Starr's Blog

The Problem: Seawater intrusion through the Port Stabilizer assembly.

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

July 2011

The Problem: Seawater intrusion through the Port Stabilizer assembly.

After departing from Ashiya, Japan on May 5, I noticed that there were a few drops of salty water dripping from the top of our port stabilizer. I first checked the torque of all of the bolts that were accessible, and then put a small bowl below the unit and monitored the flow hourly. This was a slow leak, maybe a tablespoon a day. About 600 nm out of Ashiya we stopped at Chichijima and I dove under the boat and found some large mussels wedged between the top of the fin and around the shaft; I wondered if maybe a piece of mussel shell was wedged into the seal? Naiad assured me that the fit is much too close than what would allow pieces of shell into the space occupied by the seals. The dripping stopped after about a week of running.

The trip to Hawaii took 24 days. Upon our arrival in Honolulu I made arrangements to haul out. The bottom needed paint and after two years and 15,000nm of running, it was time to check the stabilizer seals. Starr was hauled out at Keehi Marine Center.

Starr Haul-out (click to enlarge any picture)

I pulled the fins with tools I carry on board: a 10 ton hydraulic power pack, a 600Ft Lb torque wrench, and all of the necessary tools to do our own work.
Note: see the excellent article on seal replacement by Scott Flanders, Voyage of Egret 7-21-2011
http://www.nordhavn.com/egret/captains_log_july11.php

The last time I pulled the stabilizer system and replaced the bearings was in 2001 in New Zealand. At that time I was 58 yrs old and now I am 68. THIS WAS NOT MY IDEA OF FUN!! I have a great deal of respect for the Naiad factory people from Seattle, and I would have liked them to do the job; unfortunately, they were all committed elsewhere. I decided that I would have to do the work myself. SOME PEOPLE NEVER LEARN.

Naiad diagram of our 302 stabilizers (click to enlarge)

Port stabilizer showing leak trail. (click to enlarge)

(click to enlarge)

After popping the fins off, I pulled the seals. My first observation was that the seals were heavily coated with RTV, even into the expansion “V” grooves, and didn’t even come close to resembling the factory recommendations.

I removed the seals using a power screwdriver and 3-inch screws. The seals were packed on all sides with RTV.

Factory Seal install procedure (click to enlarge)

As you can see, the seals were improperly packed full of RTV when they were last replaced in Seattle two years ago. I don’t think it’s a poor guess to think that the expansion/flexing space in each of the seals was “locked up” with the RTV being jammed throughout the whole seal assembly. Even though it was obvious that the seals were improperly installed, it was impossible to clearly determine the condition of the grease. The only way to be sure was to pull the bearing retainer plate to see if the grease was contaminated.

With the bearing retainer plate removed, it was clear to see that the previously white grease was now black with contamination.

The bearing retainer is removed and the white grease has turned black with seawater contamination showing. (click to enlarge)

The next task was to drop the shaft in order to get to the bearings, and see if the seawater had damaged them. To accomplish this I had to work my way down from the top, starting with the potentiometer, then the cover plate, (I was careful to lift the cover plate evenly so as to not break the hydraulic ram trunion roller bearings), then the torque arm, and finally the seal wiper and seal. When the shaft was loosened it didn’t want to drop out so I made a driver out of heavy-walled stainless pipe and drove it out with a 5# sledge hammer. Once the shaft was out, the next job was to pull the sleeve and the bottom bearing. This was made easier by using a puller made from ¾-in all-thread, and a heavy bottom plate and a top plate of a slightly smaller diameter than the sleeve OD. With the sleeve and bearings removed, I examined the bearings and determined that they had damage from the water intrusion. New bearings and races were delivered the next day from Naiad’s factory. Yay Naiad!

Shaft and bottom bearing with seawater contaminated grease. ( click to enlarge)

Top Seal and wiper where seawater was exiting. (click to enlarge)

Sleeve and bottom bearing. (Note that the grease is clean on the sleeve exterior. The water went in between the shaft and the sleeve.)

Port actuator

Port actuator with sleeve out, and bearing races still in place. I took them out using a 1½-inch x 18-inch bronze driver (cut from an old prop shaft).

Working on the starboard actuator. (If only the guys who design and build boats had to repair each piece of equipment, then access would be different!)

New bearings and races: Due to the close tolerances between the bearing and sleeve one must either use a press or heat the bearings.

Freezing the sleeves.

Heat the bearings to 200 degrees F for 2 hours (and then baste twice).

Dinner is served: Hot and cold entrée!

Viola! The only other way to get the bearing on was to press them on. This is much more fun!

Time for reassembly: Tap the top-bearing race into the housing, then grease the sleeve and pack the bearings. (It was not possible to get the Lubriplate grease that Naiad specifies in Honolulu, so I had S3 ship it overnight from Seattle).

It was necessary to make up a puller using (5) 7/16” fine all-thread bolts to suck the sleeve and bottom bearing back into position.

At this point it was time to replace the seal and wiper, and then to preload the sleeve into its bearings. Unlike with many shaft/bearing installations, no shims are needed in this assembly because Naiad is able to control the dimension of the sleeve so precisely during their manufacturing process.

After reinserting the shaft, I chose to raise it up another 3/8 of an inch so that the bottom seals would ride on new shaft surface material.

It is important to keep in mind that the only thing holding the shaft and the stabilizer in the boat are the two torque arm side-bolts which are torqued to 95Ft Lbs. (see bolt #42 and 43 in the Naiad shop drawing above) that squeeze the torque arm around the spines milled into the top of the shaft .

While it may look like the large nut on the top of the stabilizer shaft is doing the job of keeping the shaft in the boat, IT IS NOT!!! Its principal job is to act as the shaft height adjustment nut. The real shaft retaining work is done by the squeeze the torque arm is performing around the shaft splines.

The balance of the reassembly went quite fast, as did the final realignment of the potentiometer so the center lock pin drops in place as it should.

The sleeve and bearing package is preloaded to 60 FT Lbs torque.

Buttoning up.

Almost done. What a beautiful bottom!!

Dave Schmidt and I cleaning the fin shaft and pocket with brake cleaner.

Up a smidge please.

Torque to 300 Ft-Lbs

Do we make the fin parallel with the keel? Why not toe it out a bit? What is the water flow like at the stabilizer? Let’s toe it out about 3 inches!

Twenty gallons of bottom paint later: I decided to use International 640, but will it work? After asking the local commercial fleet operators, it looks like a coin-toss on what bottom paint works best here in Hawaii.

Splash time.

You can be assured that the next time that the seals need to be replaced, the work will be done by someone else but I will be there watching!!

A BIG THANKS to my SENSEI: Even though Dick McGrew, Naiad's Pacific Ocean Tech was on vacation, he would respond to my many telephone calls with my questions; and Doug Janes ,who has been doing Naiads since Naiad started, was, and is, an invaluable source of knowledge, help, and support!!

Dick McGrew

Technical Services Manager for the Pacific

Naiad Dynamics

dmcgrew@naiad.com

206 359 0500

Doug Janes

J3 Systems

425 345 1470

jjj.sustems@frontier.com

Ryan Parker

S3Maritime

206 491 1595

ryan@s3maritime.com

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Starr's Voyage to Hawai'i - Impressions of a Nordhavn Owner

Wed, 04 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

MV STARR: A Northern Marine 75’ LLC
Starr’s Voyage to Hawai’i - Impressions of a Nordhavn Owner
written by Viktor Grabner

Starr at Waikiki Yacht Club - Viktor is the big guy on far left

Nordhavn’s are built to cross oceans. My own Nordhavn 50, Loreley has a range of almost 3000 nm that enables it to reach any place on earth. Its build withstands the weather and waves the oceans might throw at it, and the on-board systems are built to run continuously and trouble free. Yet, my boat could have never done the trip we just took aboard Starr - 24 days at sea, traveling over 4000 nm.

It is of course interesting to compare and think about how a Nordhavn would have fared on this trip relative to Starr.

To say it right off - it’s impossible to compare two different boats unless they’ve been in exactly the same seas and weather. I kept thinking how my own boat would do in similar conditions and kept mental notes on wind, swells and waves, but a true comparison requires being in the same water at the same time.

During our voyage, we had dramatic variation on speed and fuel consumption - our speed varied from under 6 to over 9 knots, and fuel burn from 0.7 to 1.2 + MPG. While we varied speed sometime, most of these variations were caused by wind, waves, and currents - and significantly the latter, which seemed to have a mind of their own, and caused our speed to go up or down but as much as 2 knots in a few hours!

If you look at our fuel burn chart, you get an idea how much variation we had, and how we adjusted our speed to reduce fuel burn. This got better as our journey went on (and we suspect that lighter weight also helped,) and we arrived with nearly 1350 gallons in reserve.

Beyond fuel consumptions, there is plenty of discussion and debate on design of the “perfect” boat.

Starr is a proven cruiser - with more than 75k miles on her bottom, and nearly 10,000 hours on her engine, she has proven herself as a capable cruise boat. Interestingly she has some design features that are hot debate topics - notably her pronounced pilothouse forward design and a bulbous bow hull. Let me start though with the one vs two engine debate, and what constitutes a good back up in case of engine failure.

Starr has a single Cummins NTA855M engine mated to a Deep Case ZF gear with 4.5:1 reduction swinging a 5 bladed 50” prop. There is no second engine, and no second shaft or prop.

