2017 & 2108: Anchoring Modifications

Ongoing Saga: # 3

Anchor Winch and Anchor Winch Shelf.  A survey (for insurance purposes) in 2016 identified that the anchor winch shelf needed strengthening and a surface crack to be filled. I don’t think the surveyor even looked at the substantial aluminium bracket attached to the bulkhead which was supporting the shelf and anchor winch.  Nevertheless, I dismounted the anchor winch, had it looked at by the yard staff as there were one or two bolts that I couldn’t undo and one had broken off.  This they duly fixed with minimum fuss.

Meanwhile I added seven layers of fiberglass to the bottom of the shelf to reinforce it as well as puttied up the surface crack.  A coat of paint and it all looked quite new.  I also painted the anchor winch, remounted it and all good.

Anchor Rode Markings.  After many years of replacing variously coloured cable ties at respective intervals on our anchor rode I decided that we could do better by painting the chain than using cable ties.  There are all sorts of different intervals that are used to mark various distances along the chain by almost as many cruisers – quite amazing actually – so we stuck to our own system devised when we first purchased the boat.   

To keep the Galley Slave happy, as she is also the boat’s anchorer and recoverer, I agreed that we would also continue to use (some) cable ties.  Consequently, our anchor chain is marked pretty comprehensively with all sorts of different painted colours and matching cable ties.  GS says she likes the paint but insists that the cable ties should remain as this ‘matches her requirements for interior decoration’.  Actually, the chain can get covered in mud on ICW forays, so paint can be difficult to see.  Hence the need for both.

Only "SHE who anchors" can explain Boy Wonder's creative markings.
But it all seems to work...

2017 & 2018: For the Love of Engines

Ongoing Saga: # 2

Engine Exhaust Elbow and Exhaust Hose.  Another observation in the 2016 survey report recommended that an inspection of the engine exhaust elbow be conducted.  A Sopromar mechanic was engaged, removed the elbow inspected, pronounced all good, but meanwhile he identified that the exhaust hose from the elbow to the muffler needed replacing.  He did so but it took him a long time as it was very difficult to remove and to put in a new length as there was a bulkhead in the way and the hose is heavy duty steel reinforced rubber.  Has functioned flawlessly since.

Engine Exhaust Muffler.  On testing the new hose the muffler was found to be leaking at the bottom where it had been sitting against the bare fiberglass of the hull.  It’s surprising it hadn’t started to leak a long time ago.  The muffler was removed and, since it’s fiberglass, was repaired by the yard’s fiberglass techo.  He did a great job, not only repairing the known crack but one or two others that he identified.  He also glued rubber strips to the bottom so that no longer will fiberglass be sitting against fiberglass, constantly rubbing together whenever the engine is run.  He also painted it so that it looked like a brand new one.

Fresh Water Flusher for Engine's Water Intakes.  I purchased and used several times a fresh water flusher, something I could manage myself, for use when the boat is out of the water.  The flusher is a standard purchase and it looks like an enormous ‘plumber’s mate that you use for unblocking drains or your toilet.  Its mounted on some block of wood etc on the ground with the flush fitting covering the thru-hull fitting eg engine water intake.  You then attach a hose to the flush fitting and the other end to a tap.  When you start your engine you immediately turn on the tap and run the engine with the water intake more or less as normal. 

I set up the hose so that I could do it myself on board by running the hose from the tap into a on/off valve in the cockpit then over the side to the flush fitting.  I start by closing the valve, then I turn on the tap, get back on board, start the engine, then open the valve, then check exhaust for water coming out.  Before turning off the engine, I turn off the valve first, turn off engine after a short pause as water still keeps coming out the exhaust for some short time.  I then turn off the tap. Love it.

An exciting view of a flushing engine...hmmm!

2016: We Continue to Float...

