Yellsound of Lerwick - Boats-Bloody boats

Boats-Bloody boats

Yellsound of Lerwick

stuart and linda byron

Tue 27 Jul 2010 20:54

Hi All

Well, Thought we were set for summer cruising and then the dreaded phone call from Glasgow with Lindas Mum admitted to Hospital in the middle of the night. So back to Port la Foret and in two days back in Glasgow for the duration of June and the first week of July until Lindas Mum made recovery from a nasty pulmonary embolism nearly resulting in death by drowning with nearly a litre of fluid being drained from the lungs. She was very unwell and yellsound was not the place to be.

life for us is never dreary -so where do we begin. arrived back at the Marina 10 days ago after good journey down to Brockley, over nighter with Mike and Suzy and then great drive through to Port La Foret. - only for our Loo to jam again first time in use. so back to rubber gloves and sponge etc. Partially fixed and only half power output so going to require new unit. Also Generator on for 5 mins until cut out and would not start. No oil so topped up and restarted, ran for two minutes and cut out- no Oil again. so discovered a corroded oil pipe spewing oil out once generator was running so with plastic metal and duct tape, temporary fix made. Have now got replacement part- 6 inches long and 140 euros worse off . Bloody boats!

Suzy and Mike flew in last Saturday so picked them up at Brest and back to PLF. Left for Glenans on Sunday and spent two nights anchored off the sandy beaches and explored the islands except in an inter island passage, we ran aground due to wrongly calibrated depth sounder. Luckily on neaps and an hour off low tide on sandy seabed but still quite a list - so two hours later back upright again.

Next day, planned to go to L'orient to visit the Eric Tabarly Museum and half way there motorsailing in 6/7 knots of wind, the engine died- fuel pump not working and no fuel getting to injectors- so up with Cruising Chute,about turn and downwind run/broad reach at 3 knots to the waiting buoys outside the entrance to PLF. Suzy helming rounding up to the buoy beautifully and thus secure for the evening. Next morning, the Marina workboat towed us into the Marina where Mike and I stripped off the fuel pump/injection pump. We discovered two retaining screws missing and once replaced and change of fuel filter had the engine back up and running- eight hours later tho. Suzy and Mum had walked into Concarneau so Mike and I joined them for a celebratory drink to our engineering skills.

Thursday saw us back to Glenan for a seafood dinner at the local island restaurant- Crab,moules and Snapper- delicious.

Also heard from Stevie that wedding is to be in St Andrews on 2nd July next with St Salvadors chapel and the reception venue booked. so delighted with both venue and timings etc. Stevie and Sabrina visiting for weekend at beginning of September so will be joining them to see venues etc- exciting. Friday was back to PLF with MIke and Suzy returning to London yesterday. We are currently anchored at Port Manesch as we set off this morning on our cruising plan for the next five weeks down to gulf of Morbihan and back- weather seems set fair so we may be able to break the100 miles cruised so far this year- Geriatric sailing of 12miles or so at any one time- last of the big adventurers!