The shaft is fitted with a large gear sprocket that can be connected by a chain to a hydraulic motor that is driven by a hydraulic pump connected to either of the 20kw generators, giving emergency propulsion in case of engine or marine gear failure. This scheme obviously uses the same shaft and prop, so the backup would not be effective in case of fouled running gear or damaged or lost prop.

This approach contrasts with the one used on many Nordhavn that use small engines, (such as a Yanmar 40hp sailboat engine on my Loreley or Luggers on the larger boats), using a separate gear, shaft and prop. The advantages of this approach are immediate readiness (don't need to put on the chain,) and independent running gear.

On our trip, the cummins didn't miss a beat during its 530 running hours, and we never needed to think about backup power. In fact, in all the years of cruising, Don only used this backup power once, when a faulty solenoid shut down the fuel supply to the cummins - a problem he debugged and fixed in a few hours.

I prefer Starr's get home arrangement over the separate get home engine on Loreley, for simplicity and appropriateness of use - that is, its complexity, cost and time to engage relative to likelihood of needing to engage it. I believe the separate get home engine, while easy and fast to engage and redundant, adds a disproportionate amount of complexity, cost and maintenance to the boat, as would a completely redundant main engine. Starr’s get home arrangement, by contrast, is simple. And of course, we had plenty of bed sheets in case we needed to rig an emergency sail. :)

The pilothouse on Starr has a pronounced forward location. The forward windows are located barely 15 feet back from the bow. This gives the boat huge space aft, both in the salon as well as boat deck. Critics of this design argue that an aft placed pilothouse provides a far more comfortable ride with less pounding and pitching experienced by the watch crew.

I have no experience with pilothouse aft designs (Loreley also has her PH forward,) so I cannot offer a comparison between the ride quality of the two different designs.

I can, however, say that during our entire trip, the ride in the PH was comfortable and watchstanding was easy. Pitch was soft with little pounding. There were only a few hours when things had to be secured from falling or tipping over (like our water drinking bottles.) As I write these lines, we're headed into 5' swells with 4-5 ft waves and 14 kts of wind, all about 20 degrees to the port of the bow. We keep the port PH door closed to avoid spray, but have the starboard door wide open for air and sunshine. Were pitching, but not in a jarring way, and my water bottle stays put on the dashboard.

The bulbous bow is also an area of extensive debate. Critics cite poor sea kindliness against weather, and argue that the efficiency benefits don't exist or are even less efficient than a fine bow design. My opinion is biased, as my boat Loreley is also equipped with a bulbous bow and has offered a ride similar to our experience on Starr. In short, we've not experienced poor ride, spray or rough pitching or noise caused by the bulb. Not having a way to compare it to a boat without a bulb in this water makes it impossible to compare, but the subjectively experienced ride is comfortable, and no crew member, even when asked, felt that the boat rode poorly or uncomfortably.

As to the efficiency - again, comparisons evade us - over the 4000 miles of our trip, we managed a 1 MPG at an average speed of 7-8 kts, with currents, wind and waves against us 100% of the time.

These impressions are subjective and I doubt they will settle any debates. Ultimately the test of a good cruising boat is the question of whether the crew would be willing to do the same trip again? My answer is yes - our three weeks aboard have been comfortable and safe and I would not change a thing.

One last thought - in all the discussion over what makes the perfect cruising boat, among the most important elements is the crew itself - a good crew can overcome mechanical problems (to a degree of course..) while a poor crew can make the best boat a miserable experience. We had a great boat and an excellent crew - a perfect combination. I’m convinced that any Nordhavn, well maintained, with a carefully matched crew, can offer the same quality passage as we had on Starr.

Viktor was also Starr's "official" photographer

***** A FIVE-STARR PASSAGE

Sat, 30 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

***** A FIVE-STARR PASSAGE

April 30, 2011
Waikiki Yacht Club, Honolulu, HI
21degrees 17-12N/157degrees 50-35W

Gary & Jean and Don & Sharry
The CCA was well represented at the International Date Line

On February 19, 2011 Jean and I received an email from Don and Sharry on the M/V Starr to be crew on their voyage from Osaka, Japan to Honolulu. After about five minutes of discussion we decided this was a chance of a lifetime; a dream come true. We had covered many thousands of miles far and wide on our sailboat, Ghost Fox, and our trawler, Daisy over the thirteen years we cruised full time. However we had never made it to the Western Pacific. We have known Don and Sharry through the Cruising Club of America and have had many great times with them and knew that a month aboard Starr would be very pleasurable. One of Don’s first questions was how is our health? Jean and I felt we were in good shape for our age, me bicycling a 100 miles plus a week and Jean doing her energetic exercise class three times a week plus a three mile daily walk. One thing we learned on this trip is there is a great deal of difference between the serenity of sailing down wind on a sailboat than beating to weather for four thousand miles.

Starr is beautiful vessel that was designed as a passage maker. The Cummings ran at soothing 1300 and 1500 RPM. The transmission has a 4.5 to 1 reduction gear than turned a five-blade 50” propeller that was powerful and quiet. The engine noise level in the pilothouse was almost unnoticeable. Four separate staterooms and heads provide a place for private time or to catch up on sleep. We did three-hour watches that worked out very nicely. Ever successful cruise consists of a great crew. All our personalities got along great. We had good conversations, great laughs and were serious when needed. After 24 days of cruising we arrived in Honolulu and all six of us are still good friends.

Our meals were wonderful; Sharry did a great job in provisioning and making menus for six people for a month. She and Jean had a fun time in the galley preparing the dinner every night, even if we were rocking and rolling. During the dinner preparation, the guys were in the pilothouse telling their sea stories. We all fixed our own breakfast and lunches but dinners were in the pilothouse so we all could eat together; that was a special time for all of us. Then Sharry and Jean got to relax and Gary and Viktor did the dishes. It was all very organized.

The Robertson Autopilot, Naiad Stabilizers, Furuno Radars and AIS all worked flawlessly.

Thanks Sharry and Don for giving us the chance to live one of our dreams to cross an ocean!

Gary and Jean Coard
MV Daisy

Jean & Gary on watch

Jean & Gary off watch

What Day is it? What time is it? It’s a conundrum.

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

What Day is it? What time is it? It’s a conundrum.
Friday, 22 April or Thursday April 21, 2011?
1015 Z or 1914 JST or 0015 HST?

Boy have we been confused!!! Not about our port of departure (Osaka) or our port of arrival (Honolulu), but about what time are we using on the ship’s clocks and what time is it when we report to our weather router or write entries at the start of each watch in the Passage Log.

This morning we crossed the International Date Line (22 N/180 E/W). We started our voyage on Japan Standard Time (JST), but as we continued to cruise east we became totally out of synch with the sun and the moon. Eating dinner in the dark and missing the sunrise (which occurred around 0300 Japan Time) was making my mind and body feel weird.

We departed Osaka, Japan on Tuesday, 5 April (which was really Monday 4 April in Seattle and Hawaii). We cruised with the clocks on JST and used JST each watch change in our Passage Log until 18 April, but made our position/weather data reports in Zulu time (Greenwich Mean Time). On 18 April we changed the clocks to Hawaiian Standard Time (HST) and started to write in the Passage Log using Zulu time. This is what we should have started with and will in all future passages where Starr is traveling across vast stretches of ocean from east to west or vice versa. Our Homeport in Ashiya, Japan was at 34 degrees North /135 degrees East. Here at the International Dateline we are at 22 degrees N/180 degrees East, which now changes to 180 degrees West. Our destination of Waikiki Yacht Club in Honolulu is at 21 degrees North/157 degrees West .

Today our confusion about the day and the time is over. The clocks are on Hawaii Time and we just have to wait for Starr to catch up with the Sun and the Moon. We report to our Weather Guy in Zulu time, which is the time we have set on both of our GPS. And today is firmly Thursday, April 21. It is a tremendous relief to know where we stand (or float) in the World.

We expect to arrive at WYC the morning of Friday, April 29, 2011.
It has been a very long passage: we still have plenty of provisions, the crew all still enjoys each other’s company, and Don and I are still best friends.

Sharry Stabbert

Passage to Hawaii -We are at the International Dateline

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

21 April, 2000Z, We are at the International Dateline.

Pos 22 12N/180E/W

Nm run since Ashiya 2820Nm, 16 days running so far.

Distance left to go to Honolulu, 1230Nm. 6 plus days left to finish.

The generator only ran 17 total hours during the first 15 days.

Due to the temperature and humidity, we have started the genset so we can have A/C and more comfort for sleeping.

We have been carefully monitoring our fuel burn and this run has defiantly given us more accurate data for running W to E against the weather. We use 3 separate metering devices, which are two Great Plains Industries. 03 series, electronic digital meters plus a FloScan gallon per hour and total gallons used meter. One of our tasks has been to properly document and calibrate the error factors for each of these units. Having the 4 IBC’s with 1000 liters each gave us a good calibrating tool.

Our next task was to record fuel efficiency against adverse wind, wave and current.
Some conditions had the wind occasionally 25kts, and wave over 8ft. At times the boat would almost stop. The slowest speed noticed was down to 1.5kts. In conditions like that we would pull back the rpm’s to around 1200. To push any harder was just a waste of fuel. During the first 1500Nm we encountered more adverse current than the current charts were showing and our average SOG was around 6+ kts. We are now making over 8kts, still with 6-14kt breeze on our nose and obviously the current has let go of us. A few minutes ago we did a 180 turn to check the impact of the current and not to our surprise found it is slightly with us…I’d say 0.5kts with us. YEAH!!

