After a relaxed morning on the anchor at Kepple we motored over to the Marina. What a lovely atmosphere in the Marina, relaxed and friendly and small enough to feel you are welcomed as a person. The office provided me with an outside berth so I have a bit more room to get in and out, I am still nervous about manoeuvring the yacht, she does not do reverse very well, or I have not figured out how to help her reverse in the right direction.
Bilges. Yuk. When we first saw Tiki her bilges were full of water and oil. We cleared them out to an extent and there was still water slopping about, some oil and with lots of sawdust after the engine beds were cut down 4" as part of the work on setting her up. I decided to clear her out more at sea on route. This got the yacht down to the last inch and finally I discovered the bottom sump that I suspected was there. It sits as the lowest part of the bilge and of course after years of neglect has filled with oily silt. I need to climb down into it to clear the silt and then put the bilge pump into it. Means the whole bilge will be much cleaner at the end of the job of course and I can see I will need to extend to a whole new level of flexibility for this job.
To delay this we had a few beers this afternoon on the Marina veranda. Lovely. Tomorrow some jobs and parts ordering for the hydraulics and a few other things and then off to Thailand.
Showing posts with label hydraulic steering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hydraulic steering. Show all posts
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
Sunday, 20 March 2011
Heading to Percy Island Group
Wind moved to the north east as forecast early morning and Tiki lay quietly in the anchorage.
Left at 0530 and now on route, fair wind behind us and tracking 115 towards Percy with 15 knots. Weather dry and Tiki is having a chance to dry off after yesterday.
We have lost a tank of diesel into the bilge, 150L about as it is empty. We were on a hard tack two days ago and so there may be a leak in the top of the Starbord tank. Port side is good and engine seems to be getting more predictable and manageable. Still is really hard to turn over in the morning. Working on this bit next so will read later this afternoon.
Tiki is balanced really well which is good as the steering is still slack and drifting despite having bled her three times, maybe the pistons need new seals. Another job.
We are on course for Percy at dusk. Wind still to north east so gybing down to the island to keep up speed. Caught first blue water fish today. One hour ago, a tuna, about a foot long and it's now in the fridge ready for eating. Not sure if it is too small to take having just thought about it. Will go and check the guide. (there is no minimum size for tuna species - H)
Kate lives on Percy and Dave knows her well as he spent a month on the island working. Looking forward to meeting them as have read much in the papers.
Left at 0530 and now on route, fair wind behind us and tracking 115 towards Percy with 15 knots. Weather dry and Tiki is having a chance to dry off after yesterday.
We have lost a tank of diesel into the bilge, 150L about as it is empty. We were on a hard tack two days ago and so there may be a leak in the top of the Starbord tank. Port side is good and engine seems to be getting more predictable and manageable. Still is really hard to turn over in the morning. Working on this bit next so will read later this afternoon.
Tiki is balanced really well which is good as the steering is still slack and drifting despite having bled her three times, maybe the pistons need new seals. Another job.
We are on course for Percy at dusk. Wind still to north east so gybing down to the island to keep up speed. Caught first blue water fish today. One hour ago, a tuna, about a foot long and it's now in the fridge ready for eating. Not sure if it is too small to take having just thought about it. Will go and check the guide. (there is no minimum size for tuna species - H)
Kate lives on Percy and Dave knows her well as he spent a month on the island working. Looking forward to meeting them as have read much in the papers.
Thursday, 17 March 2011
Dramas Sailing to Goldsmith Island
What a day! Setting off this morning at 0545 was simple, a calm quiet and warm morning for us to slip the lines and start heading south. The sails were soon up and and pushing us along in the WSW breeze. Despite having checked and rechecked the rigging,lines and sails several times it was a relief nothing broke or fell down during the morning. We headed along to clear water and tacked around to travel south along long island, just making a bearing close to the wind as we could go.
