Leaving Codville Lagoon, we work our way up Lama Passage. While transiting Seaforth Passage, a Raven decides to hitch a ride on our bow rail. We are perplexed as to why he hangs around for so long. Reaching our anchorage in Wigham Cove, we find out why. He had been busily shredding the plastic bags […]
Tag Archives | trawler
Helsinki City Walk
Helsinki is a city of striking architecture, both modern and traditional, including Neoclassical, Art Nouveau and Modernist. The city also is full of sculptures and other works of art. As is normally our custom when arriving in a new city, we went on an extensive walking tour, this one a 10-mile Lonely Planet-inspired Helsinki “Iconic…
Our New Sarasota Residence
We are now homeowners after five years of living on a boat. The unit we purchased, 100 Central Avenue, is a located in the Five Points District, which is literally at the heart of Sarasota’s lovely downtown.100 central Ave circled in the lower center o…
Our New Sarasota Residence
We are now homeowners after five years of living on a boat. The unit we purchased, 100 Central Avenue, is a located in the Five Points District, which is literally at the heart of Sarasota’s lovely downtown.
100 central Ave circled in the lower cent…
TakingPaws 2019-06-02 05:19:00
What could keep the Red Head crew from putting up a blog entry for over a week? Start with some engine problems, add in ridiculously hot weather, throw in a haul out and 3 days living on the hard (in said hot weather), and top it off with poor WiFi.
On the bright side, they did find two dog parks.
Three days on the hard meant getting the crew off and on the boat. We used a series of ramps, much like Stewart a couple years ago. Tried airplane stairs but Dylan would have none of that. On the final day, we used a lift to take them off one at a time prior to Red Head going back in the water.
It’s been a rough week, culminating in a sad change of summer plans. Dylan, Dee Dee, and Dora are now off to Baltimore for a month. More on the Red Head saga later.
For now the crew needs a couple days to relax.
Helsinki Arrival
From Oro we made a two-day run to Helsinki, where we would stay right downtown for two weeks to explore the city and make trips to Tallin and St. Petersburg. We had wonderfully calm conditions for the entire run, enabling us to check out a couple of offshore lighthouses. We also passed a large fleet…
DELAY TO ENVOY’S LAUNCHING
We’ll add some photos to recent posts early next week.
We’ve met a NZ couple from Blenheim – Keven and Kerry who’ve recently bought a “green” motor vessel. It has an electric motor, good for about 20 miles cruising plus a VW diesel engine with a range of about 600 miles. They eventually plan to ship it home where the electric motor will suit cruising in the Marlborough Sounds.
We’re constantly reminded that many costs are still very reasonable in Greece. Last night we went to dinner at a nice restaurant overlooking the estuary and had a Greek salad, french fries, fried eggplant, mushrooms with cheese, bread, one bottle of water, one litre of house white wine and desserts of fruit and yoghurt for a total cost of 27 Euros – about NZ$47. In many restaurants at home we’d pay nearly that just for the wine. On the other hand petrol is nearly 2 Euros per litre – about NZ$3.48.
Preparation for Envoy’s launching had been going well and after 7 days aboard were ready for launching the day before it occurred. So last Tuesday Envoy was lifted from her chocks on the hardstand and put into the water. We always spend a few minutes checking for any sea water leaks before the travel lift operator removes the slings and we soon noticed a leak into the engine room bilge.
Regular readers of this Blog may recall we’ve had similar leaks twice previously, but they’ve stopped quite quickly after launching (although we were never able to figure out exactly why). However this time more water was coming in (at a guess about a litre per minute) and it didn’t look like stopping any time soon.
We had Sailand engineer Panos aboard for the launching and he suggested we allow more water to come into the bilge, then lift the boat out and hopefully see water coming back out from the inside.
So we did exactly this and after lifting back onto the hard were able to identify a small area of the keel leaking water .
Within an hour Sailand’s GRP expert, Raza, was on the job with his assistant and they used a grinder to cut back the GRP in the area of the leak. In doing so they found some de-laminated GRP and then a plug of sealant. Raza’s theory is that a previous owner must have had some minor impact damage, used sealant to make a temporary repair and then pulled the boat out of the water and glassed over it. This must have happened more than 12 years ago. When the boat was on the hard the sealant plug dried out and shrank so that when launched water could pass through until the sealant swelled a little to stop the flow. Anyhow this is conjecture and a fully professional repair is now being completed – first grinding back to solid, good condition GRP and then building it up again using carbon fibre and Kevlar cloth impregnated with West Systems epoxy resin and using presses to apply pressure during curing. They’ve nearly completed the exterior and today modified the interior of the aft bilge, pouring in Gurit’s Ampreg 26 epoxy resin to fill in previous surface imperfections and building up the bilge’s level by about 150mm to provide more strength and a smoother impervious surface finish.
Raza is working on Sunday to finish sanding, undercoating, painting and anti-fouling so we can launch on Monday.
Raza is working on Sunday to finish sanding, undercoating, painting and anti-fouling so we can launch on Monday.
All other work is now completed except that our large RHIB is awaiting a new regulator for its Yamaha outboard’s alternator – during servicing the mechanic noticed the battery is over charging. This part is due to arrive on Tuesday so we’re hopeful of starting our cruise on Wednesday.
Oro
Oro has been a restricted-access military base since the early 1900s, when Russia built a fortress here, and has only recently been opened to the public as part of Finland’s Archipelago National Park. After a century of military activity, the island is full of fortifications and ruins, most open and publicly accessible. And the park…
Kokar
In 1965, baron Goran Akerhielm purchased land on Kallskar, a small island on the edge of the Baltic Sea in the Kokar island group at the southwest extreme of the Aland Archipelago. There he spent 18 years building extensive gardens and a villa where he lived spring through fall until 1983. He later donated the…
Kumlinge
Kumlinge is a group of about 800 islands in the northeastern Aland archipelago. Besides the complexity of islands to explore, a major attraction for us was an old Finnish coast guard station, now converted to a resort and marina, with a 130ft (40m) observation tower that provides sweeping views over the area. Below are trip…
