Very busy for the last 48 hours. We went on the hard via a slipway on Thursday and had the dings in the gel coat repaired and while we were out changed anodes and applied new bottom paint to all leading edges and the water line and did some general buffing and polishing.
On Friday the bow thruster parts finally came and it took about two hours to replace the brushes and springs and the solenoid and control unit.
The thruster now works as new and we got launched at 1400h in 20 kts and major rain. We took on some fuel and went back to the dock but there was no space on a pontoon with a walk way to shore.
Fortunately, a brand new Amel 55 straight from La Rochelle arrived and after a boat tour and a few bottles of red, they launched their dinghy and we went ashore for a nice last night on the town.
We are just stowing and securing for sea and doing some last minute shopping and it's off at about 1400H with the tide.
Next stop Limehouse Basin Marina on Monday
Saturday, June 13, 2015
Thursday, June 11, 2015
St. Peter Port, Guernsey, UK
Well yes, we are still in Guernsey. The weather has been very blowy with easterlies to 30 kts. plus. It's much quieter this morning and we are going on the hard to have our gel coat repaired and the perpetrator is going to pay for it.
We still do not have the bowthruster parts so that isn't working. We have a weather window for London on Saturday so we have to get this stuff done. Next week there are strong easterlies again.
Here are some photos of Guernsey,
We still do not have the bowthruster parts so that isn't working. We have a weather window for London on Saturday so we have to get this stuff done. Next week there are strong easterlies again.
Here are some photos of Guernsey,
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| some serious 10m. spring tides |
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| the breakwater and lighthouse on a blustery day |
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| lobsters from M and L fishmongers at St. Sampson $10/pound. They made the ultimate sacrifice |
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| gangway at spring low tide |
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| the High street Guernsey |
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| Drinks with the yachties at the Royal Channel Islands YC |
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| street fair, St. Peter Port |
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| Victor Hugo's house |
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| Serious boat envy. A Russian Amel 55 just showed up. I want one of these |
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
St. PeterPort, Guernsey, UK
Callisto arrived in St. Peterport last Thursday after 9 days at sea in all kinds of conditions. We had some NE breeze initially and had to do some considerable northing until the high pressure system went east. We were then able to motor to rhumb line foe about 24 hours until we picked up the bottom end on a very strong low pressure front. We had winds of about F5-6 for the next few days but fortunately from the SW and we had all of our working sails and so made good progress. Much better to have a functioning main sail and genoa!
Crossing the shipping lane just south of the north western corner of France was exciting as hundreds of ships pass through this area every day. The weather has been cold and grey for days and we have not seen the full moon since we left the Azores. The tide was with us for the first 5 hours into the English Channel and the weather cleared considerably.
It was good to reach Guernsey after so many miles and thus ends our circumnavigation. It's a little anticlimactic but very good to be able to take a little rest.
On entry into St. Peter Port my bowthruster gave up the ghost but fortunately we were able to dock without any mishaps.
The Admiral and Marie-Luce (Ian's wife) arrived in the afternoon and we spent the time tearing apart the bowthruster. It will need some spare parts, a new solenoid and control unit as well as new brushes and springs. These were ordered express from France but it would appear that they got lost in transit somewhere and the order had to be put in again.
There are worse places to be stuck than Guernsey and we have been enjoying the fine weather and the sights of the island.
Our parts are still not here as of today and the next weather window is Friday, we hope to be underway by then but who knows.
It's blowing hard from the north east again so we would not have been able to leave anyway.
It's also turned very cold again. The joys of a so called English summer!
Last night at 0200H we heard a bump in the night, in fact several of them. Once up on deck, in the cold and 25 kts. of wind we discovered the source. One of the visiting boats decided to slip his berth and try to enter the inner marina. He got all his lines and fenders ready but neglected to replace his steering wheel and once he slipped his lines and put the boat into gear he discovered he had no control.
Unfortunately, Callisto stopped his lateral movement until he finally got control his boat. In addition to everything else, I have a few scratches and dings that will need to be taken care of. The boat owner seems to be a stand up guy and has offered to take care of the problem, either here or in London.
