Bora, the day after
Heerenxvii
Mon 19 Jul 2010 21:32
A.
Sunday late afternoon, time to dinghy around. Checking top speed on the 6pk
tender. With just me on board, it is really too light to go full speed, as it
almost flies on each wave... Today, when putting the engine in the 'bakskist'
and half deflating the dinghy, I noticed we (I), lost the lock! Apparently it
bumped out... We used the amazing 'takel' machine, to lift the engine out of the
water, move it horizontally a few meters, than a controlled descend into the
'bakskist', no lifting! No backpain :)
A bit later I went into the engine room, trying to follow the instructions from
the manual as to how to calibrate the thruster. In a sauna like temperature, I
was more afraid to be roasted by my sweating hands in the electricity than that
I would accidentally break the electronics. But hoera! It works, finally the
stern thruster seems reliable.
On to the navtex. This old fashioned peace of equipment. I tried to go through
the 78 page german manual without shouting, but after several hours, still no
good. Turns out, today, that the connector was short-circuiting the antenna
signal, and that one of the 2 fuses needed replacement. Still after
re-programming the damned thing, it only does half ass-ed german weather
forecasts for the Baltic sea, not that relevant.... Even Felix' team has not
been able to make it speak MED sense unfortunately.
We then went on to label the lines. This was really needed in order to safely
release or tension the correct lines while sailing. Or indeed starting or
stopping with sailing. There are 2 lines without a label, this is hopefully
because there is nothing attached to the lines at the moment. At some point in
time, we will need proper 'down wind' sails at which time I am sure they get a
name...
We then spent hours in Passage planning, something a true skipper should do
before departing. We had our mind set on leaving tuesday, so there is ample
time. This then led to coming to a clear LOG book, as in, the right pieces of
info to capture while cruising. Triggered by charts and almanacs we started
checking out the radar equipment again. It is really amazing what detail you can
configure, and thus we spent more time correcting what I screwed up then getting
'rain' info. Finally we managed. I switched to the next level of radar
management: 'target tracking'. I acquired several targets. Basically pointing at
a dark piece of clutter I believed to be rain. After some time I could really
see the rain blown in. Then, suddenly, one of my targets went very fast. 80
knots, 100 knots, 120 knots, and approaching directly from the north. As the
amount of noise in the marina was already significant, I expected a huge thunder
storm or something. But no. the target came in, moved over and I could see nor
hear noting special. I zoomed in. The target moved further south, than south
west??? What a strange rain cloud. Than it dawned upon me, I tracked a plain :)
I followed it until it landed safely. Amazing, kind of a TOMTOM but then
remote...
G took on violin playing, very violently so no change to the neighbors...
Sessions of training occurred, without tuning the violin :)
Today than.
We discovered the fridge was leaking air. This must then have caused the cooling
machine to freeze, rather than the content of it. G isolated the issue, taped
it, and we are now measuring with 3 thermometers the results, which must be
good.
Time for Felix. He got the approval to install a Cytrix Battery Seperator. This
device thoug, was >100km away, and after insisting, would be stuck in a taxi and
delivered here! 4 hours later, the device was installed, Felix smiled and A was
instructed with the details of its behavior. Basically it ensures the
engine-start battery is always charged above a certain power level...
We then asked Felix for advise on returning to Croatia, while his buddies where
fixing 2 other jobs on board. Sasha is the new hero. Before we get to prison
tomorrow in Croatie, Sasha is going to do his dance...
So, the plan is, leave tuesday before noon, clear customs/immigration again, and
then on to PULA for a bbq!