Tiki 38 PERFECT BLEND cruise from Canada to Uruguay

[luis]

According to a post from Alex in another thread, this Tiki 38 made Trinidad-Cabedelo, more than 2300 nm in 19 days!
against the trade winds!!

CONGRATULATIONS.

alex, i 'm concerned because maybe you have to go to your dentist in order to fix your teeth after so many wave hit after wave hit  :-)

don't forget to send a report with pics (and also to minicatas forum)

best regards and good luck

luis

[paul anderson]

Would love to read a full report.

[alex]

hi guys

i will make a full report about that  leg later in my Facebook blog from  our trip to south since many people think its impossible, or at least very hard to do I expect to encourage some of them to come south to visit our still unspoilled cruising grounds... but here is some advance about the Tobago/ Cabedelo leg..In the facebook report we will describe how we planned and prepared for that particular trip and add the photos we took as well.

we made it good to Brazil. better than expected, almost 2400 NM in 19 days, average 5,4 knts (we could made better though since the first 4 days towards north east of Barbados were very slow, then it became a one tack leg forcing some windward ( mostly direction 120 degrees true) that were slowing us a bit but winning windward which was important for us just in the case we found dead east winds later  , but still a decent speed over 5 kn average (over 130 NM a day always). We had all the time NE winds over 17 kn apparent sometimes reaching 33 knots apparent, but never reefed, and had both main sails up and the jib, not the genoa. Later  when we felt that we had enough windward and could make an more easy direct track and also less hitting against the swell, after we passed the Amazon river entrance, gave up 30 degrees till making 150 true. After we gave up we were averaging over 7KN  all the way till we reached the height 100 NM away north of Fortaleza city, then the wind easy for 2 days for first time, motored less that 30 hours till finding cape Calcanhar which were the only 2 days we were tacking a couple of times... then gone south and found sw winds for first time... no doldrums... there is a book from Bruce Van Sant, named the Thornless path south, that describes the best way to sail down from the US to Trinidad. He says: to go south first go north (to win winward) ....we followed that tactic along the islands and that was what we made for this trip. It payed off.

we discovered some water inlets in the boat while rough seas, on the holes on the bulkheads that are holding the rods for the beams, with waves breaking over the boat like in a surge and with extreme pressure. to get in and out of the fore cabin we were forced to stop the boat so we dont got water in them. we also stopped the boat once a day before sunset (3 PM) to make a general check out from the boat, which proved to be a wise idea, we always discovered something lose or something to be changed. the fact we pushed hard against the wind with full sails up had some logical consecuences in breaking things that you wont break in a weekend cruise. we took like 4 full buckets of water just on the port fore cabin (lots of food missed) , we got wet and all deck hatches proved to be not water safe, need to change the design hope the Griffith hatches are a fine solution and not too expensive... but it was a good lesson of what we need to improve in our humble boat, and what the limits are...


the Monitor windvane performed well but since it was attached on the tiller connection bar ,its a too long distance from the axle of the rudder (double as recommended) it was describing too deep "S" paths to correct the course , what was slowing our performance, so we decided to switch to the autopilot that gave us another knot of speed and a straight GPS path (with steady and constant winds)

our fridge failed due a poor electrical design that I maid , so we missed also all the frozen (and expensive) meat we had. Jen my thai wife was sea sick like hell for a week, but recovered after that to a more better stage... all of us lost many pounds , wich can be used as a diet method...

AIS was a great help, and we had just one really close approach with all alarms on (radar and AIS) that was solved by a call on the VHF and a good willing ship captain on the other side that accepted our suggestions where to pass us without any problems..

with all the alarms we installed as part of the trip preparation, AIS, radar , depth sounder it became easy to make watches that gave me even chance to take short naps inbetween.  A german cruiser i met in Luperon told me that he even goes to sleep and wait for the alarms to wake him up... after cape Calcanhar we found many small fishing boats (we were very close to shore)... we were very happy to take the outher route since it was really relaxing with no land or boat traffic to get stressed...

the life aboard was fine, with some bad moments were we fight but I managed to cool myself down and learn from the situation to be a better (or less bad) leader.... i demanded too much discipline from a crew that wasnt disciplined  nor experienced in blue water sailing,  and to be fair I had to foreseen things that i did not... so here is a public apologize for my great crew members Chris and Jen. I will try to be wiser captain in future...

One of the motors was out of service after a rough night (it got lose from its place and slamming for some time before we realized what was happening.)


the boat is really very safe and seaworthy, simple to manage and repair... its little bit old fashioned compared to other fancy cruisers, but i`m happy to have it specially because my poor experience as a cruiser (at this point 5000 NM plus all the racing years i had in my youth, but they don't really count, cruising is about something very different) . this boat was supporting some `mistakes`from my part with no major problems...

later after Cabedelo in the southern Bahia State, we run over a reef and stayed for 4 hour complete out of the water, the noises that came from the hulls were horrible and I thought we were having bad damages or even lose the boat, but after we managed to relase the boat setting 4 heavy anchors out and waiting patiently for the tide to come up, I made a quick dive to check the damages out, nothing really bad happend, other than some deep scratches with exposed wood that we need to solve as soonest before the wood get rot. the starboard rudder was also affected in a major way, but still in function.

the Yamahas proved to be excelent motors and i am very happy with them. but i am not happy carrying gasoline on board. we had 650 liters (2 x 200 liter barrels plus the jerry cans and the day tanks topped), that we bought in trinidad at a price of 2,7 TT dollars the liter ( 1 US dollar / 6 TT dollars ), so less than 50 cents a liter. in Uruguay we pay more that 3 times that much.

Hope we have no major problems till reaching Uruguay. Our new wharramist friend Rogerio from Rio de Janeiro will make a leg from Ilha Grande till Florianopolis with us, 400 NM in 3 days....

our general average is 130 to 160 NM a day , the most we made was 180 NM till now, which is unthinkable in a heavy loaded cruising monohull (I remember that my past racing days in monohulls where we were happy if we made over 100 NM , with a 27 feet boat)  .

to finish this report i want to mention that our water line is 15 cm (6 inches) down, we are heavy loaded with all the materials we carry to upgrade the boat in Uruguay plus all the crap we collected in those wonderfull Bahamian and Caribbean islands...


hope you understood my bad english...i will answer any question you like to make.


cheers

alex

[paul anderson]

Bravo Alex, well done for sure. Thank you for a very detailed report.

I am sure your experiences will be useful for others too, just watch out that Rogerio does not smuggle a Capivara onto your boat.

cheers paul.

[luis]

great Alex. thanks for the report.

fair winds to piriapolis

luis

[Rogerio Martin]

Hehehehe...I wait the weather window for go onboard. Maybe in the next week. My frist trip to south. The god of cold protec us...

[patrick lennon]

Hi Rogerio my name is Pat a Wharram builder. I am interested to buy the Tiki 38 in Uruguay. What is your opinion is it a well made boat? Is it still in good condition. My email is [e-mail] if you have time to talk about this boat. Cheers Pat

Rogerio Martin said:

Hehehehe...I wait the weather window for go onboard. Maybe in the next week. My frist trip to south. The god of cold protec us...