We will have to wait and see about the local GRP guys and when I get my bowthruster parts.
Nothing is ever easy.
Ron left for the US last Saturday in order to organize his wife's birthday party. He was a great help with all the mechanical problems we have had over the past 2 months. He will be missed.
Some photos will follow.
Crossing the shipping lane just south of the north western corner of France was exciting as hundreds of ships pass through this area every day. The weather has been cold and grey for days and we have not seen the full moon since we left the Azores. The tide was with us for the first 5 hours into the English Channel and the weather cleared considerably.
It was good to reach Guernsey after so many miles and thus ends our circumnavigation. It's a little anticlimactic but very good to be able to take a little rest.
On entry into St. Peter Port my bowthruster gave up the ghost but fortunately we were able to dock without any mishaps.
The Admiral and Marie-Luce (Ian's wife) arrived in the afternoon and we spent the time tearing apart the bowthruster. It will need some spare parts, a new solenoid and control unit as well as new brushes and springs. These were ordered express from France but it would appear that they got lost in transit somewhere and the order had to be put in again.
There are worse places to be stuck than Guernsey and we have been enjoying the fine weather and the sights of the island.
Our parts are still not here as of today and the next weather window is Friday, we hope to be underway by then but who knows.
It's blowing hard from the north east again so we would not have been able to leave anyway.
It's also turned very cold again. The joys of a so called English summer!
Last night at 0200H we heard a bump in the night, in fact several of them. Once up on deck, in the cold and 25 kts. of wind we discovered the source. One of the visiting boats decided to slip his berth and try to enter the inner marina. He got all his lines and fenders ready but neglected to replace his steering wheel and once he slipped his lines and put the boat into gear he discovered he had no control.
Unfortunately, Callisto stopped his lateral movement until he finally got control his boat. In addition to everything else, I have a few scratches and dings that will need to be taken care of. The boat owner seems to be a stand up guy and has offered to take care of the problem, either here or in London.
We will have to wait and see about the local GRP guys and when I get my bowthruster parts.
Nothing is ever easy.
Ron left for the US last Saturday in order to organize his wife's birthday party. He was a great help with all the mechanical problems we have had over the past 2 months. He will be missed.
Some photos will follow.
Monday, May 25, 2015
Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel, Azores
It looks like we have a fair weather window for leaving tomorrow. Will probably have to go upwind for a day or two but behind us after that.
We have spent the day getting the boat ready and finally finished the repair on the outhaul gear box so we should have all sails working on the last leg home.
A quick trip to the fruit and veggie market, clear out and take on fuel and we are out the door.
It should take 8-9 days to get to Guernsey and then only 200 miles to London.
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| we had a very pleasant tour of the tall ship "Danemark" |
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| A fully rigged ship used for training merchant marine sailors |
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| about 200 feet long built in 1932 and had 80 trainees and 15 officers aboard |
Sunday, May 24, 2015
Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel, Azores
The Admiral arrived last Saturday and although the weather has been cloudy and cool, we have had a good time touring the island of Sao Miguel and getting many boat chores sorted. Oil changes have been done and the boat cleaned inside and out. The local go to guy is called Thomas Dargel and he was able to get the genoa swivel down from the top of the forestay and he also recharged one of the fridges with gas. The admiral bought an outhaul gearbox from Amel but it did not fit. They then sent another which arrived 3 days ago and it doesn't fit either. Getting the old gearbox off the outhaul shaft was very difficult but finally achieved using a puller, borrowed from Thomas. We can still unfurl the mainsail manually. We rented a car an toured the volcanic lakes of the island for 2 days and have probably visited every eatery on this island at least once.
Marie-Luce and the Admiral left for the UK yesterday and we would have gone today but the wind is blowing hard from the NE for the next few days and I think it would be better to wait for a more favourable window. We have plenty to do until then.