For those who may be interested I ‘m attaching our fuel calculations The cumbersome line by line, hour by hour,gallon by gallon is mine. The cool graphic one is Viktor Grabner’s; Viktor is a computer wiz and he’s going to teach me how to do those graphs . I can tell you that this is not the place to be creative in telling our fuel use numbers. We are not at the yacht club dock spinning yarns. It is just too darn far to get to Hawaii by paddling this baby.

We are enjoying the SOG 8.6kt ride we have right now because it may get a little nasty around the 26th, with NE 20kts of wind and lots of fetch.

---> Starr Fuel Transfer Log

---> Starr Fuel Burn Down

Stay tuned..
Don

Passage to Hawaii

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Starr

10 April 10, 2011,0400Z
26 22N/144 46E

We are 700nm SE of Ashiya. Yesterday at 0200JST, we pulled into Chichijima 27N/142E., 600nm from Ashiya and re topped off, loading an additional 2700 liters of fuel.

We departed Chichijima at 1500JST, 13hrs later. Currently we are 150nm ESE of Chichijima. Our next way point is 25N/160E with 3162nm left to Hawaii.

Don

Notes from crew:

This is Jean & Gary.
We are with a great crew having a great time cruising on Starr. In Chichijima, crew almost went AWOL. It is an island of paradise with a lot of history that we will most defiantly be returning to visit.

Gary’s and my watch are 0900-1200 and 2100-2400. Sunsets and the stars are beautiful and we had dolphins escorting us yesterday. Starr is handling the seas beautifully, however the barometer is falling. Stay tuned.

Jean & Gary Coard
p.s. just saw 2 whales, the weather is getting warm and we are counting the days to dance the hula.

This is Viktor
Aside from my watches at 1200 and 0000, I’ve been focused on building forms and spreadsheets to track and calculate our fuel consumption and estimate our distance to go. We calculate our MPG (miles per gallon,) to ensure that we will arrive in Hawaii with plenty of fuel in reserve. As part of that, I update our fuel burn, DTG (distance to go,) and TTB (Time To Beer.) Starr is a dry boat on a passage, so TTB is the same as the better known TTG (time to go) for our arrival in Hawaii.

Viktor Grabner

This is DAVE.
Starr is a wonderful vessel to cruise on. It is very quiet and with the active stabilizer fins, a very comfortable ride compared to tugs ! The crew is great, the atmosphere relaxing and food is always superb. Having fun ! DAVE

From Sharry:
Blue skies and sunshine during the day; waxing moon and the brightest stars at night. Compatible crew and NICE people!! I am now caught up on my sleep, almost finished reading my first book and only 24 days to go!!!

Sayonara Japan, Aloha Hawaii

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Sayonara Japan, Aloha Hawaii
5 April 2011

MV Starr is departing from Osaka this afternoon at 1230, Tuesday, April 5 in Japan
We anticipate that the passage will take us 3 weeks, so our ETA will be sometime around 27 April to 1 May.

You can follow Starr on our passage by clicking on the link directly above this entry in the website.

We have a very experienced and compatible crew:
Gary and Jean Coard, CCA friends
Viktor Grabner, SYC friend
Dave Schmidt, a friend from Honolulu

Suma Yacht Club members and Kokoro from Bellport Marina saw us off from Ashiya. Our Suma Yacht Club friends, Kenichi and Mari Koi, escorted us on our way in their sailboat Wind Sailor.

Stretching the Fuel Range to Cross the Pacific, Part 2

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Stretching the Fuel Range to Cross the Pacific Part 2: Fitting the auxiliary fuel tanks.

Guest blog entry by Viktor Grabner, crewmember

Don has already written about the challenge of making our fuel last the 3800 nm voyage across the Pacific. He discussed fuel saving strategies and stretching our fuel capacity by using Intermediate Bulk Containers (IBCs) as auxiliary fuel tanks to add another 1000 gallons of fuel for our voyage.

We have now installed our IBCs to augment the fuel capacity of Starr and that gives us the range and reserve to make the non-stop voyage to Hawaii.

As a first step, we moved Starr to a dock that was close to where the IBCs were stored; this saved us from having to find a way to move these palette sized tanks all around the marina. It turned out they are surprisingly lightweight empty – the tank is made of an extruded plastic, surrounded by a metal cage that protects the tank itself. All this is mounted on a standard sized palette. Two of us easily carried a tank that weighed no more than 70 lbs empty.

After lining them up on the dock, we went on the task of removing remaining fluids and thoroughly cleaning the tanks on the inside. These IBCs were used to transport a relatively safe (i.e. non flammable or poisonous) industrial chemical used for cleaning and disinfection. We confirmed that both the tank material and its previous content is not harmful to our diesel fuel, but still decided to carefully scrub and clean any residue of this material.

When Don found the IBCs, he carefully measured the aft cockpit of Starr and decided that they will fit four abreast – he knew it would be a very tight fit, and when we lifted the first IBC to check its placement in the tightest spot, the moment of truth arrived - a sheepish Don looked on as the IBC dropped into its place as if it had been designed for Starr – a perfect fit (and no extra room!) The same held true for the additional three containers and we were relieved to see the plan coming together.

The next step was to design and build a build a bracing and tie down systems that would hold these tanks in place, fully fueled in even the worst seas. With each tank holding 1000 liters of fuel, the combined weight of tanks and fuel would be about 8000 pounds. The tanks cannot move in any sea, and even with the aft deck awash in several inches of water. Don brought large tie down straps that hold the tanks down and aft against a bracing system we built from lumber scavenged at the boat yard.

The bracing system consists of several pieces of 3 by 10” lumber that was left over from building the docks. We cut and beveled the ends of this lumber to form a bracing across the breadth of the transom. The palettes sit up against this bracing and are pulled by the tie down straps that we secure through the hawseholes with pipes.

This ties the IBCs together as one solid unit that it pulled down onto the deck and against the aft bracing at the transom.

View from above

The IBCs are filled through an opening on the top of the tank, and the fuel is withdrawn through a valve at the bottom. We have fitted the cam-lock fuel intake of Starr with a fuel hose that connects to the bottom valve, which allows us to transfer the fuel from the IBC to Starr’s internal fuel tanks, or even use the IBC as a fuel to draw directly from. While the latter is preferable, as it is the fastest way for us to lighten the load in the aft cockpit, we will carefully watch the fuel in the tank to ensure that it is clean and doesn’t have any unexpected reactions with the tank material or previous content.

Our goal is to use the fuel stored in the IBCs first and as quickly as possible – this will take us about a week.

What will we happen with the empty tanks? We sure look forward to reclaiming Starr’s aft cockpit as soon as we can, but that means we need to get rid of the tanks. Just dumping them overboard is not a choice, since the tanks are partially plastic, which is not only illegal to dump, but would also be against our view of treading lightly and being respectful to the environment.

Instead, we will cut up the empty tanks and separate plastics, metal and wood and stow the materials aboard until we can recycle and dispose of them properly after our arrival in Hawaii.

GOOD NEWS!!!

Sat, 02 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

GOOD NEWS!!!

On April 2, the day after April Fool's Day, Don signed back on as Captain of STARR.

The crew is delighted.

Change of Watch aboard Starr

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

News Flash: Change of Watch aboard Starr
1 April 2011

Preparations aboard Starr for her voyage to Honolulu are in full swing. Unfortunately, we have to make bit of a startling announcement: Don decided to not take this trip with Starr, but instead retire from cruising effective immediately.

Having just taken delivery of, and “commissioned” his first granddaughter, Don can’t wait to see her again! He’s taking the plane back to Seattle to actively participate in raising her and retire from the cruising life. While he is scheduled to leave Japan within days, Sharry will stay behind to take this trip and keep order aboard Starr. Grandpa Don and little Katherine will join Starr at her arrival in Waikiki, Hawaii in late April.

In our quest to find a replacement captain, we interviewed a number of potential candidates, including the captain of 900 foot tanker who couldn’t work without a pilot onboard, a Whitbread sailor who has circumnavigated twice but couldn’t maneuver in close quarters, and a Nordhavn captain who kept asking “where is the rally?”. Fortunately, we’ve found an excellent candidate in Kokoro Yamauchi, our trusted and well liked Yard Chief here at Ashiya Marina. Having kept an eye on Starr for the last year at her slip, Kokoro is familiar with the boat, and eminently qualified to lead our voyage to Honolulu. In the pictures you see Don checking her out with the engine controls and familiarize her with close quarter maneuvering. Kokuro took to Starr like a fish does to water; the crew loves her and we look forward to our voyage to commence early next week. She has the job!

Join Starr’s crew in wishing all the best to ex-Capt. Don (Ret.), and a warm welcome to Capt. Kokoro-san!

Kokoro-san under the watchful eyes of Capt. Don (Ret.)

She has the Job! Welcome Kokoro-san, Captain!

