Author: Will

While we are out at sea, a few thoughts on a subject dear to my heart – how we use renewable energy on a sailing boat.

The sails are of course the main way to harness renewable energy on a boat – the power of the wind is sufficient to transport you great distances without the need for an engine (you just need the engine for manoeuvring at the start and end of the trip). We have a mainsail, headsail (genoa) and staysail which when all in use can propel the boat through the water at speeds of over 8 knots in the right wind conditions.

The power of the wind can also be used to steer the boat, using the hydrovane (the red device in the picture below). You set this on the desired course and its rudder will steer according to the angle of the wind, removing the need for a person to steer the boat by hand, or to use the autohelm, which runs using the ship’s batteries.

Next on to electricity generation. The white device with the propeller next to the hydrovane is the Watt&Sea hydrogenerator. As Valent moves through the water the propeller on the Watt&Sea turns creating electricity. This can generate around 300W if we are sailing around 6 knots. The electricity goes through a controller and is fed into the ships batteries. To set it running while underway you do need to lean over the stern of the boat in a dangerous fashion to insert the pin, so it is advisable to set it in motion before you set off.

We also have flexible solar panels on top of our bimini (the blue cover over our cockpit), which continue generating electricity even on hazy days. On a sunny day the 2 x 200W solar panels generate approximately 1 kW of power per day, enough electricity to keep the fridge and freezer running. Again this energy goes through a converter and into the batteries.

Talking of batteries, Valent has 3 x 280Amp Hour Lithium batteries. These in conjunction with a 3KW inverter can provide enough electricity on board for all normal living, though it is not a good idea to use the electric kettle, toaster and microwave as these are all heavy consumers of electricity and the batteries become quickly depleted.

There are many other ways in which you can use renewable energy on a sailing boat. Some boats have a small wind-powered electricity generator, and many boats now have electric motors for their dinghies, which are charged through the sailing boat’s batteries. Although they don’t have as much horsepower as a petrol engine, they still have sufficient range to cover most local dinghy trips.

When away from a marina and therefore not connected to shore power, we need to use our ship’s batteries for all our power requirements, including running the boiler to make hot water, lighting, powering the Remoska electric cooker in the galley, running our watermaker which converts sea water into drinkable water, and running Starlink. (Our oven and stove top run on gas). Although our solar panels and the wave-powered hydrogenerator will partly charge the ship’s batteries, they aren’t sufficient to cover all this, so to charge the batteries further we use the engine or the generator, both of which require petrol or diesel. So our boat is still a long way from reaching Net Zero, but we are significantly greener and more self-sufficient than we would be if we were at home.

After the new gearbox had been fitted and tested successfully, the alternator and the boat instruments took some further days to fix. The electrical engineer spent many hours onboard Valent, once staying until 8 pm to complete a job. However with patience and dedication, the work was finally complete – we could hardly believe it!

After five and a half weeks of living alongside the boatyard wall, on Friday 19th April we were able to set off from Jolly Harbour Antigua and continue our Caribbean adventure – just for a couple of weeks though, as on 1st May we need to be back in Antigua to collect the crew who will help Will sail Valent back across the Atlantic to the UK. There was just time for a whistle-stop tour of a few of the islands north of Antigua.

Our first stop was Nevis, a 45 mile or around a 7 hour sail away in calm seas. It felt good to be out at sea again, with flying fish skimming the surface of the water and seabirds circling overhead – and as a bonus Will caught two barracudas on the way across, which sorted out our dinner plans for that night!

When you sail to another island, which is usually a different country, you must fly the flag of that country, plus a yellow flag until you have cleared through customs. We have been through many different flag changes during our trip through the Caribbean: in the photos above the flag for Antigua is being taken down, and the flag for Saint Kitts and Nevis goes up in its place.

