Fixing the Outboard. Again.
Why won't the bleeping outboard just stay fixed? This is the second time we've had to fix our Johnson 15 this week. First it was the water pump, and that took two days. Now it's the starter cord, and it's looking like that's going to take two days too. Yesterday we went into Mahon to do some last-minute provisioning. We were using the Johnson to do a long-range test. We got there perfectly well, if a little bit wet because of the waves. We got our shopping done, and then tried to start the motor. On the fourth or fifth pull, Dad pulled the starter cord right out of the housing. On examination, we saw that the cord had frayed and broken. Dad got out the spare line that we keep in case of this sort of emergency and wrapped it around the flywheel. He pulled the line right off the flywheel, and the engine purred to life without a single cough or sputter. We were amazed. The engine had never started on one pull before. Then again, he had pulled it several times before the cord broke. We got a good deal of the way back before the motor died. Then we got it running again, only to have it die only 20 feet upwind of the boat. We decided to just drift down onto the boat, even though we were on the wrong side. So ended our adventure with the starter rope.
--Orion Date
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Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
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Latitude:39.92511
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Sunday, August 29, 2010
Meeting other American
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Friday, August 27, 2010
A Dark Adventure
A Dark Adventure
I never dreamed of the possibility of driving the dinghy at night. Granted, I knew that I could and might have to if Dad couldn't, and we planned for that contingency, but I didn't think it would actually happen. It did last night. Our correspondents on Time Warp arrived in this anchorage yesterday, and we decided to join them on their boat for a movie night. We got to watch Master and Commander again, and it was a lot of fun. Then we realized that it had gotten dark, and Dad hadn't come with us. We said good night and carefully got aboard the dinghy. Then we set out. I drove carefully towards Juno with Rigel in the bow. Luckily there was a full moon, and our anchor light had come on, but we were coming in on the non-moonlit side of the boat. We came up to the side carefully, and then I saw it: the swim ladder was down! Our swim ladder is mounted on the side, and it can swing up on deck for storage. Someone had left it down after we finished swimming. I swung the tiller to the side in time to miss the ladder, then came up hard against the side. Rigel pulled us forward and hooked us on, then I killed the engine. Dad came up and helped us aboard, then we went below for the night. I once had a dinghy solo before, but it was in broad daylight in Sibari, which has a totally enclosed marina. This was at ten-o-clock in the evening, with only the moon to see by. Still, it was a fun trip, and I'm glad to meet Will, who I'd only talked to before by e-mail.
-- Orion Date
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I never dreamed of the possibility of driving the dinghy at night. Granted, I knew that I could and might have to if Dad couldn't, and we planned for that contingency, but I didn't think it would actually happen. It did last night. Our correspondents on Time Warp arrived in this anchorage yesterday, and we decided to join them on their boat for a movie night. We got to watch Master and Commander again, and it was a lot of fun. Then we realized that it had gotten dark, and Dad hadn't come with us. We said good night and carefully got aboard the dinghy. Then we set out. I drove carefully towards Juno with Rigel in the bow. Luckily there was a full moon, and our anchor light had come on, but we were coming in on the non-moonlit side of the boat. We came up to the side carefully, and then I saw it: the swim ladder was down! Our swim ladder is mounted on the side, and it can swing up on deck for storage. Someone had left it down after we finished swimming. I swung the tiller to the side in time to miss the ladder, then came up hard against the side. Rigel pulled us forward and hooked us on, then I killed the engine. Dad came up and helped us aboard, then we went below for the night. I once had a dinghy solo before, but it was in broad daylight in Sibari, which has a totally enclosed marina. This was at ten-o-clock in the evening, with only the moon to see by. Still, it was a fun trip, and I'm glad to meet Will, who I'd only talked to before by e-mail.
-- Orion Date
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Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Checking out our neighbor, the classic schooner
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Annoying!
This is a rather good description of the instructions for our autopilot. You see, the autopilot has a watch alarm on it, so you know when to check the horizon when on watch. Not much of a problem right? WRONG! The problem is that the darn thing is set for FOUR MINUTES! At first we couldn't find the manual so we could know how to reset it. Then we found it, but it was missing the right page. When we went online to find the manual there, it was missing pages too. Now, do you understand why I want to vent so much?