Good-bye Capt Don! (Ret) (picture with Starr crew and friends Kenichi and Mari Koi from Ashiya)

Viktor Grabner

2^nd officer aboard Starr, and captain of Nordhavn 50 “Loreley”

What's really going on at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT

What’s really going on at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant
March 17, 2011

Sent to us by a friend in Ashiya, Japan
Written by Bill Andrews and emailed by the Dean of Engineering at the University of Washington:

Here’s a little more measured and accurate article than what you have been seeing in the media about what’s going on at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. It’s written by the Dean of Engineering at the University of Washington, but he’s written it pretty much in laymen’s language so it’s comprehensible to us mere mortals.

For those of you who are concerned about what has happened in Japan, the below article should, I hope, put your mind to rest.

The Japanese built well and responded with great professionalism. My hat's off to them.

The media did its normal job of sensationalism and yellow journalism. Nothing more or less than is expected of them. Little wonder that the media is held in the same regard as is Congress. Bedfellows in a third-rate romance, low-rent rendezvous.

The news media blew the event completely out of control by sensationalizing their sense of the danger involved. They made it sound like there was severe danger to the west coast from radioactive gasses carrying across the pacific.

They had no knowledge, and acquired none before reporting. They only reported their personal uninformed opinions instead of facts.

They should be held accountable for their actions, but won't be.

NEVER trust the news media, and take the info they report in context with their known agendas. Most of them are anti nuclear to begin with and are part of the crowd that has prevented Calif. from building power plants to supply their electrical needs.

This is an excellent explanation of what really happened at Fukushima, and what was done to control and contain the damage. It was written by a Bill Andrews and forwarded by the Dean of Engineering at the University of Washington. The author did an excellent job of explaining what happened in terms that do not require advanced degrees in nuclear engineering to understand.

"What happened at Fukushima?
I will try to summarize the main facts. The earthquake that hit Japan was 5 times more powerful than the worst earthquake the nuclear power plant was built for (the Richter scale works logarithmically; the difference between the 8.2 that the plants were built for and the 8.9 that happened is 5 times, not 0.7). So the first hooray for Japanese engineering, everything held up.

When the earthquake hit with 8.9, the nuclear reactors all went into automatic shutdown. Within seconds after the earthquake started, the control rods had been inserted into the core and nuclear chain reaction of the uranium stopped. Now, the cooling system has to carry away the residual heat. The residual heat load is about 3% of the heat load under normal operating conditions. The earthquake destroyed the external power supply of the nuclear reactor. That is one of the most serious accidents for a nuclear power plant, and accordingly, a plant black out receives a lot of attention when designing backup systems. The power is needed to keep the coolant pumps working. Since the power plant had been shut down, it cannot produce any electricity by itself any more.

Things were going well for an hour. One set of multiple sets of emergency Diesel power generators kicked in and provided the electricity that was needed. Then the Tsunami came, much bigger than people had expected when building the power plant. The tsunami took out all multiple sets of backup Diesel generators.

When designing a nuclear power plant, engineers follow a philosophy called Defense of Depth. That means that you first build everything to withstand the worst catastrophe you can imagine, and then design the plant in such a way that it can still handle one system failure (that you thought could never happen) after the other. A tsunami taking out all backup power in one swift strike is such a scenario. The last line of defense is putting everything into the third containment, that will keep everything, whatever the mess, control rods in our out, core molten or not, inside the reactor.

When the diesel generators were gone, the reactor operators switched to emergency battery power. The batteries were designed as one of the backups to the backups, to provide power for cooling the core for 8 hours. And they did.

Within the 8 hours, another power source had to be found and connected to the power plant. The power grid was down due to the earthquake. The diesel generators were destroyed by the tsunami. So mobile diesel generators were trucked in. This is where things started to go seriously wrong. The external power generators could not be connected to the power plant (the plugs did not fit). So after the batteries ran out, the residual heat could not be carried away any more.

At this point the plant operators begin to follow emergency procedures that are in place for a loss of cooling event. It is again a step along the Depth of Defense lines. The power to the cooling systems should never have failed completely, but it did, so they retreat to the next line of defense. All of this, however shocking it seems to us, is part of the day-to-day training you go through as an operator, right through to managing a core meltdown.

It was at this stage that people started to talk about core meltdown. Because at the end of the day, if cooling cannot be restored, the core will eventually melt (after hours or days), and the last line of defense, the core catcher and third containment, would come into play.

But the goal at this stage was to manage the core while it was heating up, and ensure that the first containment (the Zircaloy tubes that contains the nuclear fuel), as well as the second containment remain intact and operational for as long as possible, to give the engineers time to fix the cooling systems.

Because cooling the core is such a big deal, the reactor has a number of cooling systems, each in multiple versions (the reactor water cleanup system, the decay heat removal, the reactor core isolating cooling, the standby liquid cooling system, and the emergency core cooling system). Which one failed when or did not fail is not clear at this point in time.

So imagine a pressure cooker on the stove, heat on low, but on. The operators use whatever cooling system capacity they have to get rid of as much heat as possible, but the pressure starts building up. The priority now is to maintain integrity of the first containment (keep temperature of the fuel rods below 2200C), as well as the second containment, the pressure cooker. In order to maintain integrity of the pressure cooker (the second containment), the pressure has to be released from time to time. Because the ability to do that in an emergency is so important, the reactor has 11 pressure release valves. The operators now started venting steam from time to time to control the pressure. The temperature at this stage was about 550C.

This is when the reports about radiation leakage starting coming in. I believe I explained above why venting the steam is theoretically the same as releasing radiation into the environment, but why it was and is not dangerous. The radioactive nitrogen as well as the noble gases does not pose a threat to human health.

At some stage during this venting, the explosion occurred... The explosion took place outside of the third containment (our last line of defense), and the reactor building.

Remember that the reactor building has no function in keeping the radioactivity contained. It is not entirely clear yet what has happened, but this is the likely scenario: The operators decided to vent the steam from the pressure vessel not directly into the environment, but into the space between the third containment and the reactor building (to give the radioactivity in the steam more time to subside). The problem is that at the high temperatures that the core had reached at this stage, water molecules can disassociate into oxygen and hydrogen an explosive mixture.

And it did explode, outside the third containment, damaging the reactor building around. It was that sort of explosion, but inside the pressure vessel (because it was badly designed and not managed properly by the operators) that lead to the explosion of Chernobyl. This was never a risk at Fukushima. The problem of hydrogen-oxygen formation is one of the biggies when you design a power plant (if you are not Soviet, that is), so the reactor is built and operated in a way it cannot happen inside the containment. It happened outside, which was not intended but a possible scenario and OK, because it did not pose a risk for the containment.

So the pressure was under control, as steam was vented. Now, if you keep boiling your pot, the problem is that the water level will keep falling and falling. The core is covered by several meters of water in order to allow for some time to pass (hours, days) before it gets exposed. Once the rods start to be exposed at the top, the exposed parts will reach the critical temperature of 2200C after about 45 minutes. This is when the first containment, the Zircaloy tube, would fail.

And this started to happen. The cooling could not be restored before there was some (very limited, but still) damage to the casing of some of the fuel. The nuclear material itself was still intact, but the surrounding Zircaloy shell had started melting. What happened now is that some of the byproducts of the uranium decay radioactive Cesium and Iodine started to mix with the steam. The big problem, uranium, was still under control, because the uranium oxide rods were good until 3000C. It is confirmed that a very small amount of Cesium and Iodine was measured in the steam that was released into the atmosphere.

It seems this was the go signal for a major plan B. The small amounts of Cesium that were measured told the operators that the first containment on one of the rods somewhere was about to give. The Plan A had been to restore one of the regular cooling systems to the core. Why that failed is unclear. One plausible explanation is that the tsunami also took away / polluted all the clean water needed for the regular cooling systems.

The water used in the cooling system is very clean, dematerialized (like distilled) water. The reason to use pure water is the above mentioned activation by the neutrons from the Uranium: Pure water does not get activated much, so stays practically radioactive-free. Dirt or salt in the water will absorb the neutrons quicker, becoming more radioactive. This has no affect whatsoever on the core it does not care what it is cooled by. But it makes life more difficult for the operators and mechanics when they have to deal with activated. Slightly radioactive) water.

But Plan A had failed cooling systems down or additional clean water unavailable so Plan B came into effect.

This is what it looks like happened: In order to prevent a core meltdown, the operators started to use sea water to cool the core. I am not quite sure if they flooded our pressure cooker with it (the second containment), or if they flooded the third containment, immersing the pressure cooker. But that is not relevant for us.

The point is that the nuclear fuel has now been cooled down. Because the chain reaction has been stopped a long time ago, there is only very little residual heat being produced now. The large amount of cooling water that has been used is sufficient to take up that heat. Because it is a lot of water, the core does not produce sufficient heat any more to produce any significant pressure. Also, boric acid has been added to the seawater. Boric acid is liquid control rod. Whatever decay is still going on, the Boron will capture the neutrons and further speed up the cooling down of the core. The plant came close to a core meltdown. Here is the worst-case scenario that was avoided: If the seawater could not have been used for treatment, the operators would have continued to vent the water steam to avoid pressure buildup. The third containment would then have been completely sealed to allow the core meltdown to happen without releasing radioactive material. After the meltdown, there would have been a waiting period for the intermediate radioactive materials to decay inside the reactor, and all radioactive particles to settle on a surface inside the containment. The cooling system would have been restored eventually, and the molten core cooled to a manageable temperature. The containment would have been cleaned up on the inside. Then a messy job of removing the molten core from the containment would have begun, packing the (now solid again) fuel bit by bit into transportation containers to be shipped to processing plants. Depending on the damage, the block of the plant would then either be repaired or dismantled.

