The Indian Ocean is not my favorite ocean!
Perhaps there has been another blog post of the same name; this is not a fun blog post; or a feelings story. This is just a tally; an acknowledgment that our exhaustion after a year and a half of travel is well earned, and a shoutout to the folks who live that cruiser adage “it’s just what we do [for each other].” We’re not entirely done with the Indian Ocean, but we have certainly crossed it. These nine months on this ocean between Indonesia and South Africa were hard on Convivia and challenging for the crew but as my friend Diane told me a year ago, “The Indian is rewarding.”
The damage:
| Thing that Broke | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Strap toggle | Fatigue | broken, jury rigged, replaced (thanks Trevor & Gustaf) |
| Monitor control line | Chafe | respliced/replaced |
| Lazy jacks | UV | broken, repaired, broken, repaired |
| North Sails Sail cover | poor design/UV | planning replacement |
| Standard Horizon VHF | totally dead | replaced in Durban |
| Shakespeare VHF antenna | poor reception | waiting for replacement |
| Dinghy thwart for mast on Fatty | snapped under pressure | waiting for replacement |
| Full River Batteries | 1/2 totally dead, removed from system, | replaced in Richard’s Bay |
| Raymarine Anemometer | pretty broken | rewired and epoxied back together (for the second time), reads wind direction |
| Honda generator | dead | but not removed from the lazarette (Tucker!?!) |
| Toilet | one totally broken | replaced in Durban |
| Toilet reduction fitting | broke during maintenance | Gustaf, you are my freaking hero for welding us a new one |
| Harken Profurl M3 Furler | top of cage broken | replaced with homemade substitute (also cage dropped into the sea and retrieved after an extensive SCUBA search, thanks again Gustaf you legend) |
| Aeropress | broken, second Aeropress overboard, third Aeropress broken | ordered two new ones (of course) |
| Glasses, lime squeezer, muffin pan | broken, corroded and rusted through | |
| Drawer handle on one drawer | smashed to pieces, massive bruise on my ass | |
| Hela Fans | broken or pretty well worn out (god damn these fans) | replaced with Caframo |
| Flip flops | approximately 10 pairs walked through or broken | |
| Favorite Keen sneakers | worn through | tossed in the trash at the end of a hike |
| Clothing | outgrown, stained, ripped and patched (100% of Olive’, less so for the rest of us) | |
| Engine overheating problem | Kinked hose, & heat exchanger cleaning, also overhauled the impeller pump | fixed (Gustaf again, seriously, this guy’s hands are in that picture because his hands are in EVERYTHING) |
| Weather cloth | ripped, ripped again | patched and reinstalled |
| Engine off switch (morse cable) | seized | repaired (thanks Gustaf for your help!) |
| Monitor hinge | broken | welded and spare made in Phuket |
| Lewmar Windlass | broken and repaired electrical problem | (Trevor, you climbed into my anchor locker and called it “spacious”) |
| Windlass | fire in Imtra solenoid | replaced with spare |
| International “Perfection” (I beg to differ) Paint | scratched like crazy in a couple spots | |
| Slug on mainsail | ripped out | resewn |
| Baja filter | overboard (oops) | |
| Kitchen scissors | overboard (MILES!!!) | replaced |
| Ruby’s favorite Adidas skirt | overboard (78 knot gust, after she handwashed her own laundry) | will be replaced |
| A couple of jerry cans | cracked, taped together | trashed |
| Raymarine Autopilot | totally dead, hand steering now if we have to motor (what is it with this company?) | awaiting replacement |
| Snubbers | broken, broken, broken, broken | replaced |
| Pillow | overboard (possibly sabotage) | replaced |
| iPad chargers | Dead | replaced |
| REI backpack | zipper corroded, cut the flashlight out (lifetime warranty means nothing out here) | T9 |
| Outdoor Research rain coat | that I LOVE, side zips corroded, front zip barely works | T9 |
| The book Hatchet | Survival story, didn’t survive the wetness in Olive’ berth (Sorry Gwynn but I promise no less than four people read it on two boats and two book reports were based on it) | |
| Three insulated water bottles (2 Hydroflask, 1 Swell) | rusted | trashed |
| Teeth | one grown up tooth broken (Olive, due to Ruby), one baby tooth broken (Ruby, due to Ruby) | |
| Engine | dry exhaust rusted through again, black soot everywhere | replaced in Mossel Bay |
| Engine starter | failed | replaced, but in the meantime I learned how to hot wire a boat ;) |
| iNavX | All the things; from not being able to delete a waypoint from a route, to the NMEA disconnecting every 5 minutes (This program went from rock solid to a buggy pain in the ass in the span of 4 months. I’ve got words…) | Looking at other options |
This is just my top of my head list, there must be more. My recommendation to future sailors: buy everything you need to get around the world and return back home in just under three years. Everything will be within warranty and you will have arrived in the nick of time before it all wears out. Alternately we can remember what Robin Lee Graham said, “At sea, I learned how little a person needs, not how much.”
- Stay tuned for the follow-up, “What Survived”
Editorial note: This list was (of course) complied by Vick. The ultimate keeper of lists. The little parentheticals are mine (Tucker) ultimate keeper of snide and compliments!