IMPI TAKES DIESEL FROM A SHIP AT SEA - passage New Zealand 

Hey Douglas - thank you - nice comment from an 'OLD US NAVY SAILOR' ... appreciated. I must say the re-fueling experience is a 'once in a lifetime for me' - I hope anyway - lol. I think it's difficult for people to understand how much power in the ocean, the forces at work, the danger there is when operating a small craft alongside a huge wall of steel like that. I really was 'blown away' by the force of the current running down the side of that ship - and the rolling and pitching - I think a monohull would have lost its mast / rig against that ship. As for being a 'well rounded couple' - yes - it really does the that to be 24/7 together one a 'small platform' sometimes in very trying circumstances. I am very fortunate in that we pull together especially when things get tough out there - we understand each others 'stress points' and we look out for each others emotional care - we live to see each other being happy - and this really works for us. I am a lucky man :) Certainly would be a pleasure to 'run into you some time' ... let us know if you ever see us in your part of the world ... Cheers for now Brent

Thanks Mike - all good then !

Hey - thanks for the comment! I was really hoping one of the Madinah crew would post something but I dod not come across any footage yet - I know there were a bunch of cameras rolling on that one. I will definitely upload if I get some footage from them. My hand - as good as new :) Thanks for caring Cheers

+two skippers Agreed! We become slack with keeping the battery charged on ocean passages and of course this is one of those times we could have just clamped the go-pro to the yacht so it could film the event hands free. Anyway, I think the decision is made, we want at least one more camera onboard ready to go. As for the thumbs up to the captain of there container ship - oh yeah - what amazing people out there! Thanks for the comments and always our pleasure to share :)

+boo boo - LOL - thats WHY we cant afford the go pro :) Just kidding - we now have a second one on board - Hero Black 4 compliments of Ana - an early birthday gift for me so I could share better vids with you :)

Get real, they probably were not allowed to film.

+John Mason Thanks John - yes - Ana was amazing - she has the energy of a teen and says her daily yoga routines definitely helped. Cheers

+Douglas Ulyate - nice reply - thanks! Yeah it is amazing how these guys stopped that huge machine for our tiny vessel. I must say that we have found mostly that people on the sea have been generous to each other - it seems when you put them on sailing forums the lack of water makes sailors agro and when you put them on race boats they develop loud speech skills :)

+Ben Coles Hi Ben - so nice to know there is help in the deep blue! I think people are linking easier these days with the likes of AIS and other technology. The US COAST GAURD were telling me how ships are subscribing to being part of the 'rescue operations' for yachts in trouble at sea - they even undergo training for recovering folks from yachts - and from our experience in 'Mild conditions' it surprises me that we yachties are not undergoing similar training to be rescued by ships at sea too. The effect of current and swell around a ships hull totally surprised me - let alone being rescued by one in a storm.

+Scott Hert Awesome Scott - thanks for the comment

+Marty Morse - Wow Marty - nice share there - thanks for the tip. We are flying back to SA for our sons wedding so will look into this when we get back. We know of folks who have toured the country by camper van and say its an awesome experience - love the tip on sandflies ...

+blugrasssful - Thanks - Awesome comment - and no pressure moving forward here ;)

+Jim Holt Hi Jim - nice to hear from you again! Thanks - we are trying to get over snivels and snorts here - poor Ana is still low with the flu - mine took about 2 weeks to get over. Always a pleasure to be sharing - just wish we could do it more often ... cheers

Always our pleasure Joshua

+marcos mecima Thanks Marcos - Pleased you enjoyed it :)

Pleased you enjoyed it - just got back to the boat in New Caledonia - next passage will be our second visit to Australia / Tasmania I think ... 3 months from now :)

+Glen Peters - Thanks Glen - we really do wish we could capture the sounds and the feeling of salt in the air - we will try to keep sharing and hope to inspire folks to follow their dreams - after all - life is short ...