Now, where does that leave us?
My assessment: The plant is safe now and will stay safe...

Japan is looking at an INES Level 4 Accident: Nuclear accident with local consequences. That is bad for the company that owns the plant, but not for anyone else.

Some radiation was released when the pressure vessel was vented. All radioactive isotopes from the activated steam have gone (decayed). A very small amount of Cesium was released, as well as Iodine. If you were sitting on top of the plants chimney when they were venting, you should probably give up smoking to return to your former life expectancy. The Cesium and Iodine isotopes were carried out to the sea and will never be seen again. There was some limited damage to the first containment. That means that some amounts of radioactive Cesium and Iodine will also be released into the cooling water, but no Uranium or other nasty stuff (the Uranium oxide does not dissolve in the water). There are facilities for treating the cooling water inside the third containment. The radioactive Cesium and Iodine will be removed there and eventually stored as radioactive waste in terminal storage.

The seawater used as cooling water will be activated to some degree. Because the control rods are fully inserted, the Uranium chain reaction is not happening. That means the main nuclear reaction is not happening, thus not contributing to the activation. The intermediate radioactive materials (Cesium and Iodine) are also almost gone at this stage, because the Uranium decay was stopped a long time ago. This further reduces the activation. The bottom line is that there will be some low level of activation of the seawater, which will also be removed by the treatment facilities. The seawater will then be replaced over time with the normal cooling water.

The reactor core will then be dismantled and transported to a processing facility, just like during a regular fuel change.

Fuel rods and the entire plant will be checked for potential damage. This will take about 4-5 years.

The safety systems on all Japanese plants will be upgraded to withstand a 9.0 earthquake and tsunami (or worse).

(Updated) I believe the most significant problem will be a prolonged power shortage. 11 of Japans 55 nuclear reactors in different plants were shut down and will have to be inspected, directly reducing the nation’s nuclear power generating capacity by 20%, with nuclear power accounting for about 30% of the national total power generation capacity.?I have not looked into possible consequences for other nuclear plants not directly affected. This will probably be covered by running gas power plants that are usually only used for peak loads to cover some of the base load as well.

I am not familiar with Japan’s energy supply chain for oil, gas and coal, and what damage the harbors, refinery, storage and transportation networks have suffered, as well as damage to the national distribution grid. All of that will increase your electricity bill, as well as lead to power shortages during peak demand and reconstruction efforts, in Japan.

This all is only part of a much bigger picture. Emergency response has to deal with shelter, drinking water, food and medical care, transportation and communication infrastructure, as well as electricity supply. In a world of lean supply chains, we are looking at some major challenges in all of these areas.

If you want to stay informed, please forget the usual media outlets and consult the following
websites:

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_Battle_to_stabilise_earthquake_reactors_1203111.html
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_Venting_at_Fukushima_Daiichi_3_1303111.htm
http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/03/12/japan-nuclear-earthquake/
http://ansnuclearcafe.org/2011/03/11/media-updates-on-nuclear-power-stations-in-japan/

On Thu, Mar 17, 2011, The Dean of Engineering sent this explanation of the nuclear situation in Japan. Apparently, the author (Bill Andrews) knows a lot about nuclear reactors and provides a non-sensationalized explanation.

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_Possible_damage_at_Fukushima_Daiichi_2_1503111.html

An amazing article from the NY Times

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Newly Homeless Re-Establish Order Amid Chaos - NYTimes.com

March 26, 20100

Please read this article from the NY Times.

It touched me to deeply that I cried.

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/world/asia/26refugees.html?pagewanted=2&ref=global-home

Life in Japan Today

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Life in Japan Today

March 24, 2011

Sharry's Note: The Japan death toll is now 9800 bodies and 17,500 missing.

It is so easy to stop watching the news regarding a disaster like this: it is so far away and life moves on. Don and I are returning to Ashiya on Tuesday, 29 March. We know that we will be entering a world of mourning, a world that we Americans can relate to because it is like our world after 9/11. We will return to Japan, and for the brief time before we leave on Starr, we will mourn with our Japanese friends.

We promise that we will not forget.

From a Japanese friend living in Honolulu on 17 March:

“So glad to hear you and Don are in Seattle.

Thank you so much for the love and care you have for the Japanese people. As a dual citizen, I greatly appreciate your email and information.

My family and I are following the events in Japan closely and we are in constant touch. We are prepared to take in our Japanese family and friends if the need to leave Tokyo and environs (young children or elderly) arise. Hopefully, it won’t get to that point and people are staying calm there. Thankfully, Hawaii escaped this with limited damage and we are relatively close in proximity and adjustment here would be easy.

Because of supplies and effort required for emergency repairs, evacuation, and relief efforts underway for Tohoku region, there is stress on all of Kanto region and beyond (diverting electricity for Tohoku is the main stress). The effect on industry is acute. Because the government is diverting all necessary supplies and material to relief efforts first, there is lack of raw material (steel, concrete, electrical wires, etc). The only way industries will be able to operate is if they can secure materials from abroad.

Because of the political leadership vacuum that has built up over decades, there is lack of clarity in the information regarding the nuclear danger. We are monitoring the US advisories coming out of the US Embassy (see link below). http://japan.usembassy.gov/e/acs/tacs-warden20110318-01.html

Since US is taking the stance of designating 50 mile radius as evacuation zone, we have passed on this message to our friends there. As you know, the Japanese government only evacuated people in 12 mile radius.

Although the national broadcaster (NHK) is pretty much a government run entity that tows the official news, 24/7 broadcast is available in Japanese and English. FYI, I’m sending you the link.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nhk-world-tv

Please stay tuned and be safe if you are traveling to Japan.”

From a friend in Kobe on 18 March:

“Thank you very much for your email. We are sorry for our late reply.

People in Kobe/Osaka area are deeply concerned at the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

The rescue teams of municipal governments around Kansai district are helping to find missing people

They all say that the devastation caused by tsunami is much more disastrous than Great Hanshin earthquake.

The number of the dead people announced today are 6911, and it exceeded Hanshin earthquake (6434 people died).

16 years ago, we were helped by people all over Japan and all over the world, and every one is willing to return the favor we received.

According to the newspaper, every junior-high students of Kobe started campaigns for funds.

At Kentaro's school which is in Nishinomiya, the students are also standing with the donation box to raise funds.

Right now, roads to Tohoku area are damaged and lack of fuels is very serious, so it is very difficult for common citizens around here to go there to help.

It is reported that people of Tohoku need volunteers who can come and return in one day because the places of refuge are full of people and there are only very small quantity of food, water and fuel.

So at this moment, people hoping to help are mainly sending money to Japanese Red Cross Society, newspaper companies and TV companies etc.

Also relief goods are accepted at certain municipal governments , so people are bringing clothings, blankets, canned food, powder milk for babies, diapers etc.

Since the railways at the Pacific Ocean side were destroyed, the railways at the Japan Sea side are adjusted and now fuels and water are transported by freight train. According to the news, the train arrived at Morioka, Iwate Pref. today.

Also some ports at the Pacific Ocean are fixed and big vessels are now bringing blankets, foods and water, medical goods etc.

Osaka will provide 2000 houses and Kobe 600, and many other prefectures and cities are also planning to provide houses for the victims.

Yesterday when I went to a supermarket, many lights at the shelves were put off to save electricity for Tohoku.

(Actually frequency is different between Kansai and Tohoku/Kanto, so it is said that only small quantity of electricity could be sent through frequency converter station.)

Thank you very much for thinking of Japan and Japanese people. We really appreciate your kindness.”

Back to Japan

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Back to Japan

March 24, 2011

Note from Don: Go to "DON’S LOG" for additional articles regarding preparing for our passage to Hawaii:

“Getting Ready for the Passage to Honolulu” (1 February)

“Stretching the Fuel Range to Cross the Pacific” (9 March)

We are packing our duffel bags for the return to Japan on 29 March.
We anticipate that our departure from Japan will be around April 6 (?)

Survival suits, tiedown straps, etc.

Frequency drive, 10,000rpm angle grinder w/airhose

What have I forgotten to include in my spares?

1. I am assuming that our Naiad stabilizers will be getting the hardest workout since we started running Starr eleven years ago.

Current stabilizer spares already on board include: spare hydraulic ram, spare hydraulic pump, spare hoses and parker reusable fittings plus extra bits and pieces.

Today I will add to the kit a spare potentiometer and a replacement Datum display/ control module.

The potentiometer is critical to the system as it sends the fin position information to the brain box.

The wheelhouse Datum control module has only been known to fail very infrequently.

We will also back up the database in our current module, something we haven’t done in the past.

2. A 4” pneumatic air angle grinder with plenty of hose, and ten 4” cut-off wheels to be used underwater to cut away ropes or cables, or whatever might be fowling the prop or running gear. I am also bringing an underwater camera so I can photograph a problem under the boat, if I might need some time to find a solution.

3. Tie-down ratchet straps and bands for securing the fuel tanks on the back deck.

4. Two new survival suits, plus replacement inflatable life vests to replace defective ones on the four survival suits already on board.

5. A spare 8-port USB to RS232 Adapter, to be used as back up to the current SeaLevel USB to Serial Adapter. This adapter is critical to the operation of the Nav computer. We do have four back-up Nav and communication computers. Excessive?