Albania:
Finally, and a whole month later, we were able to throw off mooring lines and move on from Greece.  We made for Sarande, with an increasingly nasty swell kicking in from the west.  Although we’d planned a two day stopover in this pleasant town, our feet rarely touched ground.  In the conditions, poor WJ3 was driven against a large concrete dock, eventually losing a guard rail in the battle.  Our fenders did a sterling job though and only one was lost in the line of duty:

Damaged Fender.  We left the boat briefly whilst dockside in Albania.  When we got back we found one of our fenders had been used on another boat.  Our local agent at the dock (a public one) at Sarande had another boat bouncing against the dock.  Like us, the crew was away for the day.  The agents “borrowed” one of our fenders, returning it at the end of the day.  However it was pretty squashed due to its heavy pounding against the concrete dock all day.   The agents reimbursed us the cost of replacing this fender which was good of them.  The old one’s still usable, to an extent.  Anyway, well managed by our capable and friendly agent, Agim Zholi and his super team.

We had company and pleasant weather for the crossing to Sicily

Sicily:

Now, we had only two months to cover Malta and Italy, plus get WJ3 hauled out and put to bed.  Something had to give and a stopover in Tunisia, perhaps not the safest of options anyway, was struck from our list.  Stops along Italy’s heel and toe were also given a big miss as we made the most of a few days of good weather to cross to Sicily.  Syracuse was delightful.  Initially we anchored until THE plan was modified, yet again, to include a dash for Malta on public transport and a few short excursions locally.  The Syracuse Marina had a vacancy for us, so we felt comfortable leaving WJ3 on her own for a week whilst we escaped to Malta.

We had an excellent vantage point from the marina in Syracuse to watch the world go by

Before I finish with Syracuse, let me comment on Chandlers.  On arrival, we began to understand that life here was somewhat laissez-faire for travel agents and chandlers alike.  There are only two chandlers in Syracuse.  The one closest to the marina did not have all that we wanted.  Another is a bit of a walk out of town.  After locating it, we entered as the door was open and asked staff, who were clearly working behind the counter, about the part we needed.  Language difficulties aside, we were informed that it was their lunchtime and to come back in 45 minutes.  We never did…

  

Boat life went without a hitch after that, except for a struggle in the Aeolian Islands to free our anchor.  It had managed to wrap itself around large rocks and grumpily refused to budge.  Just as we threatened to launch the hookah unit (diving without tanks), it freed up.  Not without wafts of an overheated anchor winch filling the bay.  Lucky on two accounts – not to have burnt out the motor or to have lost the anchor!

The weather remained somewhat challenging during the remainder of our time in Italy.  Add to the mix, heat and crowds on holiday in August.  All these “challenges” added further delays to our tight and ever-varying schedule.  Let’s just say, we arrived in Portugal with enough time to request a visa extension. 

The anchor winch might have been overheating;
at least Vesuvius was not...

Another lesson learned is how much easier it is to prep the boat in a marina rather than a boatyard.  So we moved into Lagos Marina for a couple of weeks of chores then hauled out in Sopromar Boatyard before flying home.  After all the dithering, excitement and stress, we've decided to say “Ciao, baby” to the Med (after a wonderful 6 years) and began to prepare for a dash back across the Atlantic in 2017.  

Heading out of Lagos Marina to Sopromar Boatyard for haulout & home

2016: Run for Cover...

The anchoring field was busy in June

The plan for this year was to cover Italy and Malta.  First stops were ports we missed on our 2015 “round the Adriatic tour”, then cross to Malta, head up to Sicily and finally meander up the Italian west coast taking time to hit all THE tourist spots.  Haul out decisions would be made on the fly; hoping for somewhere along the French or Spanish coast.  Big plans and bigger problem - namely our limiting 90 day visa!  We’ve moaned about this before on the WJ3 blog but the difference with the middle section of the Med is that there is nowhere “close” to run and hide.  