That you - we feel really bad we did not have a camera loaded for the shoot. Now we carry two Go Pro's :) ... than you for engaging with us ... cheers for now ... Brent

+TheUnmadeify - Thanks for the comment. Interesting how we think certain footage will be boring and then so many enjoy that. I guess we all live such different lives to each other so always nice to see what others are doing too ...

+J. Brian Bobiak - Thank You - must say we often wonder if folks won't find this a bit boring as what can one really video on the sea ... water, water and more water ... but then it is so nice to know that actually people enjoy seeing it and in this regard it is nice to be sharing footage that makes people happy ... cheers mate!

+Ron Lister - Hey Ron - always an enjoyment for us if we can bring some of our experiences to those who enjoy watching and are intrigued with life off the grid ...

+ZaphodsPlanet - Thanks for that and yes, they truly are generous folks. Really pleased you are enjoying the vids :)

+Mark Benson Thanks Mark - Such wonderful people out there. We hear they come from Hong Kong. Our travels have shown us that people in general from all walks of life really care for other people - its wonderful. Of course we do need to be careful in certain countries where poverty steals the kindness from within people. We will do your best to keep the vids rolling - cheers for now

+Roy Hart - Thanks Roy - Thanks for the hearty welcome to your beautiful country - and hey - good luck with the rugby this weekend ...

Hi Richard, thanks for the feedback. We will keep trying to share the tech stuff as well - not trying to hold back on it but just wondering what other things we can share ... anything in particular you would like to see? We are starting to get some stuff together following requests on how we set Impi up for cruising ... we thought there must be a lot of stuff out there already on this subject but some folks saying they would like to know specifically how Impi did it, so we will oblige. It may take a few weeks :)

+John Nelson - Pleased we could add to your morning entertainment there John - nice to know folks enjoy this - we will try to keep them rolling

Thanks Ralph - we hit a bit of a slow patch in posting unfortunately - between some business, lots of entertaining and issues with our editing software we need to find ourselves again :) On a good note, we just invested in some external hard drives, went on a course to learn how to video to and from hard rive space and therefore free up the laptop and of course a new drone, so we hope to be sharing much more new stuff very soon. Cheers for now and thanks for joining in with us :) Brent

+Tom Stanley - Wow - The Navy for 12 years - that's amazing! The sea is indeed a spectacular place and in its beauty, awe and power it commands respect. Cheers

+ddimondd Thanks Darren - appreciate the comments from you. I think most cruising people help each other out when they are able to do so. In fact, we did not need to pass diesel on to other yachts, but yes, we were communicating with other yachts who possibly needed some of our diesel and remained within VHF contact in case it became necessary. Of course they too were concerned about our rig and would have been there for us if the mast came down - so in the end we all realised the dangers out there and 'teamed up' to be of assistance to one another if it became necessary. Ana and I have mostly sailed our 'own way' so to speak - in situations of crisis out there we would have to usually have the means to survive in a 'self sufficient manner' until help could be steered our way. Of course the closer we come to 'first world countries' the better our chances of being rescued (well so we feel) and certainly for countries such as New Zealand and Australia. We sure hope you get your boat soon and certainly hope we will still be at sea ;) Hopefully we as people in the world will feel the constant need and desire to reach out and help our fellow man no matter where we are / who we are - our world needs this - I love sailing for this reason, for out here we are all share the same passion - we do not distinguish between rich or poor - citizenship of one or another country does not divide us - we share a passion for sailing and it is the glue that binds us!

+Gerald Anthon - Thanks Gerald ... hope we can keep it up :)

+nathancad - Thanks Nathan - would love to have them played on National Tv stations :) - would help us with the currency drop in South African Rands ;) Yes, and so nice to meet friendly people at sea who were so willing to give freely to us as complete strangers! Must say we meet so many wonderful people all over the globe - it gives one such hope and we realise we 'common people' like looking out for each other, no matter where we hail from.

Cheers Robert - thank you for the nice comment mate ...

