Hope you had the great weather we had. But, whatever the weather, it's a trip along the coastline and we enjoyed every minute of it.

You are right. Nature isn't kind.

We elect to fly the flag at all times.

The passage between Newport Rhode Island and Kinsale Ireland was 2801 nautical miles (3223 miles) and it took 17 days.

@@MVDirona do you stay busy during that long passage , how do you pass time and keep away boredom

I work full time so always have lots to do. If I'm too tired to work, I'll read. To avoid not paying sufficient attention or falling asleep, we have to press a button on the upper instrument panel every 10 min to avoid an alarm.

@@MVDirona I'm so fascinated,where do I sign up

Your 100% right. It was an amazing 10 year adventure. We loved it.

Thanks for the feedback on the video.

Thanks for the feedback. Both Jennifer and I appreciate it and wish you all the best on your circumnavigation.

I would estimate a couple hundred feet. Enough to be interesting but not that far.

@@MVDirona no you never get to the power house through the outlet.

Thanks for the feedback!

Thanks for the feedback on the video and it's great to hear how well your Northern Lights generator is running. Music to my ears. You'll be pleased to know that, unlike much of the industry, Northern Lights doesn't treat there online manuals as yet another revenue source. They are up at; www.northern-lights.com/technicalinformation/manuals/

Thank you so much for your quick reply 👍🏼 I see the operator manual and the parts manual.. do you know if there is a actual shop manual or if there isn’t do you suppose the Perkins 403-15 manual would work for this generator. I would appreciate your insight also as to whether you think that the parts may be interchangeable between engines, especially concerning the head. Thank you again I really really appreciate it.

Drop me an email to [email protected] and I'll send you an electronic copy of the Northern Lights Manual I use.

Yes, we feel super fortunate to have stumbled upon this relatively rare event.

Your right. Digesting that one bite meal will take days.

Yes, we felt super lucky to have the opportunity to see this fairly rare event.

100% agree. Nature is really, really wild and Africa has it in it's most concentrated form.

That was pretty close to what I whispered when I saw this as well. Whoa.

Thanks for the feedback on the video.

Thanks for the feedback on our videos.

I've heard good things about Amsoil and other fuel additives from enough good people that I know there are good reasons to use them. But, thus far, I've elected to run on good quality diesel that hasn't been in the tanks long and it's been giving fairly good results.

Yes, a prophylactic change of injectors on a top end overhaul is good advice. There was no evidence of poor injector spray pattern nor high exhaust gas temperature but, since the hours were up over 5,000 and I had spare injectors, I did change them.

Yes, your 100% right. We do have a lot of parts. Our goal is to be 100% self sufficient and to be able to operate without help and without redirecting to port to order parts.

We replaced the cylinder head after 6,741 hours.

It's hard to believe but rescue swimmers and pilots can operate in hurricanes force winds and the heavy seas common in sustained high wind conditions. I've read about rescues in 100mph winds and 40' seas.

Our pleasure. Thanks for the feedback.

Hat's off to Ponant for doing the right thing. Here and in most other decisions made during the course of the cruise, they do a good job of putting customer first and offering a premium service. We'll go back.

In this case it was a crew member that had fallen in a staircase and full recovery expected. Still I'm sure it wasn't a wonderful expereince for them.

I 100% agree. These rescue swimmers have saved so many lives in marina accident situations. They are absolutely amazing and watching an evacuation really drives home how challenging these operations are.

Yes, you are so right. These remote locations have excruciating evacuation costs if needed. That's why one of our upcoming trips require in depth health checks before we will be permitted on the trip.

A decade+ ago, a helicopter EMS agency I was familiar with was $5500 plus $55 per loaded mile.

Thanks for the feedback and all the best to you as well.

I know of no way to adjust valves without using feeler gauges and wouldn't dream of doing it without them.

Sorry I was thinking about the head gasket, maybe feeler gauge’s may be easier then a dial indacater?@@MVDirona

Good point. A high quality metal straight edge and feeler gauges would probably be a better choice for that operation.

I do have a 1/2 braker bar and do use it on the big engine but, on these little ones, I don't find it necessary. But, no debate, it's a good choice when barring over an engine.

Thanks for the feedback on the video.

The display is Maretron N2kview (defender.com/en_us/maretron-n2kview-vessel-monitoring-control-software-n2kview?gclid=Cj0KCQjwmvSoBhDOARIsAK6aV7i4CLpxtG-Ldpt37vUjO_ysBXJKbMHTifn0x7Wf9sw-oRUJQepZEVkaAu0qEALw_wcB) which is an excellent, fully end user configurable instrumentation system. N2Kview can display anything's on the NMEA2000 bus and, on our boat, that includes: all engine data from both the wing, main, and generator engines. All 120V and 240V electrical data from both inverters, both shore power cords, and the generator. All DC electrical data and all fuel, water, and waste tank level data.

Good question. There are long periods on the trip between Amsterdam and Antwerp where close to nothing happens and it's really not very interesting. This leaves us with three choices: 1) post a long boring video, 2) carefully edit the video to include the interesting sections, and 3) run it faster than normal speed. Option 2 is easier for us but we acknowledge it's not as good a product and going forward, with your feedback and others, we'll go with the more time intensive option 2.

Thanks for the feedback.

That's a great question -- it was challenging. The approach we took was to put a large adjustable wrench on the rudder post with a pipe extension to hold the rudder straight. Jennifer held that assembly and I pulled the bolt. The weight of the boat in the large seas were putting massive forces into the rudder so, even though Jennifer was strong enough to hold the wrench securely, there wasn't enough friction between Jennifer and the floor so the wrench and Jennifer swung back and force. I then used by feet to help hold Jennifer which slowed the swinging greatly but still didn't fully eliminate it. I dropped the bolt back in as the rudder gently swung past straight. Overall, the process only took 10 min but it wasn't easy.

@@MVDirona Thanks. I can only imagine the uncomfortable challenge that was to shut down steering and swap out the part in those conditions. BZ to the two of you! Fair winds!

Yes! It's that same big beautiful boat with a new big beautiful name. Here's to the next 12,000 hours of adventuring in that wonderful boat.

@@MVDirona awesome! it was so cool to see her in person! I wish the new owners the best of luck.

More fuel is generally more stable than less fuel since the fuel is stored so low in the boat. The more you carry the lower the boats center of buoyancy and the stiffer it is to rolling. The difference is technically fairly large but, at least on Dirona, the boat is Catagory A Ocean capable on empty tanks or full so the safety the boat isn't compramized at any fuel levels. More data on boat stability here: mvdirona.com/2019/03/deck-fuel-and-vessel-stability/

Thanks for the feedback on the videos.

Yes, the default operating mode is black water is stored in the black water tank and gray water is directly discharged. Another operating mode is hold both black and gray and discharge nothing. The boat also supports direct discharge of both but we never used that operating mode.

@@MVDirona Thank You for Your Answer.

Exactly. It's a sound reduction enclosure and these are quite common on generators. Some chose not to run them to get better generator cooling but most most do.

@@MVDirona Thank You