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Happy 3rd Anniversary
Reader Note: Article in progress. I will finish it soon (notwithstanding the fact that I started it 3 months ago)February 10, 2017On February 10, 2014 at around 5:00 PM, Diana and I officially became the proud owners of OR63063, the 63 foot Outer Reef …
North Atlantic 500mb Forecast
We plan on getting underway this weekend for Kinsale, Ireland. It’s a tiny bit early in the season but we have what looks to be a blocking high developing in the North Atlantic which will stall the steady stream of low-pressure systems that we’ve been watching for the past several months. Unfortunately the high is…
ENVOY’S FIRE DAMAGE PROGRESS REPORT
Following smoke and heat damage to Envoy caused by fire on a nearby boat one of our priorities was to find somewhere to stay since we can’t live aboard while the clean up, sanding and then GRP repairs and painting are being done.
As the arrival of May signals the start of the local summer season and accommodation becomes more difficult we mention this to our contractor, Sailand, whose staff member Vassilis advises the house next to his is available for rent. Last Sunday we check this out to find a large four-bed-roomed, two-bath-roomed stone villa fully furnished and equipped, built in 1888 but completely refurbished while retaining its historical charm based on a mostly wooden interior decorated with antiques and artifacts. It’s located high in the hills about 10 km from the marina where it’s nice and cool with a stunning view over the Lefkas area and sea beyond. All of this for a most reasonable 600 Euros (about NZ$923) for a MONTH – that is about $30 per day. Ironically Di and I have often said we’d love to spend some time in a traditional Greek mountain village and the three nearby fit this bill perfectly.
Vasillis did say that as this is a country area to keep a watch out for snakes and scorpions but we’ve so far only seen one snake crossing a road.
As the arrival of May signals the start of the local summer season and accommodation becomes more difficult we mention this to our contractor, Sailand, whose staff member Vassilis advises the house next to his is available for rent. Last Sunday we check this out to find a large four-bed-roomed, two-bath-roomed stone villa fully furnished and equipped, built in 1888 but completely refurbished while retaining its historical charm based on a mostly wooden interior decorated with antiques and artifacts. It’s located high in the hills about 10 km from the marina where it’s nice and cool with a stunning view over the Lefkas area and sea beyond. All of this for a most reasonable 600 Euros (about NZ$923) for a MONTH – that is about $30 per day. Ironically Di and I have often said we’d love to spend some time in a traditional Greek mountain village and the three nearby fit this bill perfectly.
Vasillis did say that as this is a country area to keep a watch out for snakes and scorpions but we’ve so far only seen one snake crossing a road.
Our agents, A1 organise a near new Nissan Micro 4-door rental car for us at the extremely favourable rate of 20 Euros (about NZ$31) per day including insurance.
To top it off our London-based daughter Amy is going to fly over on Sunday and stay with us for a week.
Now to Envoy. It seemed to take ages for anything to start as we awaited feedback from our insurers, but on Thursday a huge crane lowered our RHIB down from Envoy’s upper deck so that it could be cleaned and Envoy’s upper deck accessed for cleaning. Then a team from Yachtpaint started the complete cleaning of Envoy’s exterior and the sanding of heat blisters from the hull and gelcoat.
Two days of work made a huge difference and all of the soot and debris aboard Envoy has been removed. What remains are some fairly extensive ingrained soot marks on the starboard side white topsides gelcoat as well as a small area of peeled burnt gelcoat.
The blisters on the hull and stabiliser fin have been removed with the hull being taken back to bare GRP in those areas.
The surveyor is visiting again on Tuesday when decisions will be made regarding what areas can be polished back to the near-perfect condition that existed before and what areas will need repair and painting. The more areas that require painting, the longer the job will take since extensive masking will be required.
Thankfully Yachtpaint are available to start the job as soon as the insurers accept the surveyor’s recommendations, but Envoy will need to be moved undercover (site is available) and we don’t expect anything to start much before the end of next week.
