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The Maskelyne Islands

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The Maskelyne islands were named by Captain Cook after his astronomer royal Nevil Maskelyne.  They are a very remote cluster of low-lying islands that sit off the southern tip of Vanuatu’s second largest island, Malekula.  It is a very remote and pristine area of Vanuatu.

The locals who live in the area still get around in their wooden outrigger canoes and live a very simple life, much as they have for centuries.

One of the reasons we came to the Maskelyne islands was to see the dugongs.  Dugongs are cousins to the manatee but are more closely related to the elephant.  They are known as “sea cows” and are truly gentle giants.  You can see all of the “fish” markers below which indicate locations where they have been spotted.  I am on a mission to swim with them!

The red arrow is where Sugar Shack is anchored when I took the snapshot of the chart.

Awei Island Anchorage

Our first stop in the Maskelyne Islands is Awei Island.  There is an anchorage between Awei and Malekula that provides really good protection from wind and swell in almost all directions.  Between the two islands is a reef that also keeps this bay calm and beautiful.

We anchored here with our friends on Moana but they left before we could get the drone out.  This anchorage is super protected by two islands and a reef.  We had perfect conditions for drone pictures.

As you can see, there are lots of reefs in this anchorage.  One that blocks the ocean (top photo, top left), one behind Sugar Shack and one to our port.

We had several days of rain so this sunny day was particularly welcome.  It is so cool to see the clouds in the water. It gives the allusion that we are floating in the sky 🙂

The Awei Village

There is a very small sandy beach in our bay that is used for a launching point. The kids take outriggers to school and the women take outriggers across the anchorage to a neighboring island to work in the garden.

The small village is a short 15 minute walk across the island to the other side.  It is remarkably clean and neat village hosting 3 families.

They have a Presbyterian church (in pink) with a dive tank as their church bell.  Not sure why they need a bell as there are so few people who live here??

A few of the ladies were weaving and they allowed us to watch.  It was really impressive how they effortlessly continued to weave while carrying on a conversation with us.  Lower right photo is their “small or tiny” garden.

It rained almost every day we were here.  But we did not let that stop us.  Rena (from sv Moana) and I went exploring on the SUPs.  We found lots of tunnels in the mangroves and checked out the reefs from above.

Sughulamp Reef

We had the chance to move to shallow, blue water at the Sughulamp Reef.  It is not really an anchorage (at least none of the charts note it as an anchorage), but it suits us well.  We dropped the hook in 2.5meters of turquoise water which is close to the dugong area.  Here we can enjoy some quiet time by ourselves.

We both jump in the water and take several hours to burnish the Coppercoat.  We have not had to do anything to the bottom since we splashed which was 7 weeks ago.  I do the “easy” part which is cleaning the sides of the hulls (4 sides x 50′ is a lot to cover) as far as I can go while holding my beath.  Matt does the hard part (clean the very bottom) using the hooka.  I have far more area to cover but he works upside down.

Lucky for us, the light grime and few barnacles easily come off with a brillo pad.  Now we have a super clean bottom, hulls, rudders, sail drive and props.  Sweet as!

Our friends took this photo…can you tell what is “different” about this photo?  Answer at the bottom.

Dugongs

You absolutely want to see the dugongs while you are in the Maskelyne Islands.  They are the gentlest of giants and simply adorable. The Maskelyne islands are a global hotspot for these shy and graceful creatures (often referred to as sea cows) and swimming with them is an extra special ocean experience.

Interest in the dugongs has helped the island communities restrict local hunting and turn towards environmentally responsible tourism to support dugong conservation instead, and guidelines are in place to ensure any interactions are a positive experience for the wonderful creatures.

Stay tuned for adventures with the dugongs in our next blog!  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  We were in the Maskleyne Island Awei anchorage around mid-July 2024.  In our last blog post we take you through the grade-taking ceremony at Ambrym.

Answer: The photo is taken upside down.  The water was so calm and clear that it makes it hard to tell.

Back in the Boatyard

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We are back on the hard in Norsand Boatyard.  What, you are probably asking, “why?”  Well, we had a lot of little things we needed to do – each individually would not warrant a haul out, but together they did.