6. A YASKAWA Frequency drive unit, as back-up to the Fuji AF-300-P11 which drives the engine room blower. These units do have a limited life span and ours is ten years old.

7. A whole lot of various spare gaskets, light bulbs, propane hoses, etc. You name it.

Won’t the customs guys have fun with all of this?

Don

Katherine Elena Stabbert

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Katherine Elena Stabbert
Born March 22, 2011 - 7:17 am - 8 lbs 4.5 oz. - 19.5 inches.

Shannon and Brooke are doing well and we are very happy!

Additional response from friends to 3/11

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Additional response from friends to 3/11:

(Please note recommendation for donations to relief effort below in red)

From a friend in Kobe, who checked our boat immediately after the earthquake/tsunami:

“Thank you very much for your kind email.

In Kobe, there was a slight low frequency earthquake but I could not feel it.

Also there was Tsunami in Osaka bay but the height was 30cm.

I checked my boats and "Starr" but there was no problem.

Please see attached photo which I took on March 13 at Bellport Ashiya.

Starr in Ashiya

The news form Tohoku area is serious.

Today approximately 3000 have been found dead, and 20000 are still missing.

Also a nuclear power plant exploded in Fukushima and a very small amount of radioactivity was already measured in Tokyo.

We are deeply grateful that US Navy and the rescue team immediately arrived to help the people in disaster.

We are looking forward to seeing you again.”

From a friend in Hiroshima:

“We (all of Japanese) are shocked this time huge disaster very very much.

People think about what we could do.

Also we are thankful to help from all of the world now.”

Regarding charity, I recommend here.

http://www.jrc.or.jp/english/index.html

Also price of oil is same before disaster.

Japanese oil company is holding price this crisis as intension.

I feel western part of Japan is not change life and economic activity.

I think there is not problem you prepare to go voyage.”

A very interesting note from a friend from Friday Harbor, who is currently in New Zealand:

“We were concerned about your whereabouts when the quake struck Japan, and are relieved to know you are in Seattle. We are also relieved to know that your many friends in Japan have largely been spared from the quake's impacts.

The past two months have been surreal. We have been in New Zealand again at our usual places in Taupo and Ohope Beach, and life has been very normal for us. But all around us it seems like disastrous things of dimensions that are hard to grasp are occurring.

First, as I am sure you know, a second major quake struck Christchurch in February, devastating that community. We got emails from a lot of our friends who were concerned about us, but being 600 miles away on the North Island we were not impacted other than sharing our Kiwi friends' sense of loss for that beautiful city and all the folks who died there. The final number will be around 200. In a country of 4.5 million, that is equivalent to about 15,000 people being killed in the USA so you can understand the impact. There wasn't much else on the news here, and it was the constant topic of conversation everywhere, all the time.

Then that huge 9.0 quake hit Japan, with the tsunami, Fukushima, and all the other impacts. It was dinner time here. The effect of the quake and especially the tsunami is much worse than what occurred in Christchurch (though the center of that city and even some of the residential suburbs are essentially destroyed because of liquifaction of the soils made virtually all foundations shift and a lot of buildings collapsed). We had about 12 hours lead time notice for the tsunami, so we packed our "Go Kit", some food, and a few other things in the car that evening and got ready to head for high ground at 6am the next morning. Our rental house here is right on the Pacific Ocean, about 200 feet from the edge of the bank, facing due North, and about 12' above high tide elevation. The terrifying scenes of the tsunami in Japan were worrying even at this distance away, and we didn't want to wait and watch while it rolled in here. That sounded real foolish, but we also knew we would have some idea of the dimension of the tsunami from events elsewhere and especially from up north in New Zealand.

Meanwhile we watched the various networks' broadcasts from Japan that evening. If James Cameron or Michael Jackson had produced a disaster movie, with all the special effects they have at their command, and presented scenes like what we were watching - we would all say that it was not realistic. That could NOT really happen. Boats the size of Starr and larger were surfing across farm fields. Yet we were watching it on the television. We felt so bad for the people of Japan. We had spent a magical day in Narita on a 24-hour layover on our way to New Zealand in January, visiting the old town and the Buddhist temple in that city (built in 940). We ate lunch with the locals in a small restaurant that didn't take credit cards, and later snacked on B-B-Q eel at another place where we all sat on woven floor mats. We were the only tourists in either place, and the people were immensely kind and solicitous to us. And now we didn't know if they and their community were heavily damaged or spared.

The tsunami reached the north end of the North Island about 6am, and got to our area about an hour later. We did not see a noticeable rise or surge here, but it is reported that an area just 150 km west of us experienced about maximum of a 1.6 meter surge inside the harbor in the course of several waves over several hours. There was minimal damage here, mostly in several of the marinas around New Zealand and to the floating mussel farm structures in Marlborough Sounds at the north end of the South Island. The NIWA agency here reported that ALL coastlines of New Zealand experienced some surging, mostly between a foot and five feet. Apparently, the impact wasn't as bad here as on the California coast however.

We will be heading home to Brown Island in about ten days. We have always thought of Iron Wind as our fall back in the event the Big One strikes the Pacific Northwest. We try to keep it stocked and the water and fuel tanks full. Now we aren't so sure. If the house falls over into the water and we live through it, and that's all that happens, we'll be OK on the boat. If a tsunami anything like Japan's surges into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and through the inner waters, we aren't so sure anymore. We'll keep the boat ready as our first retreat, but the option of heading for high ground on San Juan Island is looking better all the time. We have had an emergency kit laid up at the house for years in case we get a big one. It is good for a month, as we know we will be the last in line if the Puget Sound area is heavily impacted. And we have made some additional preparations at our fire station on the island, but not nearly enough. When we get home that will be the first order of business. As well-prepared as the Japanese were, the dimensions of their disaster is beyond even their preparations. At least the Puget Sound area and the San Juans don't have a Satsop nuc plant lying immediately upwind from us, and Richland is 200 miles away. All that contingency planning and still.....”

Life in Japan after 3/11

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Life in Japan after 3/11

March 17, 2010

When the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan on March 11, Don and I were in Seattle waiting for the birth of our first grandchild. During our year in Japan we have made many friends, and shortly after the quake we emailed them and asked if they and their families were OK. It was a tremendous relief to us that all responded in the affirmative.

The huge 9.0 magnitude earthquake that occurred at 14:46 on Saturday (in Japan) was the biggest earthquake in Japan in 1200 years; however, most people don’t realize that there has been a huge amount of earthquake activity following this big quake and its devastating tsunami.

Go to the following link: http://www.japanquakemap.com/

The map clock starts when you land on the page. When it gets to Friday afternoon, things really take off. Even the aftershocks are pretty big quakes and they just keep coming. There have been over 500 so far.

As of this morning the number of people either dead or missing has reached 15,000 and 387,000 people have lost their homes and are in shelters. Of all of the countries in the world Japan is the most prepared for natural disasters, but this was beyond all expectation of the experts. Rescue attempts are ongoing, but infrastructure is broken; roads are impassable, there are no trains and electricity and fuel is at a minimum. The people are without warm clothes, blankets, and adequate food and water. And then yesterday it snowed.

The biggest problem now is the nuclear emergency at Fukushima and the fear of radiation spreading over a large area. We sit here at home searching the newspapers for news and watch events unfold on television. We watch the horror of these events and feel so helpless.

We sent out another email to our friends asking them:

“What is happening in Japan regarding what people are thinking, feeling, doing regarding the earthquake/tsunami, Fukushima disaster?

We would like to understand more about what is happening with the people in the part of Japan where we have been living and traveling. We feel so far away.

Can you recommend anything that we can do to help?”

We have received replies from many of them. The following are are few of their replies:

From our shipping agent in Tokyo:

“Current status in Tokyo is as follows.

Number of aftershocks getting decrease.

Every offices and shops open and working normal.

Scheduled power failure was done by 5 group (5 different area in Kanto area

and different time) About 3 hours a day. Transportation works about 80% of

usual service.

Central of Tokyo, such as our office, never done power failure.

It is hard to take gas for cars as demand is too strong for protection of owns life. Rumour said big aftershock likely to be attacked Tokyo area by 3/16

but not happend.

Re Fukushima disaster, Frankly speaking we do not know real status of the

Nuclear plant. Government worked hard to extinguish fire by support of

US Military but seems not succeeded at present.

US Embassy declared US citizen to escape from Fukushima or stay inside if not available order avoid radioactivity.

People living in Tokyo is watching carefully progress calmly as we have no

country to be backed.

Otherhand western part of Japan, as you feel, they are doing normal and had

no bad affection from earthquake/tsunami even Fukushima disaster.

My idea is better to stay at Ashiya for a while and sail out for Hawaii on April after see fuel supply condition.

Will keep you advised further progress.”

From a friend in Ashiya:

“Terrible, isn't it. Still, though, the effects are very small on the Kansai area. We're all glued to the TV to see what's happening. At this point, you wouldn't notice any real difference in Ashiya. Everything is going on as usual, no panic buying, no changes to the train schedules, nothing.

I asked if they might start diverting our electric power to the Kanto to help out, and was told that they can't because the areas use different hertz. And the loss in converting the power would be so great that it wouldn't be worthwhile. Don can probably understand that better than I can.

