Thinking Davits to be the ultimate in professional launching and recovery of a dinghy, we duly purchased and had installed the Davits recommended by Peters Plc.  Now it must be understood that we have nothing against Davits, in the right circumstances they are brilliant pieces of equipment and we would still consider having them if our dinghy was a rib, but it is not.  Inflatable dinghies are difficult to manage on Davits, not from the point of lifting and lowering but the issue of holding them steady when they are hoisted and you are out sailing.  When there are no fixed lifting points on a dinghy, if left to their own accord at sea, they will pitch and roll.  Most dinghies we have seen can only be lifted so far up towards the davit arms and so one has then to consider roping them to the pushpit in order to stop them rolling (all of which takes time).  The other issue is that an inflated dinghy at sea, we found, can be a nuisance in that they tend to fill with water (rain or sea water) and therefore can make the stern section of the yacht very heavy in a strong sea.  The only way around this is to first cover the dinghy completely before you then tie it down to the guardrails.  We gave our not inexpensive davits away to a friends Jan & Max and fitted instead a Monitor wind vane self steering unit.

We left the UK feeling that our current ground tackle was adequate to do the job.  We knew that we would be anchoring in bays and that this was supposed to be part of the great life of living aboard.  On our way to Almerimar, in 2004, we never anchored out at all (sorry we did once just off the Algarve coast but only for an extended lunch and swim break).  Alan considered us new to anchoring as even in the UK we had only anchored on four or five occasions.  In discussion with other people and reading up on the subject, it was decided that our CQR anchor and it's 8mm chain were insufficient for the Mediterranean (not to mention the rest of the world). Though a genuine 35 Lbs CQR; it and it's 8mm chain were considered far too light and after much deliberation Max and Jan persuaded us that a SPADE of 21Kgs and 70 metres of 10 mm chain would be much better. This turned out to be good advice.  We kept the CQR and 8mm chain to be used as a second anchor or as a kedge anchor if we needed one (It has not turned out to be a very good kedge anchor so we will have to sort one out at some point in the future).

When anchoring in the Med, beware.  We had very little trouble anchoring, we only dragged once in 4 years, but some other yachtsmen are good at dropping their anchors on top of yours and making out that everything will be OK.  Well, with this kind of configuration, it is very likely that as we swing to our anchors there will be some sort of collision between the two yachts.  We had this happen once in a bay on the Italian Island of Ponsa and, when the collision had occurred, the other yachtsman pulled up his anchor and was underway faster than one can say anchor.  He did not even stay to apologise (luckily it was a glancing touch and no damage was done to Kiah). 

It is good manners to check with the boat near whom you are planning to anchor to see just how much chain he has out and, in practice, this generally works very well.  However, once again, there are some yachties who will always tell you they have 30 mtrs down.  It seems to always be 30 mtrs even if the depth of water is only 3 or 4 mtrs.  I guess they are just a bit anti-social and want space around them but it can be a bit of a problem if the anchorage is fairly restricted in terms of space.  It generally means the newcomer has to anchor in greater depths further out, if they have enough chain.

Marking the anchor chains is a bit of a nightmare, only because we have found nothing yet that actually stays on the chain.  We have tried cable ties and paint but always after a season the work has to be done yet again.  anchoring at night) but we have yet to find it.  If anyone out there has a foolproof way of doing this please let us know.  We have heard of many different ways from many different people and these can range from using wool to cable ties, paint to plastic inserts.  We now have some of the plastic pieces (inserts) that fit into the links of the chain so we are going to try these next.  All good fun eh!.  The cartoon above was commissioned from a fellow sailor by Doreen for Alan's 60th birthday present, it includes all the people that wintered with us in Malta 2005 and is a great memento.  In fact we have not tried the coloured plastic inserts, Alan (in Gran Tarajal decided to try sail makers twine and put whipping mark(s) leaving a long tail at the 10, 20, 30 and 40 meter locations on the chain (one whip for 10, two for 20 etc with the corresponding long tails).  We will advise in a year or so time how this actually faired. 