Best indication of time required at this stage is about a month so that takes us through to about mid-June and even that is quite speculative depending on what the surveyor suggests and how things go.
Meanwhile we’re making progress on sourcing replacement flat windows but having some difficulty with the curved pilothouse window. The crack in this is fairly minor (about 60cm) so we could cruise with it cracked and get it replaced during winter, although people tell us the insurers might not agree to this as they will want to wrap up the claim.
A local rigger will also inspect damage to Envoy’s rigging next week and quote for her repair.
The time issue is going to be GRP repair and painting since most other issues can be dealt with simultaneously and by late next week we should have a pretty accurate idea of what is to be done and the time required.
May 5 – Waiting
Olverson’s Lodge Creek Marina
“Every day is the beginning of a new journey…enjoy the ride.” –Author Unknown
While we were at anchor last week we tried to use our generator and noticed it wasn’t spitting water out the side of the boat…like it’s suppose to. Stan investigated and found the exhaust elbow had a crack in it. It’s old, very old, and Stan knew it needed to be replaced one day…well one day is here. We decided the best place to wait for the part to be delivered was at Olverson’s since our car is there. The part has been ordered and will be delivered on Monday.
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Stack Socket Replacement
A couple of days after we arrived into Newport, we found the breaker for the pilothouse 120V outlets had tripped. We investigated all the electronics plugged into the PH outlets but the breaker would still trip. We eventually unplugged everything and it still tripped so it had to be a bad breaker or a circuit…
May 2 – Mount Vernon, VA
Mattawoman Creek – Anchorage
We left Alexandria this morning…a little windier on the Potomac today than last Friday. We didn’t spend the time to visit Mount Vernon on our first visit to the area in 2011, so today we decided we’d dock at their wharf and enjoy the beautiful day wandering around the plantation. It’s an impressive place that has an amazing view of the Potomac River.
Spring Is Here And Flying Fast – Update On All Things FPB
Spring is here and with it the promise of things to be discovered, adventures to be enjoyed, and new lands …Read More
Departure Planning
We’ve been studying the weather every day as we prepare for our Atlantic crossing from Newport, RI to Kinsale, Ireland. We use a variety of data sources, including NOAA surface analysis and 500MB forecasts. The sources we rely most heavily on are GRIB files containing data from computer-generated models such as NOAA GFS and WAVEWATCH…
April 30 – Alexandria, VA
Old Dominion Boat Club
“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” ―Tim Cahill
One of our main reasons for visiting Alexandria was to visit friends we meet in 2014 when we took the Texas Pearl home from Florida. A casual meeting at a marina in Panama City gave us a chance to make some very special friends…it’s one of the best parts of cursing. Larry and Gail were on the home stretch of their Great Loop adventure that year and we’ve been lucky enough to see them every year since.
We’ve enjoyed being docked at their boat club at the foot of King Street, meeting some of their boating friends and spending Saturday night at the clubs annually pig roast and sock burning party, where we got to meet some of their children and grand children. Thank you for letting us join the fun…we had a great time.
The view of the Old Dominion Boat Club from the Torpedo Factory
Part of the delicious dinner we had at the boat club Saturday night
Part of Larry and Gail’s family
The purpose of the sock burning is to shed your winter socks and celebrate the upcoming spring equinox (which has already passed) and the beginning of the boating season.
Sunday Gail and Larry took us on a tour of the area. They drove us around Alexandria giving us a little history lesson, down the George Washington Parkway to Mount Vernon and then over the Arlington Memorial Bridge into Washington DC to see some of the monuments. It was a great tour but the best part of the day was spending the evening at their townhouse catching up and enjoying a great meal. They’ve been wonderful hosts and we’re so glad we had a chance to come visit.
The original entry to Mount Vernon..the way George Washington would have come into his estate. We’re hoping to stop and visit Mount Vernon on our way down the Potomac later in the week.
The Martin Luther King Memorial wasn’t complete when we were in DC the last time, so it was nice to get to see it today.
“Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope”
The Jefferson Memorial…across the tidal basin from the MLK memorial
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