It was good to be back out at anchor in a peaceful bay with only a few other boats for company – we caught up with our friends from ARC+ family boat Epiphany again there. Nevis is a small and low key island, people are very friendly and welcoming and it is much cheaper than Antigua. The water was crystal clear and we spotted numerous starfish, some red and some glinting golden from the sea bed seven metres below the boat.

After a few days in Nevis, an hour’s motoring further north on a calm day took us to the southern part of neighbouring island Saint Kitts, which proved to be just as peaceful and laid back as Nevis. Whitehouse Bay where we anchored has a cool beach bar with a great dinghy dock, which sadly was affected by Covid and has now closed down. The chairs and wooden deck are still there though, and people bring their own drinks and hang out as if the bar is still open.

In Saint Kitts we snorkelled over a shipwreck, which serves as a good warning of why you need to keep a watch out for unmarked rocks.

The next stop on our short tour was to be Saint Eustatius (also known as Statia), a small volcanic island which is part of the Netherlands and used to be the trade capital of the West Indies in the late 1700s. We set off early in the morning with a four hour sail ahead of us, and soon had our mainsail, genoa (headsail) and staysail powering us through the water at around 7 knots. Once we left the protection of land behind and were in the channel between Saint Kitts and Statia, the wind strengthened to 18-20 knots and the sea state was quite turbulent. We approached Statia to find that the bay where we were planning to anchor looked very rolly and would be an uncomfortable place to spend the night. So our visit to Statia turned into a sail-past, and we continued our sail on to our next destination: Saint Barts.

As we rounded the north of Statia we had to turn Valent closer into the wind to achieve the direction we needed, which made for a more uncomfortable sail, crashing into the waves. After five weeks in the boatyard our sea legs were out of practise and required reacclimatising! As we sailed towards Saint Barts at one point five islands were visible – behind us Saint Kitts, Statia and another small island Saba, and ahead of us Saint Barts and Saint Martin.

After a further five hour sail and a longer day at sea than originally planned, we arrived at Saint Barts before dusk, and quickly took a mooring buoy for an overnight stay. This morning (Friday 26th April) we have re-anchored further out in deeper water – Sophie and I have perfected our job as anchor team over the last few months, having had lots of practice! So we now have a few days to explore Saint Barts before we need to return to Antigua at the start of May to collect the new crew.

As our regular readers will know, Valent suffered a gearbox failure whilst anchoring in Deshaies, Guadeloupe on the 9th March. Not so much Death in Paradise as Adrift in Paradise. The failure occurred with no discernible change in noise, just we ceased to be able to go forwards or backwards. A quick investigation showed that the control cable was intact and the gearbox had oil, so the problem became more serious. Something was wrong inside the gearbox. To refresh your memory, a tow into the anchorage, followed by a series of manoeuvres under sail, and then another tow from the anchorage in Antigua saw Valent safely into Jolly Harbour, alongside the boatyard wall, and work could begin.

First thought was that the oil pump might have failed. The pump was removed and it was quickly apparent that this was not the case. Nothing as simple as that. Unfortunately this now meant that the old gearbox needed to be removed from Valent to enable it to be opened up and the cause of failure determined. The gearbox on Valent is a substantial piece of kit and weighs in excess of 50kg. At this point we feared that in order to remove the gearbox we would need to pull the shaft back and that would mean being lifted out of the water. Apart from the cost of the lift, we would not be allowed to stay on board Valent whilst she was out of the water and our fridge/freezer would not be available. All that lovely French food in the freezer would either be gone or we would need to find a freezer elsewhere. And the cost of accommodation in Jolly Harbour over Easter was eyewatering. After a bit more investigation we realised that Valent had an Aquadrive coupling between the gearbox and shaft. This coupling could be removed without affecting the shaft or stern gland (the key part of stopping the boat filling up with water – a bit like taking a bung out). Removing the Aquadrive luckily gave us just enough room to disengage the gearbox from the engine and the space to manoeuvre it out of the engine room. It was a 3 man job and required serious agility in some cases.

