For quite some time now we have been watching a very large low in the weather models coming down from Greenland. The storm is currently predicted to bring 20′ waves on 10 second period, with 25 to 30 kt winds. With 20′ waves nominal, there will be some that approach or exceed our 30′ mast…
Tag Archives | Nordhavn
Fort Adams
Fort Adams guards the harbor entrance to Newport and is the largest coastal fortification in the US. The parade area is 800ft across and covers 6.5 acres. We can see the fort from our berth at Newport Yachting Center and on a warm, sunny day finally got over for a tour. On the way we…
ENVOY’S FIRE DAMAGE ASSESSMENT COMPLETED
We are staying ashore in a country area 10km from Lefkas Marina, Greece where Envoy is on the hardstand.
Vassilis warned us about snakes and although we haven’t seen any near the house we’ve seen two slithering across the road to Lefkas.
Vassilis warned us about snakes and although we haven’t seen any near the house we’ve seen two slithering across the road to Lefkas.
Following heat, soot and smoke damage to Envoy caused by fire on a nearby boat the clean up has finished and today Tuesday the surveyor, together with the contractor who will be doing the repairs, visited for the second time to fully assess the actual damage. This was mostly about determining which GRP areas need repairs to the GRP, which need painting and which only need polishing.
The next steps are the contractor has to prepare a detailed quote for every item that needs repair, discuss it with me on Friday, then pass it to the surveyor who will pass it on to the insurers with his recommendations. The one contractor is quoting for everything and will engage subcontractors (eg for rigging, upholstery, glazing) as needed. The surveyor says we should have the go-ahead to start work about mid next week and the contractor advises he can start within a couple of days from then.
The nature of the issues hasn’t changed from our previous postings except that our large RHIB stored on the starboard side upper deck, facing the fire, will need a new pontoon cover (known as “chaps”) and its hull (slightly discolored by heat) painting.
Everyone knows me as an optimist, but I can’t see this being finished much before the end of June (that is 6 weeks) and maybe that’s optimistic. The contractor will be giving me his time estimate with the quote.
Of course things are still happening that aren’t related to the fire.
We’ve successfully tested much of Envoy’s equipment but lots of other equipment can’t be tested until we’re back in the water.
We’ve taken six fire extinguishers and two inflatable life jackets in for periodic routine servicing.
Or smaller 2,7m “Valiant” is being repaired due to a sea water leak through the transom and is turning out to be a bit of a major with the repair cost about one third the cost of a new one. But we’re assured it will be like new so proceeding with the repair.
Sailand are about to start some work including:
– remove keel cooler for periodic servicing involving dismantling and internal and external cleaning, plus remove and re-seal its through hull fitting
– replace leaking domestic fresh water filter housing
– replace failed Robertson auto pilot sender unit with new one
– replace fresh water purifier’s u/v lamp
Next update mid next week should include the repair work’s start date and estimated completion date.
Meanwhile our daughter Amy is with us and tomorrow we’re heading away for a three-day drive to some scenic Greek mainland areas.
[kensblog] It’s 2017. What are our cruising plans?
Start your own blog now! Free!
[kensblog] It’s 2017. What are our cruising plans?
Greetings all! Roberta and I will be off to a slow start on our cruising this year. Over a decade ago I was told I needed a new right knee. I ignored the Doctors and the knee got worse. Finally, this year it became obvious that I could delay no fur…
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.
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…
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…
Fuel, Option Value, Speed, & Safety
Boat range in ocean conditions is remarkably hard to predict but it’s just about guaranteed that your real range is far shorter than estimates or even careful measurement if it wasn’t done in real ocean conditions. Ocean swell slows boats remarkably. We had no idea how much impact this would have when we first got…