Greece:
2016 began with the usual boatyard chores in Aktio - two weeks of hard slog, but who can deny it's a pleasant life.  WJ3 was treated to a professional polishing, the shower sump was unblocked, the anchor line replaced, rusty bicycles serviced and bow thruster batteries sorted out (they had not charged in our absence).  We needed an electrician to sort the battery issue out.  Finally, WJ3’s rigging was inspected – an insurance requirement.

Aktio in Preveza - a great place to haul your boat

On splashing, the engine started…that was good, but the generator again chose to be obstinate.  Hmmm, something to look at whilst on anchor, we thought.  Launching Bruce (the dinghy) too was something of a concern as the outboard stubbornly refused to function and more alarmingly, began to fill with water.  Drat!  Someone had stolen our dinghy bung – and of course, it’s a US fitting in an EU world.  To add to post-launch miseries, the bow thruster continued to be obstinate, crying out for even more professional help.  So there we sat, afloat with not much working.  Sound familiar?

Within a day of splashing, we moved into the Preveza Marina and so our precious Visa Days ticked by whilst we attended to:

Generator Coolant Pump.  It was leaking and I wasn't sure how to remove it as it's part of the engine, not a separate item like the saltwater pump.  I had a local German mechanic look at it (we’d used him before) and, on inspection, he pronounced it dead.  It was badly corroded and needed to be replaced with a new one.  This was at the start of the season at Preveza, Greece, and so we had to wait three weeks for the replacement part to be quoted, ordered and then delivered – from the US of course.  It took about an hour to put the pump on.  The generator ran fine thereafter.  I won’t mention the cost except to say that it was enormous, even the mechanic was embarrassed to tell us.

Time for a last swim at Jumping Fish Bay

Outboard Motor Not Starting.  Again, right at the start of the season, the outboard wouldn’t start, even though all was working fine at the end of the season when I run it until the carburetor ran out of fuel.  In hindsight, I should have run it in the yard before launching, but didn’t; an oversight on my part.  Anyway, after trying for some time I pulled the carburetor apart and inspected it for cleanliness.  It looked clean, but after I put it back on, it still wouldn’t start.  A kindly fellow on a nearby boat came over in his dinghy and freely offered advice, but despite his remedies, it still would not start.  Time for some searching on the web!  One useful piece of advice was that “a clean looking carbie does not necessarily mean it IS clean”.  This YouTuber advised to clean it to be sure, especially by inserting a thin wire into every orifice possible.  Well, I did this and the outboard started just fine.  So, big lesson here is that just because a carbie looks clean doesn’t mean it is and so do what I eventually did.  I’ll freely admit I did not see anything suspicious as I prodded and probed with my fine piece of wire.
  
Refrigerator Re-gassing.  Ahhh, yet again we had to have the refrigerator motor/evaporator re-gassed with the unusual hard-to-locate gas required for our Grunert 110 volt fridge.  Our reliable mechanic, although licenced, was not available so we contacted a local guy recommended by the marina.  Short story is he tried to rip us off by quoting and then trying to raise the price on the day.  Also, he tried to convince us to do more modifications than necessary.  Anyway, the fridge worked once it was re-gassed.  This little episode, apart from expensive now annual re-gassings, prompted much discussion on “a better way” to refrigerate given that our little WAECO battler was working brilliantly and running diligently on 12 volt sunshine power.

AIS.  We had purchased a GME AIST 120 and I fitted it next to the chart table, connected to our laptop via the program CD that came with it, and yet another antenna was fitted to the pushpit.  It works okey but we have since passed a number of ships at quite close range and there has been no signal received from them at all.  I certainly would not rely on it. 

There's more to follow....

Sad to be leaving our favourite Taverna over near Aktio

2015: In the Marina & Keeping Busy

Preveza Marina: (Part 1)

A view over Preveza Marina.  Yes, another trip up the mast. 
To work out why the mast head light is still flashing...

