up to me, we’d be at anchor off some beautiful sandy beach in the Caribbean or the Med for the next 50 years. However, Roberta says it isn’t up to me, and we are going to do adventurous things whether I like it or not. Darn!
thanks again for the daily blog posts. appreciate it.
ChrisW
*** Thank you!!!
On a completely different topic, I received an email from Steven Argosy, owner of Seabird, one of the other boats going on the Japan run with us, that made me smile: Anyway, there was a lot of information there to be had. I got lots of brochures from the different harbors and talked to the harbormasters as well as the fuel guys. No problem getting fuel through Dutch Harbor and we should be ok in Adak, but not easily. I got a contact at the show who says that he can help us arrange for that in Adak. I also talked to the Coasties who had a Rescue Alaska booth there. They maintained that there was no anchorage at all in Atu so we may as well continue on to Siberia. They also said that the weather windows were predictable and accurate and that 5-6 day windows in July are not uncommon. Hope the weather there (in Cabo) is warm.
——–
You beat me to the punch at the boat show here in Seattle. I was filled with glee when I saw the whole aisle of Alaska booths. Every time I went to one and asked questions, they simply replied “oh, are you with that other guy?”
Steven