Toot toot
Scot Free III
Frank & Anne
Mon 9 Jun 2025 20:00
As expected, had to move berths. The edict from on high in the marina office was to turn boats away - not very friendly and nowhere to go, but pleading battery charging problems ( now solved! ) given permission to stay until Thursday. Today is The Holy Spirit Festival and tomorrow being Portugal Day no businesses will be open before Wednesday. Rarely happens that there is a double holiday but it might explain why everywhere is so busy. Of all the islands, this one is definitely suffering from over tourism.
Met up with an OCC member while checking in at the marina and arranged to meet for drinks later. Had to then check in with immigration at the old marina.
Decided to do the laundry before the ARC arrived, the power kept tripping which made it rather tedious, but finished with 5 mins to spare before leaving for drinks.
Had an enjoyable couple of hours with crews from 2 other boats. Always good to exchange stories.
It was the Nations League final last night- Spain v Portugal, a draw with Portugal winning after a penalty shoot out. The noise of jubilant fans , the honking of horns, fireworks and bells lasted long into the night.
Back to jobs today.
One problem with an aluminium boat is that everything has to be isolated from the hull to avoid (electrolytic) corrosion. There is a gauge which shows any leakage and glows red if there is a fault. Most are non dangerous and easily solved but, for example, a faulty bilge pump sitting in salt water could put a hole in the hull in a few days. It went RED. Quick panic and fault was traced to antenna wiring. Somewhere the antenna cable shield was touching the hull. Almost certainly it’s at the top of the mast and F is not planning to test his new hip quite yet.
Solution was to use an old antenna and cable mounted on the radar arch. Simple job of dismantling the entire chart table electrics and dragging along one reluctant metre of cable to reach the back of the VHF radio.