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| The Admiral enjoying the warm thermal baths |
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| Lunch in Ribiera |
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| Ribiera |
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| overlooking Lagoa das Furnas |
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| Lagoa das Furnas |
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| feral cats keeping warm |
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| fumaroles Lagoa das Furnas very smelly |
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| steam and boiling water Lagoa das Furnas |
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| stews being placed in the thermal pools and then served in the local hostelries |
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| tea plantation south shore. The only one in Europe we were told |
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| Overlooking Lagoas Azul and Verde on a misty morning |
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| A novel WC made from a boat hull |
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| Looking down on the fishing dock in Capelas on the north shore |
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| The Danish training tallship the Danemark |
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| Ponta Delgada at sunset |
Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel, Azores
An Account of the leg between Cape Verdes and the Azores
We left Praia, Cape Verdes on May 1st on a nice clear morning and motored in the lee of the island of Santiago. The trade winds came on strong soon after that and it went quiet again due to the wind shadow cast by Ilha de San Vincente and Santa Luzia. There was a wild 2 hours when the breeze screamed though gap between Vincente and Santo Antonio and complete quiet and tidal rips in the lee of Santa Antonio.
Once around the corner we got into a lot of wind up to 40 kts. which I think was due to a compression effect of the high northern face of Santa Antonio. This continued until the following morning when the NE trades settled down to about 15-20 kts.
We were making very nice progress until we lost halyard tension on the genoa and down it came.Fortunately, the breeze was light and we were able to secure it on deck without problem. The light line holding the genoa to the swivel had frayed through and we could not get the swivel down the forestay. I thought that the knot tying the swivel to the halyard had jammed into the masthead sheave and sent Ian up the mast to free it. He freed the knot but the swivel was tightly jammed at the top of the forestay and would not come down.
This effectively put the genoa, our main power sail out of commission and we thought about going back to Mindelo to try and fix it. In the end we decided to persevere and continue on using the staysail in heavy wind and the cruising spinnaker in light air.
This we did for a number of days. The wind stayed quite light and then backed to the NW and we were able to make slow but steady progress. We had some problems with plugged up fuel filters which required regular cleaning and/or changing. I think this was due to the fuel tank having been cleaned and the fuel treated in Capetown. I was warned that any remaining algae from the corners of the tank and suspended in the fuel would potentially plug up the Racors and the primary fuel filter and this did in fact happen.
As we proceeded north, we saw a significant low pressure system barreling across the Azores and there was no way to avoid it, so we motorsailed as fast as possible to take advantage of the SW breeze ahead of it. It was indeed a strong weather front and we had wind of between F5 and F8 for two days. We decided to put in at Santa Maria, the most southerly island in the group as the front had already passed through and we were concerned that the wind would veer to the north.
It was just as well we did as about 50 miles out the motor quit due the propshaft brake engaging. Further investigation revealed a leak in the transmission oil cooler heat exchanger and all our transmission fluid was going into the exhaust at a significant rate. Fortunately, we had plenty of transmission oil and we replaced 3 litres right away. This only lasted an hour and it all leaked out again. We shut the engine down and sailed to within one mile of the harbour on Santa Maria, put another 3 litres of ATF in and managed to get in without frying the transmission leaving a trail of red oil behind us. It was a filthy, rainy night with wind to 25 kts and we were very pleased to be tied up and safe after 11 days of hard sailing.
The weather improved over the next day and we thought that we might have many days in Santa Maria getting a replacement transmission oil cooler. There is a very good yard in Santa Maria with a 65 ton travel lift and a very good technician called Ricardo who managed to find us a used one that we could modify to fit. We got that done without problem and after spending a pleasant couple of days on Santa Maria, we made the 50 mile run to Ponta Delgada on the island of Sao Miguel.
Ian's wife, Marie Luce was on the dock to greet us and the Admiral was due on Saturday. We all looked forward to a little R and R in Punta Delgada.