Boatyard Projects on the List

  • Reburnish the Coppercoat (due to our barnacle incident)
  • Fix small gelcoat damage (another boat ran into our starboard bow)
  • Water Tanks: Scrape, clean, and repaint interior 
  • Repair Teak on both Sugar Scoops 
  • Wax the hulls and stern

Haul out

Hauling your home out of its natural environment and onto a trailer is always nerve racking.  However, Kevin and Shayne at Norsand Boatyard are experts and they truly take every precaution to ensure our home is safe. 

Coppercoat

We applied fresh Coppercoat in late December 2023 and had a massive issue 6 weeks later after being in a barnacle infested river.  Coppercoat UK and the local NZ Coppercoat distributor agreed to reburnish the bottom of our boat. This particular task requires us to be out of the water so the boatyard can sand the entire bottom with 320 grit sand paper.  

I will say that we rock!  Why do you ask?  Well, we spent days in the freezing cold water scraping and cleaning our bottom and it looks so much better than other boats with barnacles on their Coppercoat.  I took a photo of a monohull that had similar barnacle problems to us (lower right photo).  As you can see they were not as successful at removing the “feet” of the barnacles (little white spots) as we were.  And another boat with Coppercoat who stayed in the barnacle infested water for over 6 months had a reef with baby eels falling off of it when she hauled out (lower left photo).

Sugar Shack bottom at haul out (top) and another boat after haul out (bottom), both with Coppercoat.  Yep, we did good.  

Coppercoat Repair

Once we were out of the water, we noticed an area that has 4 spots that are down to the barrier coat – that is not good.  So we have to address this issue.

Conor fills the spots with filler and Coppercoat.  It needs a sanding, then it is ready to be burnished with the rest of the bottom.

Burnsing the Coppercoat

Right before we splash, the yard comes back to burnish the Coppercoat with 320 grit sandpaper.  Not sure what I expected, but honestly, I was surprised that the bottom turned back to copper color after the boys (Ian and Shamus) burnished it.  It was soooo smooth.

It even had a shiny penny look when the sun hit it.

Hit by another Boat

Another boat hits us while we were docked at Town Basin Marina.  It was rather an unfortunate occurrence but the damage was minimal.  This other boat was trying to squeeze in front of us and claimed he had bow thrusters.  He had bow thrusters, but they did not work.  The tide was pretty strong and carried his boat side ways causing the stern of his boat, with his dinghy and dinghy outboard to scratch the inside starboard bow.

Aaron from Norsand Boat yard came out to give us an estimate and the other boat owner, begrudgingly paid us the $1500NZ that it cost to repair our boat.

While we were at it we had the boatyard finish a job they forgot to complete last time.  They missed cleaning up the repair around the port cleat (the cleat goes where the 3 holes are) the repair was the cracks around the cleat.

Water Tanks

Our two water tanks hold about 400L of water each and are built into the boat.  When the boat was built, the manufacturer used some sort of weird potable paint that has not held up well.  For several years it has been peeling away and clogging up our filters.  Matt has drained the tanks, scraped the excess paint off, and vacuumed up the mess several times.  But, it was beyond time for us to completely clean out the tanks and repaint them with special non-toxic potable paint.

The white or light specs are actually pieces of chipped paint.  Now don’t completely freak out because we do have several filters for each water tank (which holds 400L).  So the water goes through each filter before coming to the taps.

This is such a huge project that I decided to write a separate blog about it so I can include more of the details (in case any of our other fellow cruisers need to do this too).  See upcoming blog post “Disgusting Water Tank.”

Repairing the Teak on our Sugar Scoops

The teak on both the port and starboard sugar scoops has had a long, challenging life span in direct sun light, constantly covered in salt water and enduring heavy usage.  We try to be diligent with its care but it is completely exposed to salt water, sun and constant use.  We’ve replaced the teak about 8-9 years ago, but it time to do a temporary repair until we can replace them again (it is a long and expensive process so we want to squeeze as much life out of these sugar scoops as we can).

As you can see, the black caulking has come up and is completely missing in some places. It is time to repair it all.

I watched several YouTube videos and pulled Matt in to help.  This is turning out to be a much larger job than we anticipated. So, the details of the teak repair will be coming out in an upcoming blog called “Caulking the Sugar Scoops Teak” stay tuned.