Preveza in splendid summer colour

Making Life Easy.  In 2014, we'd discovered a neat trick.  Having spent too much time on the hard in boatyards over the years, we experimented with the options Preveza offered.  We'd found & booked space in the Preveza Marina a week prior to haul out.  Aside from its perfect location at the quiet end of the town, we could make most of our "leaving the boat" preparations with quite a few more conveniences.  Haul out was made with only a couple of days (not weeks or months!) on the hard before flying out.  This experience turned out so well, we gave it a shot again at the start of the season - only in reverse.  Splash after a few days then put-put over to the marina.  Perfect.

Generator Would Not Start.  I tried and tried but it started only after a lot of attempts.   I thought this was probably because the generator had been idle for eight months or may be the glow plugs weren’t quite right.  The next day when I tried, the engine would not turn over properly.  I cleaned all the terminals I could access and the engine started but then wouldn’t turn off when I pushed the cut off switch.  Finally, I managed to stop the engine by removing a ‘plug’ on the circuit board.  Time to call in the professionals! 

So, called on Stefan (yet again!) and, after an hour and a half of tracing circuits, looking at wiring diagrams, playing with switches, trying to start the engine without success, we found that the cut off wire goes via a water temperature sensor  on the engine block before it connects with the cut off terminal block.  This wire terminal at the temperature sensor had simply fallen off and so there was an interrupted circuit.  Once Stefan re-joined the wires all was as it should be and everything worked.  I have stated before that while cruising you meet some of the nicest people in the world that work on boats and Stefan is one of those.  He was so mortified that he didn’t find the fault quicker that he made his bill (we thought!) ridiculously cheap. He is also one of those people who is more than happy to explain exactly what he is doing and why, so I always learn heaps from these guys. 

Oh look!  Our new neighbour is another Hunter

Anti-Siphon Valve Broken.  Well, not quite.  I had retightened the hose clamp near the engine water inlet pump, several times, but it still leaked from there, or so I thought.  When we stopped in a marina we pulled the cover off the engine and, after starting the engine, it was soon plainly obvious that the water leak was coming from the siphon break, which sits a couple of feet above the raw water inlet hose.  One of the plastic fittings of the anti-siphon valve had sheared and it was slowly but constantly dripping water down on to the raw water inlet hose and then running along the bottom of the hose to the water pump.  Duh!  But what a coincidence – it never occurred to me that it could be anything but the newly fitted water hose.  Anyway, the broken siphon valve was easily replaced and all works without any water leak.  I might add that Stefan assisted with this discovery and repair too.

2015: In the Yard & Keeping Busy

Preveza, Greece

Welcome to 2015....... Who'd a thought!

In the Yard

(The plan this year was to do a loop of the Adriatic ending back in Preveza.  Given all the work we'd done on WJ3, we figured on an "easy" prep time in the yard...  Of course you'd never believe that just didn't happen.  Our plans were delayed - big time - and we had to cut short the route.  Still, I'm probably not telling boat owners anything new.) 

All's quiet at Aktio

A view from on high

Engine Raw water inlet Hose.  Last year the hose started to leak and I taped it up (with you-beaut very stretchy silicone tape) so it no longer leaked.  Nevertheless, the hose was clearly failing so this year I replaced it, this time with clear stainless steel reinforced hose.  It runs cold water only as it is between the inlet raw water filter/strainer and the raw water engine pump.  This hose was different to the ‘black’ hose I threw out (which was also looking decidedly worse for wear and likely to leak in one or two other spots) but advice was that this clear hose was quite adequate for the job and, besides, you can observe the water in the hose.  So, as soon as it was fitted, would you believe, there was another water leak – water could be observed/felt dripping from the (new) inlet hose near the water pump.  See up-coming post for the result under Siphon Valve Broken.

Sewing.  The dodger, bimini and the dinghy boat cover needed extensive resewing of most seams plus some repairs to rips in the bimini.  Stitching has been the first to go on these coverings, unlike the acrylic which seems to last forever, and the more I repaired the more I found it needed work. 