Having removed the gearbox it was taken to the workshop and investigation began. It became apparent that it was not a simple issue. The fault turned out to be a sheared keyway. The key is a solid piece of metal that provides the fixing between the shaft and gearbox. This had cleanly sheared in half, hence when the gearbox spun there was no force or engagement on the shaft, hence no propulsion. You can clearly see the 2 halves of the key in the pictures below (middle and right). Now started the saga of finding the solution.

The sheared key is at the 10 o’clock position on the right picture and top centre on the middle picture.

After a few hours of searching online I had found both UK and USA suppliers of spare parts for our gearbox (Twin Disc). Unfortunately none of these suppliers had the parts in stock and the best lead time was 12 weeks on certain parts. We then tried to find a new gearbox, but the only 2 we could find of the correct size had the wrong ratio (means that the shaft/engine will not spin in alignment). While we were debating which of the new gearboxes was the least bad solution we started investigating the option of machining replacement parts on Antigua. We found a workshop that could do the job, but we would still need to find some piston rings/seal rings (think tight fitting rubber bands that fit on the shaft to provide a seal). These are a specific size. No one had these bands without a 93 day lead time. Then I found a supplier in Greece who was selling a Twin Disc service kit that included all of the required seals. At the same time as I found the Greek supplier, the Nanni distributor in the UK (AR Peachment) contacted me to say that Nanni had found an identical gearbox to ours languishing in their warehouse. It had never been used, but had been on the shelf for a long time (maybe 20 years). I decided to progress both solutions, you never know what might go wrong, but the favoured solution was the new gearbox.

The next challenge was logistics. Firstly we had to overcome the reluctance to ship the new gearbox direct to us in Antigua from Bordeaux. At one point it looked as though we would need to ship it to a UK address, then onto an agent in Antigua at the other end of the island. Eventually common sense prevailed and our gearbox started its journey from the Nanni warehouse in Bordeaux. After a brief stop in Paris it got stuck in Leipzig. The DHL website implied that there was a paperwork issue. However this turned out to just be a glitch due to the Easter holidays. The gearbox continued its journey and arrived a week later in Antigua, and thanks to some good work from our agent it was delivered to us the following afternoon.

In the meantime our seals has started their journey from Greece. Fedex would not quote direct to Antigua due to a lack of ZIP code/Post Code. No such problem from DHL. They too came via Leipzig, Cincinnati and Puerto Rico. The seals arrived the day after the gearbox, 5 rubber bands in a large cardboard box!

Next step was to examine the new gearbox. The guys here decided that the red colour was a primer coat, and matched the Nanni engine blue and repainted the new gearbox. After a weekend of drying Monday 8th April was the big day. Again 3 people were required, and the new gearbox was carefully lowered and manoeuvred into place. It meshed in beautifully, everything lined up and now we just had to reconnect everything and tighten it all up. On Wednesday the gearbox was in, engine rebuilt and we started her up. Everything sounded good. We went forwards and backwards.

On Thursday we took Valent out for a longer shake down. Having successfully slipped the berth, we did some turns near the berth and then headed out for an hour or so of motoring. All seemed good. The engine sounds a bit louder/throatier at high revs, but all seems to run well. At slow ahead it is significantly quieter, very smooth.

The issues remaining are all related to the other jobs that we originally came to Antigua to resolve: a non-working alternator (which they could not start to work on until we had a working engine) and a faulty log/boat instruments. We have fitted a new transducer (twice) (measures speed & depth) and ITC-5 (twice) (converts the transducer output to a visual figure). The first new transducer was so ‘Smart’ that it tripped the boat’s navigation system. It was diagnosed as a factory fault and a refund issued. Then we found that the ITC-5 was not working as well as it should, and the first new one had also failed! Some bits are getting fixed, but annoyingly something is wrong and is now traced to separate wiring faults with both the alternator and boat instruments. We are hopeful that Monday 15th April will bring a solution and maybe, just maybe we can leave Antigua and go somewhere new for Suzy’s birthday.