Waxing the Boat

Ian, aka “Stretch” comes in to wax our boat and make her as shiny as possible (considering her gelcoat is thin and old).  He always does such a great job.

While we were working on the sugar scoops we had to get on and off the boat with a very tall (15 steps) ladder which was such a pain in the arse!  Luckily it was only for 2 of the 6 weeks we were here.

As you can see we made the most of this haul out in the boat yard.  We were anxious to get back in the water as we prepare to head to a new country, Vanuatu.

Our blog posts run several weeks behind actual live events.  This blog post occurred late April 2024. We enjoy some rough housing during the stock car races in Whangarei.

A Coppercoat Failure?

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This is such a difficult blog for me to write.  As you know, we spent a lot of money and time applying Coppercoat antifoul (see Coppercoat blog posts part I and part II) to our boat.  We had very high expectations that this product would last a very long time, save us money, and prevent us from hauling out every other year.  Maybe that was the problem?  Our expectations were too high?

The Prologue

We splashed from Norsand Boatyard and went up river to a marina. We stayed at the dock for 5 weeks and when we left, we had no concerns regarding the bottom job.  Why do you ask?

Last season we stayed in the same river for 8 months.  We had lots and lots of soft growth on our Carboline ablative paint.  I mean it looked like a small forest.  However, it easily fell off as soon as the boat started moving.  In fact, we sailed to Great Barrier (35-40nm) and by the time we got there the bottom had no growth!  Cool!

The Difference Between Seasons

As you might recall, last season 2023, had a lot of rain!  It rained at least 4 days a week if not more during the 8 months we were there!  Since we were on a river, the rain would fill the mountains and waterfalls which would push a lot of fresh, cold water down our river.  

However, this season we had very little rain and hot days.  Making the brackish water very warm and stagnant. Evidently this is a breeding ground for barnacles.

The Problem

Matt jumped in the water once we got to our first anchorage. He was completely shocked as our bottom was covered in barnacles.  This just 5 weeks after splashing into the water with fresh Coppercoat.

The barnacles were everywhere on the Coppercoat, on the hulls, on the stern, the bow, the very bottom and the daggerboards.  It was crushing!

Our Experiment

As you might recall, we did a little experiment.  We placed 4 different products on the bottom of our boat to see which would perform better over time.

As a note, Coppercoat cannot be near aluminum so we had to put a different product around the rudder shaft and the sail drive.

  1. Coppercoat on the entire hull
  2. Propspeed on the props.  This product can only go on the props, not on the hulls
  3. Vivid antifoul bottom paint near the rudder shaft (black circle)
  4. Vinyl Antifoul wrap near the sail drive (black square)

What was the outcome after the first 5 weeks?

The yellow propspeed had zero growth.  No soft or hard growth.  It was super clean!

The Vinyl antifoul, which we applied as sort of a joke, as we thought this would be the first to disintegrate or fall apart.  But this only had some soft growth which fell off with a light touch of your finger.

Vivid antifoul paint was covered in barnacles. 

And the Coppercoat was covered.

What Did we Do?

For those of you who know me this will come as no surprise.  I sent videos and photos to the marina (just to give them a heads up), to the yard (again a heads up and sought advice), and to the manufacturer of Coppercoat.

There are 5-6 marinas on this same river.  We know of several boats, that stayed at various marinas on this river that had similar problems. Some had antifoul paint and some Coppercoat – all the same results with tons of barnacles.

After a lot of back and forth, the manufacturer did nothing other than provide some insights.  I thought I’d share them here with the hopes that it would be helpful for other cruisers who have Coppercoat.

Insights

Assuming the Coppercoat was applied correctly, which we believe it was (again refer to our Coppercoat blog posts part I and part II)  and compare the application process to that which is recommended by Coppercoat).  

