SV Wave Runner and her crew’s experiences of living on the hard during their sailing adventures in the Pacific, Australia, Southeast Asia and the Med.

”It’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard life on the hard

Sun and salt take their toll on the boat and me

Ain’t no way around it, got to

haul out on the hard

It’s time to go a cruising in the working yard…”

Some of the words from American cruiser and songstress Eileen Quin.

When we left New Zealand in our Colin Child 42foot steel ketch in 2008 we never imagined we would be spending so much time and money being hauled out – ‘ladder living’, we called it. We thought maybe every two years for anti-fouling, but 10 times in close to eight years?!

It is not that Wave Runner is a bad boat, because she isn’t, but sadly there was a recurring problem with her stern gland that gave us most of our problems. No mechanic, technician, or helpful cruiser from Australia to Turkey could properly diagnose or effect a lasting fix. It was only on our eventual return to New Zealand that the wonderful team at Lyttelton Engineering finally sorted the problem.

Before leaving our home port of Lyttelton, we thought we had prepared extremely well for our big adventure. New main and genoa, new rigging, the old Detroit engine replaced by a new Lombardini 85hp engine, bow-thrusters fitted, a watermaker installed and a wind generator – to mention just a few of the improvements.

Just four days north of New Zealand, enroute to Vanuatu, we experienced a frightening storm and spent 40 hours riding to a parachute anchor in the middle of the Pacific. Not a golden-sand beach or palm tree to be seen!

Upon reaching Port Vila we had our first haul-out. The small, friendly yard was run by a couple of very helpful Kiwis. A beautiful setting, and finally, a golden-sand beach. This first introduction to ladder living was great: barbecued seafood served with sunset drinks each evening, the clean ablutions block an easy walk away, sight-seeing trips with no worries about leaving your boat unattended, amazing scenery, and wonderful, exotic people.

Ladder-living brings its own challenges. For instance, how do you cope with your black and grey wastewater? Dust and grime from dirty yards, some without any health and safety regulations, and then there are overzealous neighbours, grinding, sanding and spraying their boats.

Climbing your ladder laden with all your shopping, tools, whatever, can be downright scary. Sometimes not even a ladder, but scaffolding – OK for the workers perhaps, but not always easy for this wonky-kneed female in her sixties. My husband, ‘The Skipper,’ called it bonus exercise.

Then there was the wildlife, like the cheeky monkeys in Malaysia which ransacked many an unsuspecting boat, or the marauding ants in Thailand. The cockroach (yes, just one that we saw and killed) in Spain. Snakes? We saw plenty, both on land and in the water, but thankfully none aboard WR. We had a rat trap, but rats never graced us with a visit. Perhaps it was the large funnels threaded onto any lines leading from the boat to the shore that acted as a deterrent.

Welcome guests were the beautiful stray dogs we ‘adopted’ in Thailand and Turkey, nursing them back to health in several cases, and in Turkey finding a ‘forever home’ for one dog which now lives in Germany. There were a few hefty vet bills, which had not been budgeted for when initially planning our trip.

In Cairns we had a very expensive haul-out to re-engineer the whole drive shaft system, swapping the oil tube lubrication for grease. We had a proper travel-lift and were in a big boatyard. Here we had our first encounter with crocodiles, but luckily nothing too up close and personal. No ladder to climb, but a beautiful staircase that could easily have graced a stately home. Our Grey Nomad friends met us in Cairns, parking their van in the yard next to Wave Runner and we met up with several other Kiwi friends here, too. Fun, fun, fun.

Unfortunately, the very expensive fix lasted for only 3,000 nautical miles and then all the grease dumped in the bilge. The yard said that if we came back, they would see us right. Yes, well, who is going to do that when it means back-tracking and sailing upwind? But that’s cruising, I guess.

We muddled on until we reached Rebak Marina on a small island just off the coast of Langkawi, Malaysia. Here we had our third haul-out. What a gorgeous place! The marina was the entrance to a resort where the cruisers can use the resort’s facilities at no extra charge. There was a proper travel lift and a competent operator.

It was back to using a conventional ladder to access our home but there was a clean, paved yard to step onto and ablution blocks close by. There was even a special restaurant for cruisers called the ‘Hard Dock Café’. Meals were amazingly cheap and of good quality.

Langkawi is a duty-free island, which means cheap booze, and many cruisers don’t ever leave. Rebak is a wildlife paradise with monkeys, water monitors (like small Komodo dragons), sea otters, eagles, hornbills and much more. There are lots of snakes – even cobras – but thankfully my snake paranoia had faded a little. We fell in love with Rebak and ended up being based there over three monsoon seasons. It was very welcoming and there was a fantastic and interesting cruising community. It was also a great base for land-travel.

But back to the Rebak haul-out, where my husband Pete, advised and helped by various other cruisers, undertook the next repair on the stern gland. Sadly, that also failed. This meant a 150nm sail up to Phuket in Thailand to Boat Lagoon to, once again, get the professionals on the job.

Boat Lagoon is the place to have work done. It can only be accessed on a high tide and a pilot is available if required to navigate the long tidal channel. The skipper preferred to tackle it himself. I was instructed to “shut up”. Hard to do with the depth sounder beeping its head off and with tourist boats tearing out at high speed.

Thailand is relatively cheap and the quality of work generally pretty good. There are a lot of ex-pats who run businesses there and so it was an Australian engineer who redesigned our stern gland system. He put in a simple stuffing box, which lasted for five years.

Meanwhile, we explored Phuket’s sights. We made use of the swimming pools inside Boat Lagoon (which is also a resort and gated housing community) and spent time enjoying the delights of our window air-con unit, watching DVDs bought for next to nothing in the markets, and socialising with other cruisers. Some boat maintenance we did ourselves, but mostly it was just too hot and humid and cheap labour makes you lazy!

We had several more haul-outs at Boat Lagoon, spending some of the kids’ inheritance on a hard dodger and bimini which housed some extra solar panels, plus clears and a canvas ‘house’ for our cockpit. This necessitated moving the mainsheet traveller forward of the dodger and strengthening the cabin-top to take the load. The additions were fantastic, essentially giving us an extra room. It was designed to enable air flow, which is so necessary in hot climes, and yet it stays snug and dry in adverse weather.

Granny rails were fitted. Then there was new flooring throughout the boat, a teak cockpit floor, new hatch covers, a larger storage box for the stern, stack-pack boom bag, hull painting and antifouling. Oh – and a fantastic cockpit table that stowed almost invisibly.

On the morning of our final launching, the lovely Thai painter presented us with a beautiful lei of flowers to place on the bow, along with an amazing bowl of tropical fruits with melon carvings and orchids woven into it. This was to wish us good luck.

Unfortunately, the luck hadn’t kicked in yet when they picked WR up. A sling slipped and she landed heavily on the front cradle, sending a dangerous shower of wooden blocks into the air. No real damage done, just a bit of anti-fouling needing replacing.

It was at Boat Lagoon that we discovered the usefulness of disposable nappies and incontinence pads. They are great for soaking up diesel spills etc or placing oily tools and parts on. When buying these products, the ‘poor old dears’ look from the shop assistants made us giggle. BNZ