We arrived into Jolly Harbour Antigua on Tuesday 12th March, towed in by a fishing boat, and have been living here alongside the wall of the boatyard ever since. This coming Tuesday we’ll have been here four weeks. It’s been a pleasant place to stay, but still frustrating not to be moving anywhere. Someone once told me that sailing is fixing your boat in exotic places, and that is all too true.

It has proved very difficult to track down either spare parts or a replacement gearbox, as ours is so old that they don’t make them any more. After two weeks of Will searching for solutions around the world, he was informed that a new gearbox had been found of the exact size and gear ratio languishing in the Nanni warehouse…in Bordeaux! (A big thank you to AR Peachment and Ash). DHL have shipped it to us via a very circuitous route – from Bordeaux to Antigua, via Paris, Leipzig, Cincinnati, Puerto Rico and finally Antigua. It has now arrived in the boatyard at last and work to fit it starts tomorrow. Fingers crossed that it will fit!

In the meantime, we have been getting on with schoolwork, enjoying the marina swimming pool, and seeing various friends come and go. We said farewell to Swedish family boat Lady Ellen, who began their trip back to Sweden with a passage to Bermuda. We waved goodbye to Dutch family boat Sonas who stopped at Jolly Harbour for one night. We bade a fond farewell to our good friends on Saltair, not knowing when we would see them next. Meanwhile Valent is still in place in the boatyard.

Still, there are worse places to be stuck, and while we are here we have embraced being tourists. We visited English Harbour and Falmouth Harbour, including Nelson’s Dockyard where Nelson was in charge from 1784 to 1787. We also had a sleepover onboard Epiphany who were anchored in Falmouth harbour, which was great fun for kids and parents alike!

While in Nelson’s Dockyard we visited the Galley Bar where tradition dictates that you sign your boat and crew names on the ceiling.

Happily my sister Alex and younger niece Tilly were able to come out to join us for a week over Easter, and we hired a car and explored the island together. Tilly’s 17th birthday coincided with the weekly Sunday barbeque at Shirley Heights, an Antiguan institution with steel bands and a fantastic view of the sunset over English Harbour.

With Alex and Tilly we took a speedboat to a reef where stingrays come to be fed. The water was shallow and very clear and you could see the huge stingrays up close, swimming and swooping around our feet. It was even possible to stroke them, and their skin felt smooth and soft. Unfortunately one stingray mistook Sophie’s leg for food and took a bite out of her thigh – although painful, this has not put her off stingrays which are still her favourite animal!

We also went ziplining in the rainforest together, which was exhilarating and great fun. We don’t have any photos of us in our harnesses and helmets unfortunately as a phone or camera could be dropped from the zipwire and lost forever.

On another day we travelled to the east side of the island and visited beautiful Long Bay, where Tilly, Lucy and Sophie swam with a turtle for at least fifteen minutes. There were dinghy rides, sunsets and lots of swimming. All too soon the week was over – thanks to Alex and Tilly for coming over to see us.

So we are now hoping that work on the gearbox will progress during the coming week, and that once all the other jobs related to the gearbox are completed, we can then make some further progress north. In early May, Valent needs to start her passage back across the Atlantic to avoid hurricane season over here, so we only have a few more weeks left of our Caribbean adventure. There are many islands still to visit just north of Antigua, including Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Barths and Saint Martin, and we hope to be able to see at least a few of them in the time we have left over here.

Note: if any of the pictures are not visible while reading this on a mobile phone, please go to the blog (you can click on Valent at the top of the email) where they will be visible.

After visiting Dominica it was back up to Guadeloupe, to continue our exploration of this colourful and varied island. After brief revisits to Marie Galante and the marina at Pointe a Pitre to recharge our batteries, we arrived in Les Saintes, a group of small islands off the south-west tip of Guadeloupe. In the company of our friends from family boats Saltair and Epiphany, we climbed to reach Fort Josephine and Fort Napoleon, built in the late 1700s to defend the islands against the British, with spectacular views from the top.