Dramas unfolded on the starboard tac as the bilge line was not taken high enough above the water line and so began syphoning water in, then i found the fresh water tank breather pipe had been cut off short somewhere in her past life and drained to the bilge on a tac. Good for easing the tepid bilge smells at least. No worries these are easily fixed and I set to it with plenty of spares and materials on board. Of course the wind died and so we began to motor a while which made my repairs much easier until the engine died as well as an attempt to keep me on my toes.
For the first day at sea this was getting interesting so it was moving swiftly onto diesel repairs after a session of pipe fixing. We were drifting over some sandbanks, at low tide, that theoretically gave us less than 1m of water under the keel. Well, the tide would come in if we bump them.
I suspected the diesel system needed a good clean through so I started at the tank to check fuel input, then the electric pump, then checking each seal and changing the primary filter, testing for good fuel, to the mechanical pump and check again, then the second filter change and then to the injectors. She had not been used for a while and this set up the engine to work again so I put it down to the filthy fuel filters from tanks that had just been wired brushed free of years of sediment and rust build up.
At last we settled down and got on with sailing south again as the wind picked up.
Our first evening we anchored at goldsmith island. Arriving at about 1730 we used the guide to place ourselves in a good position. Unfortunately we got too close in and ended up in 2m of water. Tracking around it was obvious the bay shelved steeply in places down to 16m in a long channel just off the beach and not noted in the guide. We moved out beyond this channel and anchored in about 6m. We had 15kn of wind and yacht was sitting good in the bay. I will make a sketch of the bay from my soundings and add them to the guide for future. We are the only yacht here and the island is uninhabited. The difference between this coast and Brittany or UK is stark as we sit in the cockpit. There is no one to go ashore for!
Dave loves creating food from our fridge full of pasta, meats and wine so we soon settle down for a relaxing evening with a glass of wine and then a session of bleeding the steering hydraulics out to clear the air that is in them. It is making steering harder work than it needs to be and I have a feeling we will need a complete service to eliminate this.
Plan to leave at 0530 in the morning as light gets up and I go to sleep with the anchor alarm set on the iPad. Life's good.
Dramas unfolded on the starboard tac as the bilge line was not taken high enough above the water line and so began syphoning water in, then i found the fresh water tank breather pipe had been cut off short somewhere in her past life and drained to the bilge on a tac. Good for easing the tepid bilge smells at least. No worries these are easily fixed and I set to it with plenty of spares and materials on board. Of course the wind died and so we began to motor a while which made my repairs much easier until the engine died as well as an attempt to keep me on my toes.
For the first day at sea this was getting interesting so it was moving swiftly onto diesel repairs after a session of pipe fixing. We were drifting over some sandbanks, at low tide, that theoretically gave us less than 1m of water under the keel. Well, the tide would come in if we bump them.
I suspected the diesel system needed a good clean through so I started at the tank to check fuel input, then the electric pump, then checking each seal and changing the primary filter, testing for good fuel, to the mechanical pump and check again, then the second filter change and then to the injectors. She had not been used for a while and this set up the engine to work again so I put it down to the filthy fuel filters from tanks that had just been wired brushed free of years of sediment and rust build up.
At last we settled down and got on with sailing south again as the wind picked up.
Our first evening we anchored at goldsmith island. Arriving at about 1730 we used the guide to place ourselves in a good position. Unfortunately we got too close in and ended up in 2m of water. Tracking around it was obvious the bay shelved steeply in places down to 16m in a long channel just off the beach and not noted in the guide. We moved out beyond this channel and anchored in about 6m. We had 15kn of wind and yacht was sitting good in the bay. I will make a sketch of the bay from my soundings and add them to the guide for future. We are the only yacht here and the island is uninhabited. The difference between this coast and Brittany or UK is stark as we sit in the cockpit. There is no one to go ashore for!
Dave loves creating food from our fridge full of pasta, meats and wine so we soon settle down for a relaxing evening with a glass of wine and then a session of bleeding the steering hydraulics out to clear the air that is in them. It is making steering harder work than it needs to be and I have a feeling we will need a complete service to eliminate this.
Plan to leave at 0530 in the morning as light gets up and I go to sleep with the anchor alarm set on the iPad. Life's good.
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