We left Praia, Cape Verdes on May 1st on a nice clear morning and motored in the lee of the island of Santiago. The trade winds came on strong soon after that and it went quiet again due to the wind shadow cast by Ilha de San Vincente and Santa Luzia. There was a wild 2 hours when the breeze screamed though gap between Vincente and Santo Antonio and complete quiet and tidal rips in the lee of Santa Antonio.
Once around the corner we got into a lot of wind up to 40 kts. which I think was due to a compression effect of the high northern face of Santa Antonio. This continued until the following morning when the NE trades settled down to about 15-20 kts.
We were making very nice progress until we lost halyard tension on the genoa and down it came.Fortunately, the breeze was light and we were able to secure it on deck without problem. The light line holding the genoa to the swivel had frayed through and we could not get the swivel down the forestay. I thought that the knot tying the swivel to the halyard had jammed into the masthead sheave and sent Ian up the mast to free it. He freed the knot but the swivel was tightly jammed at the top of the forestay and would not come down.
This effectively put the genoa, our main power sail out of commission and we thought about going back to Mindelo to try and fix it. In the end we decided to persevere and continue on using the staysail in heavy wind and the cruising spinnaker in light air.
This we did for a number of days. The wind stayed quite light and then backed to the NW and we were able to make slow but steady progress. We had some problems with plugged up fuel filters which required regular cleaning and/or changing. I think this was due to the fuel tank having been cleaned and the fuel treated in Capetown. I was warned that any remaining algae from the corners of the tank and suspended in the fuel would potentially plug up the Racors and the primary fuel filter and this did in fact happen.
As we proceeded north, we saw a significant low pressure system barreling across the Azores and there was no way to avoid it, so we motorsailed as fast as possible to take advantage of the SW breeze ahead of it. It was indeed a strong weather front and we had wind of between F5 and F8 for two days. We decided to put in at Santa Maria, the most southerly island in the group as the front had already passed through and we were concerned that the wind would veer to the north.
It was just as well we did as about 50 miles out the motor quit due the propshaft brake engaging. Further investigation revealed a leak in the transmission oil cooler heat exchanger and all our transmission fluid was going into the exhaust at a significant rate. Fortunately, we had plenty of transmission oil and we replaced 3 litres right away. This only lasted an hour and it all leaked out again. We shut the engine down and sailed to within one mile of the harbour on Santa Maria, put another 3 litres of ATF in and managed to get in without frying the transmission leaving a trail of red oil behind us. It was a filthy, rainy night with wind to 25 kts and we were very pleased to be tied up and safe after 11 days of hard sailing.
The weather improved over the next day and we thought that we might have many days in Santa Maria getting a replacement transmission oil cooler. There is a very good yard in Santa Maria with a 65 ton travel lift and a very good technician called Ricardo who managed to find us a used one that we could modify to fit. We got that done without problem and after spending a pleasant couple of days on Santa Maria, we made the 50 mile run to Ponta Delgada on the island of Sao Miguel.
Ian's wife, Marie Luce was on the dock to greet us and the Admiral was due on Saturday. We all looked forward to a little R and R in Punta Delgada.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel, Azores
We are now in Ponta Delgada, Azores and very pleasant it is too. Some photos of the Capetown -St Helena cruise. More photos and comments about the recent leg to follow!
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| Let them eat wake! Fast run from Cape Town to St Helena (9 days 20 hrs) |
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| Land Ho! St Helena |
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| Our island guide Robert Peters. He gave us 60 years of history of St. Helena mostly as related to him |
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| Napoleon's Residence |
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| Napolean's Tomb |
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| Central part of St. Helena |
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| looking north |
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| the Governor's Residence |
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| light air under cruising chute |
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| and mizzen staysail |
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| Dolphin come to greet us |
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| The world famous banana braed |
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| Ian amusing himself with flying fish |
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| Callisto on mooring ball at St Helena |
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| The mooring field St Helena |
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| One of the local hostelries. The served a good full English |
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| A view of Jamestown |
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| Descending Jacob's ladder |
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| Jacob's ladder 600+ steps from the ground to the fort above Jamestown |
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