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Join us as we sail around the world - share our joy, experiences, trials and tribulations as we proceed.
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FEB
16
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Liferaft pushpit is now finally done

The newly made stainless steel pushpit was a bit flimsy, shaking about and had to be modified. Charles Moody is a damn smart guy, straight shooter and does stainless steel work here in Houtbay and Cape Town area. He did not complain about my critique and duly did all the required modifications. After modifying and strenghtening the stainless steel pushpit, he and his team arrived on Revelations and did the installation. The finished product is well constructed, now rock solid and it is a job well done.

If you are ever in the Cape Town, South Africa region and you need stainless steel work done, I can honestly recommend that you contact Charles Moody. He is pretty well known in this part of the world, contact Houtbay Yacht Club, ask around and you will be able to find him.

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Tel.: 021 674 1763
Mobile: 082 468 4198

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3762 Hits
FEB
16
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LED navigation lights are fitted

The LED navigation lights from Hellamarine are now fitted to Revelations. There is nothing so pleasurable as ripping and throwing away shit which does not work. Such was the situation with the previous incandescent navigations lights we had! These incandescentis lights were absolute rubbish and the damn stuff never work when needed. The new lights look cool, are quite bright and is a welcome addition to our preparations to go sailing. I hope that these lights will last and that we do not have to rip them off after awhile. Smile

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2173 Hits
FEB
16
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The new snubbers from Inmare

We arrived in Cape Town and the following we fetched our new snubbers. When ordering the snubbers, we only had a couple of small photographs of the product and it kinda looked like a quality product. Further information and emails from INMARE. convinced us that it seemed like a quality product. well, we noe have the product in our hands and I can tell you that it is a top quality product. The people from Inmare was friendly, helpful and went out of their way to assist us. The goods were promptly shipped and it all arrived safely within a week. Unfortunately, we had to pay BLOOD MONEY when it came to the South African government and their ridiculously high import duties.

The workmanship, strength and quality of this product is far superior to the normal black rubber snubbers. In addition, it is UV resistant and unlike the black rubber snubbers, it will not deteriote as quick in the sun. To prolong it's life, we will pull a sleeve over these snubbers to further protect them from the sun. With these snubbers, we will no longer have snapped ropes or cleats which have jerked their way loose.

InMareSnubbers

  2639 Hits
2639 Hits
JAN
21
0

Incandescent to LED

Every time we get on the yacht, the lower navigation lights does not work. Upon inspection, they are all fused and so we replace them. The next time we get on the yacht, the same shit. Looks like these incandescent globes are made to last for on one session at a time. I'm tired of finding fused lights at the most inconvenient time, when you are about to depart - then; "Oh fuck! The navigation lights do not work!" I'm equally tired of hearing about corrosion and that lights do fuse. Damn! This is utter bullshit! At least not at the rate the lights fuse on Revelations. The electrician assures me that there is no problem with the power supply and that there are no voltage spikes or fluctuations. Perhaps I need to check this out myself as he messed up on several occasions on other stuff!

Anyway, so I have been checking around for alternative LED navigation lights. There are a number of suppliers supplying products in a variety of quality and prices. Some of the top end companies include Miseagroup and Lopolight and Hellamarine and Yacht-Direct. I quite like the navigation lights from Lopolight but the prices are way to rich for my blood. Our local distributor is selling the goods substantially above the recommended retail prices and this makes it even more out of reach.

The minimum requirement for our boat length is that the navigation lights must be visible from 2 nautical miles away. But thinking about it, a cargo ship will cover 2 nautical miles in no time at all. If the cargo ship travels at 20 knots, it will only take 6 minutes to reach you. This is way to close for comfort and if you are actually seen at 2 nautical miles, it does not leave much room for the cargo ship to do any maneuvering. After carefully looking at all the available lights, we opted for the 3 NM NaviLED PRO Stern Navigation Lamps from Hellamarine. The 3 nautical miles is 50% more distance than the 2 nautical mile lights and this might just result in us not getting run over. Not only that, these lights have a 5 year warranty so hopefully our perpetual days of fused lights are over.

NavLights

  2527 Hits
2527 Hits
JAN
11
0

Ordering new snubbers

There are zillions of tiny cracks in our long black rubber snubbers as the sun has been taking it's toll. Indeed, one of the snubbers recently snapped and had to be replaced. Altough these snubbers are effective in protecting the yacht in our mooring, I am not happy about it's short life span. So I've been searching for other alternatives and found another style of snubber from this Italian company - INMARE. These snubbers take a higher load and will last longer. Send me eight please!

Snubbers

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2248 Hits
DEC
22
0

Dinghy in the Making XII

Dinghy

Barring sticking on the name and registration numbers, the dinghy is now finally done! Sue took it for a spin and it performs well, although I think we should have gone for a slightly more powerful motor. The Yamaha 8 HP is just not powerful enough to get the dinghy on a plane and I think a 10 HP motor would be perfect. Hopefully once the motor is run in and we no longer have to add extra 4 stroke oil to the petrol, perhaps there will be a bit more power. The dinghy rests perfectly in the stainless steel davit system we designed and had manufactured for us. The davit system also works beautifully and it is now much easier to launch our dinghy into the water. The previous system was frustrating, time consuming and damn difficult to operate - I will later post a video of how the new davits works.