From Les Saintes we started our journey up the west coast of Guadeloupe, and had a fast sail one morning with perfect wind conditions allowing us to reach speeds of over 8 knots (quite fast for Valent). Coming up the coast we could at one point see Guadeloupe and Les Saintes with Dominica in the distance behind us, and Monserrat in the distance in front of us.

We anchored at Malendure Bay near Pigeon Island, where the Reserve Cousteau is a protected underwater reserve with vibrant coral and plentiful marine life. This was an excellent location for the girls to try a ‘baptism’ scuba dive, where they went down to no more than 3 metres accompanied by an instructor. They both loved the experience and it has whetted their appetites to do more scuba diving in the future.

Another activity Will and the girls enjoyed was canyoning, which involved abseiling or rapeling down a waterfall 20 metres high, and then jumping off the rocks to swim in the pool beneath the waterfall. Lucy was very brave and managed a jump from 8 metres! Suzy was rather less brave and was happy to stay on the boat that morning.

After all that excitement, we continued further north to a small fishing village called Deshaies. In the UK it is famous as the setting for the TV series Death In Paradise! As fans of the series, we were excited to see some familiar locations, including the waterfront and Honore police station, as any other fans will also recognise from these photos (can you spot Saint Marie’s latest two victims?)

When we had arrived into the bay at Deshaies, everything had been idyllic – the sea was calm, two dolphins welcomed Valent in and a turtle swam past us through the clear water.

While we were attempting to anchor, however, our throttle suddenly stopped engaging with our engine, meaning the engine would no longer drive us forwards (or backwards). We had a quick go at dropping the anchor where we were, but it did not hold and we would have been too close to other boats by the time it did take. So, up anchor and we drifted out to sea avoiding the other boats already anchored in the bay. Will tried to rectify the problem, but to no avail, and diagnosed an internal problem with our gearbox. We were by now half a mile out, and with no wind. We were drifting with no way of getting back into the bay. A ‘Pan Pan’ call for assistance on the VHF radio was answered by a German catamaran called Anila, who kindly offered us a tow into the bay. Several weeks earlier they had had a double engine failure further out to sea and had been towed to safety by the coastguard, so they were happy to return the favour. They towed us back in and we anchored safely, at the outside of the anchorage.

We were due to sail up to Antigua a few days later to have some work done on Valent, but the problem now was how to get into the marina in Antigua safely. Sailing to Antigua should be no problem – after all, sailing boats used to have no engine – but we needed the engine for manoeuvring out of the bay at the start and into the marina at the end.

We delayed our departure by 12 hours until there was enough wind, and at 8pm on 11th March we unfurled our main sail, raised our anchor and crept slowly out of Deshaies bay, giving the other boats a wide berth. As we got away from land the wind built and with 15 knots of wind, Valent made good speed north away from Guadeloupe. As our speed averaged over 7 knots Will reefed in the sails to avoid going too fast and to make sure we arrived in daylight. By 7am we were sailing along the west coast of Antigua and in the shadow of the land. As the wind died away we had all the sails up. For a couple of hours we serenely sailed along at a sedate walking pace, gradually slowing to a crawl. But keep moving we did, and eventually managed to pass the fairway buoy, cross the channel and anchor safely in 3.5 metres of water outside Jolly Harbour, again at the back of the anchorage. Phew – we had made it! Will went in by dinghy to do the customs clearance and chat with the marina and contractors. A fishing boat was employed to tow us into the marina, and that lunchtime we were brought alongside the wall of the boatyard where we currently reside. Our priority now is getting our gearbox problem fixed, followed by the other issues we originally came here for. The gearbox is a major problem which could require the boat coming out of the water for a week and us moving into an airbnb. Something tells me we could be here for a while.