+sickjohnson Hey Cam from Canada - always a pleasure ... thank goodness for AIS ... it has been a terrific piece of technology for us. CHeers

Thanks - awesome comment :)

+Sean Workman - Pleased you enjoyed that Sean - thanks for the comment

Hi Pete, I know what you mean. We try hard to blend the sailing with visits. It is difficult to capture enough footage of pure sailing that would hold ones interest. This is why in our later movies we have longer intro's to include sailing ...

Hey guys - thanks for commenting and yes, such awesome people making great things happen out there. Nice to know we sit in a world where people care :)

+clnelson321 - such true words and definitely feel blessed in life, still, we as people need to realise the opportunities when they present themselves to us and take that leap in faith. Its not always easy - I mean right now it is a worry for us too - being South African our currency deteriorated in 4 years from being R8/US$ to now R14.30/US$ so our wealth has almost halved. Sometimes staying at work and slogging it out can be the 'easy way out' - yes, we moan and groan whilst we do it, but we also fear change when the opportunity to change presents itself to us. What I hope to share in our videos is that its ok to change ones life and have some fun. If our currency keeps getting worse we may have to look for the next opportunity - no shame in that - we will enjoy the adventure in the meanwhile :)

+Mike Nader - Thanks Mike !!

+Waki Siffredi - Thats good to hear - had lost my voice for a while so it was a bit of a struggle - sever flu arriving in NZ - I guess we have to acclimatise ...

+Errol Smith - nice to see folks big enough to share their emotions - thanks - and yes, we are so amazed by the generosity. Imagine first of all manoeuvring such a big ship toward us and second stopping that big machine ... and then to be so generous about it all - must have cost them a lot more than a few drums of diesel.

+Catamaran Impi ... Us South Africans are good - decent and friendly people... its just so good to see that you are welcomed and treated well everywhere...

+NICCAT Hey Niccat - always our pleasure !

So pleased we could make it interesting for you ... will try to keep the vids interesting hopefully not at the expense of the boat though - LOL - cheers for now

Thank you Simon ! And yes - Ana does not do well in colder climates so she was well prepared - lol!

+Travis Johng - Thanks Travis - such a nice message from you and wonderful for us to be able to share something people can enjoy especially if it is a dream one wants to follow. It is a great thing in life when we can work toward a dream like this - the days are not as boring anymore since there is a goal at the end of all the hard work. Hope 2016 goes a long way to making your dream come true ... cheers for now and please keep in touch!

What an awesome comment Harold - thank you very much. We feel privileged and blessed to have the subscribers we do and we love the interaction with everyone on Social Media - we are meeting so many amazing people for real who started out here following us ... and we hope to meet you too for real someday. Would you believe there are folks coming down to Impi in the boat yard tomorrow to help polish, clean and do some work on the boat ... all having met us right here on You Tube ... it's very humbling for us and we will be sure to capture it and put it into our videos. Cheers for now ... Brent

+B Mckinnon Thanks and will try. In SA at the moment for our sons wedding ...

Cheers Victor - wow - long time since I have heard that term - Boykie - LOL ! Really pleased you enjoyed it and great you have a dream ... our hope is it will come true ! Cheers mate - nice comment and a pleasure to share with you Brent

+Julian Summers Thank you Julian. Yes - we really are enjoying it here. Unfortunately both Ana and I have just been through a bad flu / cold (lost my voice entirely so the video was a bot of a struggle with a scratchy throat) - but we are loving the Bay Of Islands and have already anchored in a number of little bays. We think to head down south in the following week toward Whangarei. We are also thinking to perhaps hire a camper and check out the interior.

+Catamaran Impi - We hired a campervan from Maui which was OK but we saw a much better design from Wilderness Motorhomes (wilderness.co.nz/) which meant you didn't have to make/unmake the bed every day. Maybe worth checking out. We didn't get north of Auckland - saving that for the next trip :-).