It’s quite simple really, just pull on the area around a seam and, if the sewing comes apart easily, then it needs to be resewn.  I reckon I did most of the bimini and dodger.   Same for much of the dinghy cover. 

The (summer) awning also needed repairs and I discovered that ‘shade cloth aint shade cloth, Sol’.  Our shade cloth is easily chafed so I will replace it next year even though it’s only a few years old.  Many boats use shade cloth and they are not well supported on the boom etc and flap around madly, unlike our awning which was made to measure and is well secured to stays etc.  Nevertheless, they don’t seem to damage as readily as ours has done.

Baby donkey had grown quite a bit during our absence

Standing Rig Check.  Our insurers, Pantaenius, asked for a rig check as the rigging was now eight years old.  A local rigging company in Preveza duly obliged and the rig was thoroughly inspected over the space of an hour, no problems found and passed by insurance.  The riggers were a couple of local guys, as helpful as could be with all sorts of advice and just thoroughly nice blokes.  Their shop is located at Cleopatra Marina.

Chandlery.  We'd discovered Cleopatra Marina/Boatyard's well stocked chandlery and obliging staff on arrival in 2014.  And made very good use of it in 2015 too!

Another view over Preveza taken whilst servicing the mast
Can you just imagine Cleopatra & Augustus having a big boating battle in here!

2014: Lessons in Anchoring & Pest Control

Preveza, Greece

(Temporarily) Lost Anchor.  I’m saving the best until last!  On our visit to check out boatyards in Preveza we anchored off Aktio Marina, in about 25’ depth of water.  We were then asked to go in and tie up alongside one of Aktio’s groins to drop off our mainsail and outboard for repairs.  We could stay there too until repairs were completed - bonus!  The crew duly raised the anchor and when she turned to me, as she does, to tell me that the anchor was raised so that I can then power away, she advised (somewhat hesitatingly) that there was NO anchor.  I questioned this unwelcome news but it was repeated, more forcefully this time.  Sure enough, no anchor was what I found when I strode purposefully forward to confirm said crew’s statement. 

On instruction,  she dropped all our chain hoping that would slow any drift.   I then quickly dropped another anchor we had on rope and there we sat.  Luckily there was little tidal movement at that time but we had moved a bit.  I donned snorkelling gear and searched in murkyish waters, no luck.  GS then surveyed where she thought we had been when we pulled the anchor up and directed me accordingly.  First dive down and there was our much loved Rocna anchor sitting nicely, with the pin lying neatly next to it.  It must be that woman cave thing!  We recovered anchor and chain, joined them together again and recovered the second anchor.  Much discussion followed. 

The anchor is where?  Out there - somewhere!

What we did was enough as it turned out but if it happens again I would hit the Man Overboard button on the chart program almost immediately then do what we did.  Luckily we were in reasonably shallow water.  Why wasn’t the pin moused down?  Well, you can’t with these new stainless steel swivels that have a pin that sits countersunk and is done up using an allen key.  You need to screw them in as firmly as you can and observe "often" for any subsequent movement.  Also check them regularly which we now do religiously.  I would also consider lock tight on the thread and will research this a bit more.  Yes, you can also utilize a tripping line and buoy but they have their disadvantages too and we haven’t gone down that route.

Rats Onboard.  We subsequently stayed on the groin for several days and were able to use the marina’s facilities while there – very nice.  One visitor however, was not welcome.  A foraging rat decided to join us late one night though thankfully did not get inside before being given a karate chop incentive, through an open hatch in the galley, to move on.  Ratus Sparticus learned to fly that night.  Next morning we gathered & cut a crate of plastic soft drink bottles to assemble our rat defences.  We never saw him, or any of his mates, again.  It goes to show that you can never be too careful when tied up in a marina or at a dock.

Despite these shared experiences, Aktio is highly recommended for a haul out yard. 

WJ3 looking somewhat bohemian in her plastic "rat discouragers"