  • Standard antifoul paint starts off at full strength (containing the maximum biocide content when new) and gradually wears down (it grows weaker as the biocides leach away). Making is less effective the older it becomes (which we have seen first hand).  
  • Coppercoat when freshly applied is a relatively mild antifoul. It becomes stronger week by week.   Commonly, a two-year old treatment performs better than a two-week old treatment. This is because it takes time for the epoxy at the outer surface of the treatment to break down and allow the release of the copper.  This would have been good to know BEFORE we applied the Coppercoat as we may have changed our plans after launch.
  • Pure copper itself is relatively mild antifoul agent. It is actually the by-product of the copper oxidization process that have the stronger qualities.  Cuprous oxide is a far more powerful antifoul than pure copper.  It is the double effect of the resin degrading (to allow the exposure and release of the copper) itself oxidizing, that combine to provide a highly efficient antifoul.  And this process takes time.

Although we are very confident in the correct application process done by the yard, I failed to note what grade of sandpaper was used on the last burnishing.  I just noted in our blog that they sanded which is what they need to do to activate the Coppercoat. I wish I would have checked the grade.  However, I find it a ridiculous notion that they yard, who has been applying  Coppercoat for 10 years would have used the incorrect grade after all the time and effort it took to get to the final stage.  If they used a course or low grade sandpaper (something below 300 grade), which we truly believe the did not, it could have added to the problem (not been the cause of the problem, but added to it).

Bad Timing?

So does this all add up to just bad timing?  Our resin did not have a chance to degrade so the copper did not oxidize which allowed the barnacles a free hold on our bottom.

And it appears our boat was launched during a particularly high fouling time in a high fouling area.

We are aware of several other boats that stayed at different marinas along the same river and they too had a seriously bad barnacle problem.  In fact, one boat had Coppercoat that was applied a year ago, another had Coppercoat applied 5 months ago, and one had ablative bottom paint. All were covered in barnacles.  So, it was not just our marina, but perhaps the river, the warm water temperature, and bad timing?

The Solution

We immediately started cleaning the bottom of the boat with a metal scraper (while she is still in the water).  It took us 4 days and several turns with the hooka (diving apparatus) to remove all of the barnacles.  Again, this just breaks my heart!  We had such high hopes!  The reason it took us several days was because the water temps are really cold (20-21C) 69-70F degrees.  So, even with a wet suit we could not stay in the water more than 1.5-2hours at a time.

We unfortunately did not have the opportunity to haul the boat out immediately after discovery so we did the best we could with cleaning her while she was in the water.  You can see where we cleaned the top part in this photo.

We started with the metal scraper then followed it up with a scotch bright (mild) pad to get any remaining soft growth off the hull.

All in all it took us a total of 9 hours to clean the boat.  That’s 9 hours in 21c (69F) water which is really damn cold even in our wetsuits!

The good news is that 90% of the barnacles came off relatively easy with the metal scrape.  About 10% required more attention to get their white base off.  It was really difficult to get them off the freezer plates, SSB plates and around the dagger board casing.

Manufacturer Solution:

  • A thorough cleaning should be done immediately (and was).
  • The preferred method would be to haul the boat out and pressure wash it.  Then use a metal scraper (the type to decorate or remove old wall paper) to scrape off any remaining barnacles.  A fine grade of wet-and-dry paper (320 grade) should then be used.
    • The purpose of the sand paper is to remove the thinnest layer of epoxy at the surface to expose the copper held within. The exposed copper with then oxidize more readily when the boat is re-launched
  • Using course sandpaper will simply scratch the surface and provide a physical key for marine life to try to cling to. Only use mild grade paper or a burnishing pad.
  • It is important to do this quickly, before the growth becomes worse and attaches more firmly, as that will only make the cleaning more difficult.

After more back and forth, Aquarius Marine (Coppercoat UK), HullWell, and Norsand agreed to cover the cost to remove any remaining barnacles, and fully machine burnish the bottom at our next haul out.  We will be responsible for the cost to haul the boat and pressure wash it.  We will schedule to haul the boat out at the end of April as close to our departure date as possible – with the hopes of leaving NZ with a clean hull.

Still Hopeful

Matt and I are NOT giving up hope on Coppercoat.  We are hopeful that we were just at the wrong place at the wrong time with very young Coppercoat that was not ready for an onslaught of barnacles. So, I would say “not an overall failure but a complete and total disappointment.”

We will keep you posted on our experiment.  Feel free to contact us with any questions.

Our blog posts usually run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events, but I wanted this post to go out fairly close to the other two Coppercoat posts.  We discovered the barnacles around the end of January.  We are in a sticky situation in our last blog – did you read why?