As for what you could possibly do, I'd say just pray. Right now, they're still calling for blankets, food, and fuel for the people who are staying in emergency centers, like schools and large auditoriums. The problem is, though, that the roads and train lines are damaged, so they can't even move the stuff up there when they get it.

I imagine they'll move pretty fast to clear the roads.

The nuclear reactor meltdown is a more immediate problem, and from what I hear, you're probably getting better information on that than I am. Hopefully they'll be able to get off-site power to the plant and cool the reactors with pumps and seawater. That seems to be the plan right now.”

From a friend in Ashiya

“As you know the earthquake hit in Fukusima and Sendai and Sanriku seaside. There was an earthquake of magnitude 9 which was outrageous and huge area got damege. Even now we do not konw how many people were killed or missing.

In Fukusima the nuclear power plant had big damege which is more serious problem than earthquake.

So even in Tokyo they don't have enough electricity, that why power cut time to time at home and the train can not run normal time table. And that area destroy everything that why we can not get there, no road no train track etc.

In Osaka area we spend normal life fortunetly. So we donate money. That only things we can do now.

But even Osaka area some people buy rice and water. Yesterday when I went shopping there were no rice and water.

How stupid people they are.

Sorry my English is not good enough to explain. I hope you enjoy staying in home town.”

From a friend in Yobuko on Kyushu:

“Thank you very much for your e-mail and your warm hearts.

Northern and east Honshu has been stricken by the biggest earthquake and tsunami, about 30 feet,10 meters, high.

Japan had been stricken by equal biggest earthquake, about 1,200 years before !

By the time, there are 5,000 over bodies and about 10,000 peoples are missing. But many peoples took refuge.

So, 300,000 over peoples are in places of refuge and shelters. The tsunami struck Fukushima nuclear power plants and destroyed the cooling system for plants. A cooling system are needed absolutely for nuclear plants. Now, the firemen and soldiers are putting out fires and cooling down the plants.

The west Honshu (of course Ashiya) and Kyushu are not affected by these disasters. I and my families are safe. But Hokkaido were attacked by tsunami. So, Hakodate was covered with sea waters, about 7 feet high. My house is a apartment house, in 5th floor, of course is safe.

My wife is fine.

All Japanese peoples are starting to save and help them, by their own ways. Many peoples gives words of encouragement by radio and the other way. And many fund-raising campaigns have started. I think Japanese are calm and cool, and easy to accept own situations. And we help each other.

I will go to Miyako-city in Iwate prefecture, one of damaged city, when would be able to go to there.

Because I had been in that city, I had worked at Miyako fisheries high school, when I was young. There are many close friends.

I want to see and help many friends of mine. Now, the telephone are not available. But I checked them by anyways as I could. They almost are safe !

But I am only observing this situation closely, now.

Thank you very much for you warmest words and hearts, but I don't need your help.”

From a friend in Kyoto:

“Everything is going on as usual in the west Japan. We have quite ordinary days in Kobe, Osaka and Kyoto.

But the more we know the damages to the Tohoku (=north east) area the more our shock become serious. Today it is snow there but people in harbors has no heating, no foods and no medicines. There are a lot of things. People are trying to send the tsunami victims everything which must be helpful for them, but roads and airports are destroyed and no gas, no vehicles. The Self-Defense-Force began to reconstruct the roads and to find victims who are not found.

The power station in Fukushima is serious. Four building of six were blown off by steam. But containers of nuclear energy are safe so far. The radiation level is high so the people in that area are evacuating by cars.

We cannot believe what is happening and that we live same as before. But we have to rebuild safer and more peaceful cities and lives as Kobe people did. Please look at the following site.

(My note: the following site is an amazing example of the calm dignity of the Japanese people in the face of disaster)

https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?hl=en&hl=en&key=0AjPI0bQz2xbedFl3SW84bHlmSUQ3R3VVV3lGMzJ0bHc&single=true&gid=0&output=html

Our life continues as usual, with the exception that we are preparing an emergency disaster kit for Seattle, something that we have told ourselves to do for years. We are closely monitoring the situation in Japan and currently plan to return to Starr in Ashiya on April 1. We will provision, fuel and hope to leave by April 8 (weather permitting) and make a direct passage of 3700nm+ to Honolulu, Hawaii. The number one rule of making an ocean passage, however, is “to remain flexible”, which we will. We and our crew/friends, Gary and Jean Coard, Viktor Grabner, and Dave Schmidt, are all waiting to see what happens in Japan.

We are also sending money to:

Donate | Doctors Without Borders

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/donate/overview.cfm?ref=main-menu

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/article.cfm?id=5107&cat=voice-from-the-field

Help Survivors of Japan's Earthquake | Mercy Corps

https://www.mercycorps.org/donate/japan

http://www.mercycorps.org/japanearthquake

It’s amazing how a disaster looks so different from far away when it wears the faces of your friends and the people of a nation who we have grown to love.

Dangerous Debris

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT

How do we avoid the dangerous debris from the 3/11 Tsunami?

March 17, 2011

Starr is in Ashiya in the inland sea next to Kobe, and was not impacted by the Tsunami. Our plan has been, and still is, to return to Ashiya at the end of this month, finish fueling and provisioning, and then head out toward Hawaii taking whatever route that seems most prudent.

BT (before tsunami) our course would have been to head in a northeasterly direction, to take advantage of the strong current flowing up the coast past Tokyo and out to sea. As you can imagine, the current stream that we planned on following will now be cluttered with all kinds of debris: partially sunken boats, large fuel tanks (some larger than our boat), tangles of wire and rope attached to floats and who knows what else? This route is obviously now not an option until we are absolutely sure we are well past all of the floating dangers.

The Japan Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department posts daily current and water temperature reports for the waters around their country. Below is the report for March16, 2011.

As can be seen this strong current will most likely be filled with many obstacles to avoid.

If it was necessary to plot a course today, we would probably head almost due east. Stay tuned!

Stretching the Fuel Range to Cross the Pacific

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Stretching the Fuel Range to Cross the Pacific

2-9-2011

REDUCE GENSET HOURS AND REDUCE RPM.

When Starr made her run from Seattle to San Francisco and on to Honolulu we chose to run the Northern Lights 20 kw gensets only when we needed to make water and or the air conditioning. The total main engine hours for Seattle to Honolulu were 352hrs. Total Genset hours were 75hrs. (We needed A/C for the last few days prior to Honolulu). Fuel consumed Seattle to Honolulu was 3,000 gallons for 3,000 nm.

Starr’s fuel consumption over the past year and a half:

Nautical miles run from Seattle to Japan : 9,000nm

Total fuel used: 9,400 gallons.

Total main engine and genset hours:

Main engine hours: 1,051 hrs
Genset hours: 1,382 hrs at an average of 1gph. (Lots of hours due to air conditioning use in the Marshalls, Micronesia and Marianas.)

So deducting 1,382 gallons for the genset fuel burn:

Starr’s main engine used 8,018 gallons, so for 1,051 hrs, we averaged 7.6 gph.
Starr’s average boat speed over the 9000 nm (divided by 1051 hrs) was 8.5 kts.

We need to remember that Starr had prevailing winds behind us all the way to Japan, but we cannot expect that to be the case for the passage from Japan to Honolulu. Heading back to Honolulu, we’ll likely have winds from ahead of the beam all the way. The Japan-to-Honolulu passage is approximately 3,768 nautical miles, with no fuel stops along the way. Our goal is to reach Honolulu with 25% of our fuel left unless weather conditions require either higher RPMs or a longer route.

With Starr’s normal fuel capacity of 3,700 gallons and our four new intermediate bulk containers (264 gallons each), our total onboard fuel for the passage will be approximately 4,756 gallons. I’m estimating that wind, seas and currents on the nose will cost us about ½ knot on the average, meaning Starr should be able to make good about 8.0 knots over the bottom at a main engine fuel burn of approximately 7.6 GPH. With no generator fuel burn and no weather diversions, based on the figures above Starr should require approximately 471 main engine hours @ 7.6 PGPH for the trip, for a total main engine burn of about 3,580 gallons. That leaves us (4,756 minus 3,580) about 1,176 gallons, a comfortable 25% safety margin, that can be used for any weather diversions and for generator time to make water and keep the boat air conditioned. In the unlikely event that we operated the generator for all 471 hours (at 1 GPH) our safety margin would be just over 700 gallons or about 15%--still a quite acceptable safety margin.

Starr is mostly a “battery boat”. The main engine has a 175-amp, 24-volt Leese-Neville alternator power to provide power for almost all the ship’s electrical systems. The largest power demands come from the Sub-Zero refer and freezer units. The other big draw is the 4,000cfm Delta-T engine room blower. This is a 240-volt 3-phase blower that draws 10 or more amps depending on its speed setting. When Starr is underway with our genset off, our main engine alternator puts out a constant 95 to135 amps, and the FloScan meter tells us that’s costing us just under ½ GPH.

My friend Milt Baker discussed this with his diesel mechanic guru, Bob Senter of Northern Lights, and here’s what Bob said:

“It doesn't matter if the HP comes from a generator's diesel or the main, it still takes fuel to make kilowatts. The difference is in the conversion losses. 130 amps x 27 volts (approx charge voltage of a 24 volt alternator) = 3,510 amps, roughly 3.5 KW. You lose about 30% in the inverter making AC from the DC and another 10-15% in losses at the belt drive to the alternator. Remember, you don't suffer those losses making AC directly from the generator. Based on the losses, I'd expect the fuel burn from the alternator to be about .5 GPH extra when heavily loaded. You can make 5 KW with the generator using the same fuel burn it takes to make 3.5 KW with the alternator. Up to about 2.5 KW, it's probably more efficient NOT to run the generator, since it is much less efficient at light loads. (I calculated KW because it's the easiest way to understand power, regardless of whether it's AC, DC or differing voltages. Just multiply amps x volts for KW.)”