+Tommy Jinks Thanks for the feed back Tommy

Thank you Robert - I really appreciate this. We think we are improving on editing but not being experts at this (I was an earthmoving / mining contractor - lol) we find it difficult to get right. Thanks again my friend - hope all is going great for you Brent and Ana

+Steve Thorne-Farrar Awesome Steve = pleased you enjoy them and yes. for sure, its amazing to discover and live ones dream out :)

+Wakeywhodat - Hi again !!! Great comments !!! I really hope the guys on the ship get back to me - I will certainly share the footage if they allow it. Thanks and cheers for now ... Brent and Ana

+Tom Vanya Thanks Tom - the guys on the ship are incredible! It can't be easy holding those drums and swinging them across to Ana in perfect time ...

Awesome Jerry - pleased you enjoyed it. I love sun rises at sea. It sometimes feels kinda spooky swishing through the oceans in the dark and one wonders if there could be an obstacle under the water we could collide with - and then the sun peaks up through the horizon and it feels good :)

+William Lawton - Thanks William

:)

Thanks Rob - very nice of you! So ... that beer you were talking about ... hopefully in Australia end of the year :) ;) I'm on if you are ...

+Mike Shea (sheadtree) - yeah - can you believe they declined the whiskey - such amazing people !

+Sean “SV Inopii” Thompson - Hi Sean - the boson chair was quite an experience and hopefully not to be repeated ever again. One needs to hold on particularly tight - loss of grip results in a pendulum type action which is no fun in the dead of night bouncing in a rough sea. Anyway, it all ended well and as usual we learned many lessons in the process. Cheers

+gofaster72 Thanks!

+Kerry Campbell Hi Kerry - yeah we believe the weather has improved and that it has been unusually cold. We flew into SA for our sons wedding and must say it is UNUSUALLY hot here so the climate seems a bit 'upside down' this year. Anyway - love New Zealand and especially the friendly folks there so look forward to our return. Thanks for the comment and please hold the weather over for us ...

+Starboard Mater Thanks for the compliment. We enjoy folks sharing the positive and negative with us. We get to learn new things this way and of course we are not production movie guys - I was an earthmoving / muck shifter back home in SA - so it is really nice to be learning new things about so many different things! Yeas, I am pleased you touch on the difference in rotation of highs and lows depending on one being in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere - something I should perhaps have mentioned. I so wish I could share more about weather - it certainly is not something I have mastered and I make it my business to learn something new EVERY day about weather. Then when we sail, we observe clouds, seas and so on and we kinda look at what develops hours later to see if we can pick up a pattern. Nowadays we are starting to understand what we are in for based on what is seen in the elements around us at any given time ... and it does seem to change from region to region. We look forward to the day you go cruising - please let us know when you do ... would be nice to follow you !

+Samuel Farmon - Thank you Samuel ...

+Bradshaw TX - thanks for the comment - yes - an experience never to be repeated I hope ... although it was cool having some free diesel ;)

Thank you - much appreciated :)

Such nice people - thanks for commenting Liam

+Lorne Serpa Hi Lorne - sorry for the length - we used to make short videos but folks asked us to make them longer so its a difficult balance for us. We look forward to seeing you buy that boat in 4 years and head for the deep blue - it is truly an amazing life out here - and yes - definitely 2 sides to the coin as it is not all palm trees and white sandy beaches :)

+Catamaran Impi Any way to contact you? I have questions about your boat.

Lorne - best is probably to send us a message at our FB page (cat Impi)

Thanks 🙏 for the lovely comment and very much appreciated 💕 You’re from an amazing country and sounds like a beautiful town y’all living at 🤗

Thanks Richard - we hope to keep the vids rolling as long as folks enjoy them. Cheers

A seriously nice captain !!!

+umvhu - very good comment ... thanks

Thank you Sara

+elfaroproductions - Always a pleasure - thanks

+Kevin ecape1820 Cheers Kevin - great comment!