Now with a new name Winney, our Monitor wind vane has been attached to Kiah's stern since we wintered in Fox's Marina, near Ipswich in 2003/2004.  It is one of those things that somehow never quite get used and the book on how to use it never quite got read properly.  We didn't use the vane on our trip down to the Med nor during most of our time in the Med.  It seemed too difficult to sort out the sail plan that would allow the Monitor to do it's job properly and, at one time, we were thinking (as it says in the book) that the vane just did not work (like our first Water maker, see below).  It turns out it was nothing to do with the vane, or necessarily the sail plan, it was purely and simply a lack of understanding on Alan's part as to the intricacies of vane sailing and in particular the servo pendulum vane (which is what the Monitor is).  This situation has now been rectified (still some bits to learn but getting there) and having read the manual several times we have got it right.  On our last two trips around Lanzarote, Winney has been engaged and has shown what a remarkable piece of equipment she is. In winds from 4 knots to 20+ knots she has held us on course with no problem, in fact the stronger the wind blows the better she seems to get.  On our last passage the wind range was all of the 4 to 20+ (higher as we moved further South on the Island) and veered almost completely around 270 degrees of the compass, taking us from a reach to running and then through reach again (on the other side of course) to beating hard into wind.  In lighter airs we spend more time watching to see if the vane is working ok but that's just lack of experience and therefore trust we think, so running before in light airs needs more practice but it is still great to observe the vane in action.  As the winds get heavier and the seas a little rougher, Winney comes right into her own.  Once set close into the wind Kiah was held on course as good as, if not better than, the electric Auto pilot (Alphie) could do.  Doreen & I are amazed and very pleased that at last we have justified adding the Monitor wind vane to Kiah's inventory.  A brilliant addition.

This section is not just about Solar Panels but includes our feelings on mounting them.  It took Alan nearly 5 years to decide to install Solar Panels and to mount them on a stainless steel arch.  Frames on yachts do not always look as part of the boat itself, they actually look like add-ons but what do you do when you want to install Solar Panels and, to 'move' all the aerials sitting on the pushpit (they get in the way when we berth stern to the pontoon as people grab them thinking they are stable).  So we looked for a good frame, found one on another yacht and asked the Turkish stainless people if they could match it on Kiah.  It turned out that they had also built the frame we liked (though it was on a somewhat larger boat) and they were happy to make on for Kiah.  We decided that this was a better approach to locating the Solar Panels than to put them onto our guardrails (the only other option for Kiah as they could not be just positioned on the deck, they were too large and cumbersome).  Discussions were completed and prices agreed and within one week the whole task was finished (this included negotiations, design, construction, fitting, cleaning and polishing as well as locating the Solar Panels on the top rail).  Together with Max, Alan then obtained and ran the necessary cables, installed the regulator and put is a monitor to register all electrical activity across the new shunt.  With two 85 Watt Solar Panels, we are now getting up to 9 Amps on most sunny days.  Having the panels able to role around the top stainless bar really does have it's benefits.  Some believe that just having the panels flat is all that is necessary but we have proved that being able to tip them towards the sun has an amazing affect on the Ampage received.  Having a stainless arch means additional weight on the stern and we thought this would be an issue, as it turned out the weight was not an issue for Kiah and the stern dropped by no more than 10 mm.  We also had the arch built into the pushpit so that we did not lose any deck space and our stern seats were retained.  Altogether a great job and we are very pleased.

Kiah's bimini was made in the UK and shipped to our home port about one year before our departure for sunnier climes.  We rarely take the bimini down and she has now been in place for almost 6 years (we have had to have a few repairs made and re-stitching has been necessary).  The bimini is an essential piece of kit for would be live aboard cruisers, it provides a great deal of protection from the sun but has to be of the right size and shape.  We have seen bimini's that cover very little of the cockpit or just sit over the helmsman position and, whilst ok, they provide little protection for the remainder of the cockpit and in our view are not really adequate.  Kiah's bimini is full and almost flat, with one main bar and two smaller ones to hold the bimini canvas in place, there is great shelter inside the cockpit at most times of the day (rising and setting of the sun is a problem).  To address the problem of rising and setting of the sun, we have had zips added to the bimini on both sides and across the stern to which we can add drops the reduce the affects of the sun. 

Most people, as we did, buy frames, for various things like the bimini, from recognised firms and these cost quite a lot of money.  When we met Jim, Sharon and their children (on Wendreda), Jim had already bought canvas and stainless steel pipe. Their intention was to have the steel bends carried out by a local firm but found none in Gran Tarajal.  We have a

'canvas projects' book and in there Alan had found a diagram of a pipe bending machine made out of wood. Jim did a great job of creating a working pipe bender and we were remarkably surprised at how good and effective it was. You will see how good this was if you look at the photograph on the far left of this section and at the page for Fuerteventura where there are pictures of the bimini frame he created.  The pipe bender is show here on the left, together with a reproduction of the diagram he followed (on the right).  Rather a large piece of kit but it can be stored flat and will be very useful for future bends for Jim or other cruising yachtsmen/women.