  1943 Hits
1943 Hits
DEC
08
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Dinghy in the Making XI

The dinghy is now close to completion. We have now dry fitted all the hinges, fittings and all the other goodies. We are going over each and every fitting making sure it is fit for the job and in the correct position. We have also masked all the anti slip areas on the inside and have started applying the anti slip paint. once this is done, we'll permanently bond, glue and bolt all the fittings and the dinghy. Then it will be all done. I hope to soon show photos of the finished dinghy.

  1913 Hits
1913 Hits
NOV
30
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Revelations Carving Plate

For a South African vessel to sail in International waters (or outside of South Africa), South African law requires your yacht to be SAMSA registered and a permanently afixed carving plate must be bonded to the yacht. Here is the stainless steel carving plate we recently had manufactured sporting laser engraving. Although we are all legal now to leave South African waters, it does not mean that we won't be smuggling some goodies! Evil

 

CArvingPlate

 

  1840 Hits
1840 Hits
NOV
30
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Dinghy in the Making X

The dagger boards, rudder and tiller arm is now completely done and sports it's final coat of paint. The dinghy was turned upside down and a center ridge was added - but I can't remember why we decided to do this!? At the time, we must have had some logic behind the thinking, but today it simply looks like more added work and additional weight. Anyway, this is now all faired and blended in. The first coat of paint was sprayed on the dinghy and it's all starting to look good.

  1711 Hits
1711 Hits
NOV
30
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Vibe BlackDeath Marine Speakers - Done

The speaker housings are now complete, spray painted, fitted to Revelations and the speakers have also been fitted and connected. The only thing left is to give it a spin, rattle and shake the whole neighborhood. We will be there is about a week from now and I cannot wait to hear the sound!

Photo3592

Photo3605

  1855 Hits
1855 Hits
NOV
25
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Dinghy in the Making IX

All the work of filling, sanding, flling, more sanding and more filling is finally at an end. The outside of dinghy is properly faired and very smooth and will soon received it's coats of spraypeinting. The inside of the dinghy requires slightly less "smoothness" than the outside, it is now sanded fairly smooth and received it's first coat of paint done by hand. Here is a picture of the dinghy after it's first coat of paint.

 

Photo3591

 

  2084 Hits
2084 Hits
NOV
19
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Making space and getting rid of weight

We have a large inventory of DVD movies on Revelations - in fact, the last count was more than 1500. The space all these DVD's take up is considerable and the weight is more than 141 Kg (310 pounds)! This a lot of unnecessary weight to lug around all over the place. The cabinets are bursting will all the DVD's and this space can be put to better use. We decided to convert all our DVD to MP4 format and store them on external hard drives. So we bought 5 x WD Elements 3 TB external hard drives and is currently busy with the huge task of converting all the DVD's. One 3 TB hardrive is sufficient for all our movies but we also need a backup, more space for additional movies we will be buying, for photographs and videos we will be taking on our journey. The WD Elements 3 TB hard drives are by no means top of the range hard drives and is probably more aimed at home use. However, given the rate that electronic equipment packs up, it simply does not make sense to buy excessively expensive and top of the range hard drives.

DVDtoHarddrive

  2193 Hits
2193 Hits
NOV
19
0

Davit Tabletop

Adequate workspace or a work table where a "man" can work and do his thing is always a problem on a boat. We will be adding a tabletop on top of the dinghy davits - 1900 x 800 mm in size. This is where mechanical work can be done without messing up or cluttering the saloon table. This tabletop will also serve as a convenient and safe place where to clean up any freshly caught fish. To save weight, the tabletop will be a sandwich construction of epoxy, cloth and NidaCore. We will then fit a thin sheet of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) cutting board material which will more than adequate for cutting things. The tabletop will also have a drain fitting and pipe where excess water can drain overboard. We have just started this project and it should be done within the next couple of weeks.

DavitTableTop     

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2171 Hits
NOV
18
0

Dive Board III

The dive boards are nearing completion and this is another project in the final stage of sanding and filling. It is time to design the graphic we want on the dive boards and after discussing a couple of ideas, Sue suggested that we do something with wings (Angel wings) and the Christian Cross. We looked at several wing designs and shapes, various crosses in different colours. Everything was done in vector graphics and then we finally did everything in CorelDraw. I was a bit concerned about the "evil look" of the wings and did not think it was typical of angel wings. Sue thought it was OK as we would in any event make for quite naughty angels if we ever get there. So here is the design we will be doing - I hope you also like it!

 

DiveBoard1

 

 

DiveBoard2

 

  1948 Hits
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1948 Hits
NOV
15
0

Liferaft mounting on pushpit

The stainless steel pushpit is in for modification to accomodate the new liferaft we bought recently.

 

Pushpit

 

  2027 Hits
2027 Hits

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