+design of modern life Ahhhh - nice words - thanks! We should have done some footage of the fix which we have just completed - perhaps I can show some of the parts replaced and so on. Perhaps I should do a video of 'rigging inspection' in general. That way folks can comment and by sharing we can all learn ...

good idea , also show the bad rig component , im just corious to see the damage , thanks again for awesome video captain

Thank you Joe - we now keep a number of cameras charged and ready to go but we hope never to have to use them at sea. The people on this ship were incredibly kind - not enough words to thank them for their assistance. We will keep the camera rolling - some great footage and some perhaps not so great but overall we will keep sharing. Cheers for now and thank you for coming onboard - it is encouraging :)

Our pleasure Ray ...

Xo

+p100d - Thank you for the great comment - yes - must say that video's make things more real. I remember when we were writing blogs and folks said some of the things we wrote were hard to imagine ... at least video puts that more into reality I guess. Sailing around the world is not just palm trees and white sandy beaches - it can be that too but the journey to these destinations can often time be quite daunting ...

+Todd Haden Thanks you Todd - awesome comment. Yes, really hope you can join us on the open seas - the best thing we ever did was to wrap up the business and go sailing. The wealth gained from this lifestyle is of so much more value than 'paper greenbacks' ... cheers!

+Gerald Bond - pleased you enjoyed it Gerald

+Jeffray Walden Thanks Jeffray - pleased you enjoyed that!

+Catamaran Channel ~ I think 1080 is over rated. 720 is just as good if not better. At least for me...

Ahh - awesome s/y ATLAS3 and yes, it was a huge pity not to have the camera charged up. One does not think to be using a camera in the middle of 'nowhere' and of course as you would know we tend to try and save on battery power by to charging additional stuff under way. Anyway, I am pleased we were able to get the story to sound interesting ... all the best ... Brent

Download a video compressor

+moz frank - We sure hope your dream comes alive and whilst you work on getting there we hope our sharing gets you closer. Life was a struggle for us too but in the end the dream came around so don't give up! When we get back to the boat (in SA right now attending our sons wedding) we will try share more details around sailing and hopefully make it even more meaningful for folks who are interested. My son 'Terry' is moving into the 'sailing arena' this year working for a company in Florida dealing with all things Catamaran, so it does seem our dream is rubbing off on the kids which is great! I always say to mates who want to live the dream of sailing, that as a first step it is good to get involved in sailing activities such as Yacht club sailing, crewing and so forth ... it seems to have been the door that led people up the path and onto the sea ... hang in there !

+Ivansgarage - Hi! Our Lagoon is the 440 model (44.7ft) - has the upgraded Yanmar 54HP motors and fuel consumption depends on many variables. A rule of thumb is as follows: 1500 RPM = 3 knots = 1.8 L/hr , 1800 RPM = 4.8 to 5 knots = 3.2 L/hr, 2200 RPM = 6 knots = 5 L/hr, 2500 RPM = 7 knots = 6.8 L/hr, 3000 RPM = 9 knots = 12 L/hr. When motor sailing (light winds but with some power in the sails and motoring) the consumption comes down dramatically. Another factor of course is current - going with the current brings consumption down and the opposite increases fuel consumption. We find the optimum balance at around 1800 RPM for 4.8 to 5 knots. Of course one wants to be sailing but we generally will use an engine if our speed drops off below 4 knots. Larger fuel tanks are not necessary as one seldom is doing long distance but carrying diesel in spare containers is advisable. We have a reversible fuel transfer pump that can move diesel from one tank to the next and also suck diesel out of containers up to 10m away. We have 2 tanks (one on each side) but some cats have a single tank and the worry there is that in the event there is a mishap and diesel is lost to the bilge, then that pretty much spells disaster for one. Having diesel in several containers reduces this risk. Our generator also draws off the starboard tank and for its size we feel that consumption is pretty steep for a 9 kv genset at 2.8 L/Hr under full load. At 1/2 load it comes down to around 1.5 L/Hr. The thing with diesel engines on long distances is that they need to work. A diesel not working hard causes carbon build up in the water/exhaust mixing elbow and can lead to an expensive replacement, so we would recommend not 'ticking a diesel over' for long periods of time. Either work the engine or sail. I hope this helps :)

