Link:https://kottke.org/18/12/greenland-land-of-unending-ice Nordhavn 57-26 Istaboa
Tag Archives | Nordhavn
13.2 kW Alternators and Beyond
On Dirona, we aim to always run the boat using a single power source. When we are plugged into shore, we aim to drive the entire boat off of shore-side power and never run the generator. This may sound easy, but in Europe you frequently won’t find more than a 16A shore power service and…
Krabbersgat Naviduct
We’d passed over vehicle roads in Dirona several times, for example in Boston Harbor and Norfolk, Virginia, where a vehicle tunnel runs under the waterway. But until we transited the Krabbersgat naviduct, near Enkhuizen, we’d never passed through an aqueduct over an open road. A naviduct is a special type of navigable aqueduct that also…
Enkhuizen, Netherlands
Enkhuizen, Netherlands received city rights in 1355 and, as a Dutch East India Company harbour, was among the most important cities in the country. The city once bordered the saltwater bay Zuiderzee, with sea locks to protect the harbour and adjoining canals from flooding. The completion of the Afsluitdijk dam in 1932 transformed the Zuiderzee…
Terschelling, Netherlands
Even in the Netherlands, a country of cyclists, the island of Terschelling is known for its extensive and diverse bicycle paths. It was a great landfall for us after the 160-mile run across the German Bight from Cuxhaven, Germany. After a fresh seafood lunch in town, we set of on an afternoon bicycle trip that…
Germany to the Netherlands
On our run from Germany to the Netherlands, we’d hoped to exit the German Bight on the border at Delfzjil and take the sheltered Netherlands canals through Leeuwarden to Harlingen. But the least depth through some of the waterways is an optimistic 1.9m, too shallow for our 2.1m draft. So we instead returned to the…
ENVOY HEADS SOUTH FROM CORFU
Envoy is berthed at Lefkas Marina, Greece and we are home in Auckland.
Beautiful gardens of beachside bar at Petriti on Corfu
Envoy anchored at Ormos Imerolia, northern Corfu with RHIB alongside jetty
This Selene trawler anchored nearby
This unusual “yellow submarine” came by with some tourists
Cruising around Corfu I hear a couple of knocking noises while under way and initially think the noise is caused by waves crashing against the hull. But it doesn’t sound right and we soon establish that the port side Naiad stabilisers are making a slight knocking noise when Envoy is in larger waves (much of the time it’s been too calm to need to use the stabilisers so we hadn’t noticed this issue).
We send a brief audio-visual video clip of this to Internaftiki – the Naiad agents here.
They ask us to do some further tests by disconnecting the arm from the potentiometer that controls the stabiliser fin movement so that we could move the arm and therefore the fins by hand.
This replicates the issue without needing to go out into rough seas. Internaftiki soon advise that the problem is most likely one of the hydraulic valves and will come to Envoy, probably when we return to Lefkada. They also explain how to de-activate and lock the port side stabilisers while still using the starboard side. However we later find the knocking noise is still there, so it’s happening on both sides and we lock both fins in the central position and continue cruising in the reasonably calm conditions without our stabilisers.
They ask us to do some further tests by disconnecting the arm from the potentiometer that controls the stabiliser fin movement so that we could move the arm and therefore the fins by hand.
This replicates the issue without needing to go out into rough seas. Internaftiki soon advise that the problem is most likely one of the hydraulic valves and will come to Envoy, probably when we return to Lefkada. They also explain how to de-activate and lock the port side stabilisers while still using the starboard side. However we later find the knocking noise is still there, so it’s happening on both sides and we lock both fins in the central position and continue cruising in the reasonably calm conditions without our stabilisers.
We anchor off Corfu’s Gouvia Marina and early next morning go into the marina to lay alongside a jetty so that Angelos, the watermaker engineer, can fix our unit’s slight seawater leak. Angelos says you have to expect small water leaks from water makers, but I have to disagree. Anyway he fixes the leak in about an hour and after testing it we set off again heading south towards Preveza, a medium sized town on the mainland where my brother Charles will meet us.
Corfu has two huge castles known as the “old” (top) and the “new” (below), both viewed from Envoy
Corfu has two huge castles known as the “old” (top) and the “new” (below), both viewed from Envoy
Passing Corfu’s wharves we spot an unusual looking aluminium naval ship – the USS Yuma. She’s a 103 metre catamaran fast transport ship for carrying troops – up to 312 of them at a speed of 43 knots – that’s 80 km/hr!
The sleek and fast USS Yuma
The sleek and fast USS Yuma
On the way to Preveza we spend two nights at Paxoi Island’s Lakka Bay.
In season it’s often too crowded to anchor here but great at this time of year.
Here we meet some old cruising acquaintances – Britons Graham and Linda from the yacht Obsession of Poole as well as meeting a bunch of Kiwis aboard Mike and Heather’s yacht, Delightful Lady. Ashore a band plays live traditional Greek music until the early hours of the next morning serenading us to sleep.
In season it’s often too crowded to anchor here but great at this time of year.
Here we meet some old cruising acquaintances – Britons Graham and Linda from the yacht Obsession of Poole as well as meeting a bunch of Kiwis aboard Mike and Heather’s yacht, Delightful Lady. Ashore a band plays live traditional Greek music until the early hours of the next morning serenading us to sleep.
We make a point of finding delicious treats for morning tea – below apple pie with ice cream and yours’ truly with gigantic cream cornet
Preveza is calm as usual and we anchor off the town. This is a popular spot for fishermen to catch prawns and lots of small boats are active most of the time and setting nets quite close to anchored vessels. This can be a nuisance and their often very loud engines wake you early in the morning, however you have to remember this is their livelihood while we’re just here having fun.
Typical Greek fishing boat retrieving net
Typical Greek fishing boat retrieving net
We meet Charles at the bus station and set off through the Lefkas canal’s swing bridge for a few days cruising with him south of Lefkas.
In the last week of October we head into Lefkas Marina where Tassos, an engineer from Internaftiki meets us to check out our stabilisers. He advises our hydraulic system pressure is too low at 90 bar and installs a new valve that enables adjustment of the system pressure. After adjusting the pressure to 100 bar the stabilisers are much less noisy when worked at rest using the potentiometer arm and Tassos thinks the problem is solved. Charles and I are not so sure – if they’ve been working fine at 90 bar for the last 12 years, why would we now need to increase the pressure? We weren’t able to do a sea trial while Tassos was there (in retrospect a big mistake) and will do this shortly.
Next Post – our last days aboard Envoy.
Cuxhaven, Germany
Cuxhaven, Germany sits at the mouth of Elbe River and the North Sea. For centuries the location was a stronghold to control sea access from the river and continues that tradition as an Elbe River pilot station. While the river provides much positive value to the city, it also has negatives. Dangerous seas form when…
Brunsbuttel to Cuxhaven
After three exceptional days on the Kiel Canal, we followed five large commercial ships into the Brunsbuttel lock and out into the busy Elbe River. We made a short run downriver to our final stop in Germany at Cuxhaven, where we had a berth waiting for us at the YC marina. Below are trip highlights…
[KensBlog] Many decisions to make
Greetings all! For those of you who may have missed my last blog entry, the quick story is that Roberta and I have listed Sans Souci for sale and are in the process of ordering a new boat. The quick reason is that we are planning to cruise ‘the Great Loop’ (an inland journey on America’s rivers). We chose our Nordhavn 68 as the best possible boat for ocean crossing and now we’re building a boat that is built for a completely different flavor of cruising. We’re now deep into the process of or…