A pretty controversial topic with lots of views from different yachtsmen, some believing that you cannot really do without one and others who believe they are not necessary and that you can buy water enough to last for years for the price of a Water maker. However, many of the professional cruisers we have met are agreed that eventually it will become more and more difficult to obtain water on many of the Islands that are well visited.  We did without a Water maker during our first years in the Med but then decided we would try them.

The Waterlog :

We would never again use one of these units.

Our first Water maker turned out to be a real problem and never produced any fresh water in two years.  We had been tempted by the promise of fresh water without the need to take any power from our already well used batteries and this sounded excellent.  The Waterlog is a 'towed' device that uses an propeller (impeller) spinning fast as it is towed through the water to push salt water through filters and then through a membrane located in the main body of the unit.  The fresh water is then taken up a thin tube (capillary action we think it is called) and into the yacht.  We took delivery of a Waterlog 200 and transported it out to Kiah (excess baggage).  During the first year we managed to produce NO repeat NO fresh water.  We contacted the company and they agreed to exchange the unit for a new one but guess what, this new unit also failed to produce ANY fresh water during the whole of the second year.  We therefore took the unit back to the UK and asked the company for our money back which they duly sent us (with no argument at all).  You will see a picture of the Waterlog 200 on the left of this section.  We can only tell you here what happened in our case, we cannot say that the Waterlog does not work, only in our case did it not.  However, we had no water at all from the two units we tried so we would never again entertain using this kind of a device.

The Dessalator :

We are extremely pleased with this unit and the great assistance given by Advance Yacht Systems Limited.

We subsequently decided to purchase an electric unit and, at the London Boat Show in 2007, we found a company called Advance Yacht Systems Limited who are the UK sole distributors for a French product called the Dessalator.  We purchased a Dessalator D60 (60 Ltrs per hour of fresh water, in ideal conditions of course). The cost is quite high but we took the plunge and decided to keep the costs down by Alan installing the unit.  The company advised us that it was a simple job to install and promised to help with advice at any time.  

They even had pictures of the installation of such a unit on another Island Packet, which they kindly copied for us.  For the layman it is not as easy to install as you may think, there being lots of water pipes to run to the various positions of the units (Control Panel, Primary Filter Unit, The Dessalator pump, the Inlet and Outlet through hull fittings and of course the main desalination Membranes.  BUT nor is it really difficult, it just takes time and a little patience.

However, Alan did carry out the installation (with any questions being answered very quickly and efficiently by the people at Advance Yacht, who would call us back and carry the main cost of the calls) and, though it took some time it was eventually completed satisfactorily.  That was some months ago now and, fingers crossed, the unit has worked perfectly to date.  Advance Yacht had told us it was a very simple unit and it has so far proved to be so.  With an automatic back flush and one that you can carry out manually (with just the turn of a handle near the primary filter) it is very user friendly and we are very pleased with the unit. Our great thanks to Advance Yacht Systems Limited.  If anyone is interested enough to find out more please click on the following link which will take you to their UK website.          www.advanceyacht.co.uk

We thought that as Kiah had the berths to sleep up to 7 people, that we would go for a 6 man liferaft.  Alan being Alan wanted an ocean crossing liferaft complete with food and water.  We purchased a canister raft which turned out to have the following problems:

We decided that 6 man was too big as we would never have more than 4 people on board for long distance sailing so we then decided to purchase a 4 man valise raft.  This did not have food and water packed into it and a valise (for those who do not know) is a soft cover rather than a canister.  The raft we selected was a   EV - ISO -  9650 - LIFERAFT (Type 1, Group A) MCA approved (see picture to left) and it weighed in at 35 Kilo which is a considerable saving and means that one man can pick it up to launch it if need be.  It also means that we can stow it below when we are away from the boat for any length of time.  We get round the problem of food and water by having these items stowed in the 'Grab Bag' to take with us should we have to abandon ship. It is vacuum packed inside the canvas cover and has a service period of every 3 years. This is a much more acceptable solution for us on Kiah.

a)  It weighed 50 Kilos

b)  It had to be serviced every year

c)  It was not packed in a vacuum bag inside the canister

There was nothing wrong with the liferaft other than the above drawbacks.