All the above is good to know but perhaps not relevant to Starr’s upcoming passage to Hawaii. Here’s my thinking:

Even if I apply Bob’s data to our fuel calculations, I think we are better off not using the 20KW genset because our tiny 3.5KW load is just too low for efficient use of the generator. Also,, I would prefer to load up the main and keep the exhaust temperature above 600 degrees if possible.

We will do some tests when we are underway and see what the Floscan shows with the genset on and or off.

THE OTHER MAJOR FUEL SAVING CAN COME FROM REDUCING THE MAIN ENGINE RPM’S;

When we need to further economize on fuel we have reduced the rpm’s from the usual 1500 RPM down to 1250 RPM. The fuel burn goes down from 8gph down to 5.5gph which can extend our range closer to 6000nm.

For this run I will assume we keep the power up and get to Hawaii as quickly as possible.

BOTTOM LINE: If the weather gods are kind to us and my calculations are correct, it’s my guess that Starr will arrive in Honolulu with about 1,000 gallons of diesel, roughly 21% of the fuel she departs Japan with. By any cruising yardstick, that’s a most satisfactory safety margin.

GETTING READY FOR THE PASSAGE TO HONOLULU, HI

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT

GETTING READY FOR THE PASSAGE TO HONOLULU, HI
January 2011

We are currently tied up in Ashiya, Japan (35 42.3N, 135 19.0E). Starr has been here for over ten months with the result that I’m ready to “set sail into the sunset” (sailor talk). The distance to Honolulu from here is 3768nm. Starr uses 1gallon of diesel per nautical mile so the the total fuel capacity of 3700 gallons seems to be cutting things too close!

When we crossed from Mexico to the Marquesas in 2000, we added a 1,200 gallon fuel bladder on the back deck and slowed from our normal speed of 8kts down to 7kts to reduce fuel usage closer to 5gph. When we pulled into Nuka Hiva we had almost 2,000 gallons of fuel left.

As the 1,200-gallon bladder was one big bag without any interior baffles – like having a big sea cucumber on the aft deck – I don’t want to do that again! So, the following is what I have done to find the right solution.

At first, I thought that what I wanted would be to find a 1,000-gallon bladder with 4 separate sections, or (4) 250 gallon separate bladders. Towards accomplishing this, I found many suppliers in the US. The company with the most impressively constructed bladder was Aircraft Rubber Manufacturing in Redmond, Oregon (http://www.fuelsafe.com/). These were quite expensive, but first class. Occasionally they can be found used. I decided to look around to see what was available and after months of research, I found that I could buy – even here in Japan – many bladders for around $2-$3 per gallon of capacity - a 500 gallon fuel bladder would cost $1,000 to $1,500 US so that to have a thousand gallons of extra fuel capacity it would cost from $2,000 to $3,000 for something that would be used for only a week or two.

An alternate choice would be to stop at Midway; and IF they let us drop anchor, we could possibly buy JP5 aircraft fuel at $15/gallon. I researched what JP5 would do to my Cummins engine, and it appears that by adding 1-2% of lube oil we could get by. However, to make a stop at Midway – located about 2500mn from Japan and 1150nm from Honolulu it is one of the most northwesterly islands of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument which stretches in a WNW direction toward Japan (http://www.papahanaumokuakea.gov) –requires applying for an Entry Permit. In fact, to stop in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument it is necessary to fill out about 12 pages of paperwork just to see if you “qualify” to stop. They also give a class on how to pronounce their name. SO, WHAT TO DO?

The first ideal that came to mind was to slow down from 1,500 rpm to 1,250-1,350 rpm to reduce total fuel consumption to about 3,000 gallons and thus give us roughly a 25% fuel reserve. The weather maps for March and April show that there will be some slogging against head winds and seas. The current would possibly be with us for the first 2000nm and then there would be an adverse current the rest of the way. In addition, if a storm approaches it might be necessary to divert our course in order to avoid the worst of the bad weather.

THE BEST SOLUTION - TO CARRY MORE FUEL!

While Sharry and I were back in Seattle for Christmas, I found some used fuel containers that hold 1,000l (264 gallons) which are commonly used internationally to ship chemicals, oils, food additives, and whatever. These units – called Intermediate Bulk Containers (IBCs) – are approved by the United Nations for international transport. They are made of high density plastic and surrounded by an aluminum cage which is attached to a wood or metal pallet. The dimensions are1,000mm x1,200mm x1,160mm, (40” x 48” x 46”). Their design makes them easy to tie down and later recycled. New they cost around $400-500 while used they sell for $100 in the US. BINGO!

The IBC

THE HUNT WAS ON!

One of the main suppliers of IBCs internationally is Schuetz in Germany (www.schuetz.net). On their web site I read about the details regarding shipping and using their containers. Pleased, I got on my bicycle and started peddling thru the nearby industrial areas and “viola” there they were, all over the place, both new and used. After much asking around, however, I kept coming to a dead end. The new ones that I found were owned by some company in Tokyo and no one would call to see if they wanted to sell a few even though they had been stored in this shipping yard for ages.

That is just not how things work here in Japan. You have to know someone, who knows someone else, who then knows the Tokyo guys. The used ones were mainly in some trucking yard being used for waste oil or whatever.

I called the manufacturer – Schuetz in Germany – and talked to my “new friend” Rose Rhul at the factory in Selters, Germany. Rose was a great help. She introduced me – via email – to Mr. Yukihiko Murakami who is with Schuetz, Japan, in Tokyo. He helped by introducing me – again via email – to Mr. Naoyiki Kato who is a distributor of Schuetz containers in Kobe. After numerous emails back and forth with Mr. Kato, I was finally informed that he couldn’t sell me his containers because it wasn’t thought to be a good idea to put diesel oil in them (even though they ship cutting oil for factories in the same container). SO WHAT NEXT?

I needed to find someone who knows the system, and yet has the American can-do attitude. That someone came in the form of Chris Faust, the son of our Ashiya friends, Paul and Emiko Faust. Chris – with his Japanese-American background and fluency in both languages – knows both Japanese and American business systems. In fact, he had just finished a logistics job in Los Angeles specializing in expediting and shipping. In less that an hour, Chris found someone who knew someone else who knew where there were some used IBC’s that might be for sale. After a many more calls, Chris arranged for the IBC’s to be purchased for 10,000JPY each and delivered to the boat for an additional 10,000JPY with the total purchase price finally set at $480 – that breaks down to 48 cents per gallon of added fuel capacity (and 1000 gallons of extra fuel on the back deck).

Chris Faust and his sister, Elisa

Delivery of the IBCs

NOW THE NEXT TASK IS HOW TO GET THE FUEL OUT OF THE IBC AND INTO STARR’S TANKS?

The Valve

The Adapter

What was needed was a 2 inch BSP metric adapter to 2 inch cam lock. I had about 10 emails to and from the Schuetz rep’s in Tokyo trying to get an adapter, but finally, I lost patience and contacted the Schuetz people in New Jersey. The next day they shipped the 2inch BSP female to 2-inch camlock adaptor to our Seattle office for a cost of $10.13 plus shipping.

I’m still communicating with the Tokyo Schuetz office just to see how long it will take them to accomplish the same task, just how difficult it will be to get the same part, just so I can learn a little more about what it means to do business in Japan.

YOU MAY ASK ME "WHY CRUISE JAPAN, IT DOING BUSINESS CAN BE SUCH A HASSLE?"

The following is the short version:

1.       The joy of traveling through the Inland Sea (Seto Nakai) – 3,000 islands with many beautiful anchorages and villages and towns scattered over a distance of about 200nm – without encountering but only a few other cruising pleasure boats. There is, however, an awesome amount of commercial marine traffic.

2.       Viewing towns and villages with sparkling clean streets and sidewalks, friendly people, and the highest quality food we have ever experienced!

3.       Experiencing the finest personal service ever at restaurants and to just getting a simple haircut.

4.       Encountering the best public transportation system in the world; one where you can set your watch by the arrival of the bus or train.

5.       AND BEST OF ALL, the extremely friendly, gracious and helpful people.

SO, WHY SUCH A HASSLE ATTEMPTING TO DO A LITTLE BUSINESS? GO FIGURE!

BACK TO FUEL CAPACITY. . .

With 4,700 gallons of fuel, we can cruise at a speed of 8kts, weather permitting, and still have a fuel reserve of close to 30%. In fact, we can still slow down to further conserve fuel.

There is but one last comment regarding the stability of STARR with an extra 7,200 lbs (3.6 tons) of diesel on the back deck. Before we made the passage from Mexico run to the Marquesas with 1,200 gallons of diesel on the back deck, we had a naval architect do a stability analysis and with the extra fuel. The report: we were still OK stability-wise.

IT APPEARS THAT THE FUEL CHALLENGE IS SETTLED! THAT IS, OF COURSE, UNLESS SOMETHING UNFORESEEN POPS UP.

STAY TUNED!

Don