+gültekin kurultak Hi and thanks for the wonderful comment. So nice to hear you have your own boat now! Meeting folks like you is why we love sharing our experiences and indeed we can learn from each other. Talk about hauling wife up the mast - yes, and recently I learnt another lesson with that one which may be something to keep in mind - the opposite way around in that wife was hauling husband up the mast to check the wiring up there when the electric winch got jammed and kept hauling him up at speed. The wife tried her best to stop the winch which did not happen even though she tried using her arm as a brake and snapped it in several places - husband kept going up. He never made it in the long term and she has limited use of the arm so it is vital for us now that we never cleat the rope (halyard) into the self tailor not he winch - I rather ask Ana to always keep the cleat jammer locked (so I can slip down if she lets go, and to keep the rope around the winch and in her hand. That way if the winch jams she can simply relax the line and the jammer will hold me.I am also looking to move the winch circuit breaker closer to the winch so we can disconnect power to the winch in an emergency. So, please fellow sailors, lets look out for these things and keep sailing happy :)

Catamaran Impi Another valuable information , thanks. Since our boat is a 32 footer monohull we dont have those wonderful electric winches:) So İn our case 50 kg wife goes up and 2 meter husband stays by the winch:) . As a ilttle paranoid sailor , I use two ropes ( mainsail and spinnaker halyards) attached to the seat with snap shackles. one attached to the self tailor an the other going throuh closed cleat jammer. this provides a backup strategy under any unwanted condition. those can be jamming or breaking the rope in our boat. Electric winches adds some more problems as you've experienced. May be releasing the snap shackle and letting halyard go and staying on the parasailor rope would buy you some time to solve the problem. But I think you will also have to attach the main halyards shackle to some where on the mast in order to prevent it going all the way into and down through the mast. Thank you for sharing and for your kind reply:)

+gültekin kurultak Great reply - 'better safe than sorry' as they say. We go up with the main halyard and the topping lift line. We haul in '2 meter steps' using the main halyard and then pull the slack on the topping lift before doing the next 2 meters and so on. Paranoid sailors make 'good sailors' - nothing like having respect for the ocean and all things associated to the forces of nature. You really made me smile with your description of 50kg wife going up the mast whilst 2 m husband stays at the bottom - lol - we males rate our wives by kg's and ourselves by meters - its always about length for us - is it not :)

Aha!! you caught me:)) ( sorry for usage of phrasal verbs because English is not my native language) . yes indeed , I prefer to use lenghth instead of weight about myself. Because I am a little bit chubby for a male in mid thirtys ( 120 kg for example:)) . And as ı recall you were complaining about walking while Ana was practicing yoga almost everywhere ( to be precise Mercury islands video ı guess:)) Anyway you establish a great example for us as a circumnavigating couple. And if you like, we will be honored to have you as guests sometime. We live in Turkey ( yes we are turks) İzmir .During summer season of northern hemisphere our boat "İMGE" will be anchoring at mediterranian coast of our country. İf you like, jump on a plane and come on over for a brief recon mission:) May fair winds be with you!

gültekin kurultak Wow so nice of you to invite us over - I hope our paths will cross soon. We have friends who keep their yacht in Turkey and loved the cursing there.They keep their boat in Marmaris (same make and model as ours). Never mind the English being perfect - you write it very well and I so respect people who can speak English when it is not their first language. We have a friend who is French and we spent many days visiting and diving with them in the Tuamotus. For over a month we just used sign language and body language to communicate and we so enjoyed being with each other. Then one day after about a month he suddenly spoke to me in English. I was shocked! He said that since I had shown the care to try learning his language he was happy to speak mine - LOL! We really enjoyed that and we love communicating with people from all over the world no matter the language. Lets keep in touch!