-- By Rigel
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-- By Rigel
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Tuesday, August 24, 2010
The Ultimate Grocery
The Ultimate Grocery
A huge fresh market with everything form bananas to walnuts, and a curious moving ramp leading down underground. Step on to figure it out, and end up in an underground supermarket that almost completes the boat- owner's vision of the ultimate grocery. Add in a large fish market a few hundred meters down the street, and you just about have it. If only the fish market was one floor above the fresh market. This complex makes Puerto de Mahon one of the best places for provisioning I've seen. The only two places that are better are Gibraltar and Florida, and the supermarkets there are huge, Publix-sized. I'm glad we've finally re-provisioned, because we were running low on many things, including pasta, which we eat every day.
-- Orion Date
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A huge fresh market with everything form bananas to walnuts, and a curious moving ramp leading down underground. Step on to figure it out, and end up in an underground supermarket that almost completes the boat- owner's vision of the ultimate grocery. Add in a large fish market a few hundred meters down the street, and you just about have it. If only the fish market was one floor above the fresh market. This complex makes Puerto de Mahon one of the best places for provisioning I've seen. The only two places that are better are Gibraltar and Florida, and the supermarkets there are huge, Publix-sized. I'm glad we've finally re-provisioned, because we were running low on many things, including pasta, which we eat every day.
-- Orion Date
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Sunday, August 22, 2010
Return to Mahon
Return to Mahon
We have sailed across the gap and have returned to the harbor of Mahon. We were here last year on the way into the Mediterranean, and there has not been much change since then. They seem to have upgraded the floating island nearest to our anchorage, now it has electricity stacks. There are also many more boats here, but last time we were here during the off season. Now Mahon is a busy port, with cruise ships coming in and out every so often, and there are a lot of cruising boats and charter boats alike that visit the famous port. We even saw a big Star Clipper, the bi cruise ships that have sails and can actually move pretty fast under them. We made a huge grocery run today, and had to brig a suitcase to fit all the heavy stuff in. I found dark chocolate Kit Kats here, and we bought twenty of them. We love them, so they may possibly last us until Gibraltar, maybe. The next time we will be in a famous port will be Gibraltar, so we'd better enjoy Mahon while we can.
-- Orion Date
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We have sailed across the gap and have returned to the harbor of Mahon. We were here last year on the way into the Mediterranean, and there has not been much change since then. They seem to have upgraded the floating island nearest to our anchorage, now it has electricity stacks. There are also many more boats here, but last time we were here during the off season. Now Mahon is a busy port, with cruise ships coming in and out every so often, and there are a lot of cruising boats and charter boats alike that visit the famous port. We even saw a big Star Clipper, the bi cruise ships that have sails and can actually move pretty fast under them. We made a huge grocery run today, and had to brig a suitcase to fit all the heavy stuff in. I found dark chocolate Kit Kats here, and we bought twenty of them. We love them, so they may possibly last us until Gibraltar, maybe. The next time we will be in a famous port will be Gibraltar, so we'd better enjoy Mahon while we can.
-- Orion Date
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Saturday, August 21, 2010
Exploring the fort
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Thursday, August 19, 2010
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Latitude:39.87836
Longitude:4.30746
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Wednesday, August 18, 2010
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Latitude:39.88945
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Latitude:39.76913
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Latitude:39.64048
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Tuesday, August 17, 2010
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Latitude:39.20982
Longitude:7.08966
GPS location Date/Time:08/17/2010 19:25:13 GMT
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Enjoying the free dolphin show
You can't see them in this photo because they hate paparazzi.
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Monday, August 16, 2010
Leaving Italy
This is the last day that we'll be in Italy. I'll have to stop learning Italian and start on Spanish. And I stink at it. But, I once knew spanish, and I'll learn it again. But, then I will have to learn French. And spanish again. And portugese again. Then English.
--By Rigel
--By Rigel
If you seek high-quality cooking gas in the Greek islands . . .
So, to recap, Shell gas from a convenience store in Thira (like Easyjet) STINKS!!
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Sunday, August 15, 2010
Natural Fireworks
A fancy name for things like Stromboli at night, the green flash, and a meteor shower. Obviously that’s what we recently saw, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing it on our blog. The strange thing is, we saw them in such rapid succession. First Stromboli, due to a detour in our course to Sardinia. Technically we saw the green flash first, at sunset, but we had been seeing smoke coming out of the crater in squirts ever since we shut down the engine about a couple miles off the coast. We even got to swim in the ocean for a bit. When it got dark, we started seeing bursts of orange and red lava and gas shooting out of the volcano when it had been smoke during daylight. That night and the next night we saw meteors. I saw five of them before I had to go to bed. The last one was spectacular, an incredibly long streak of light stretching from the apex of the sky to the horizon. Sometimes nature can be more spectacular that the best fireworks.
--Orion Date
--Orion Date
The stove
Today, we tried to light the burner on our stove and it didn't work. The clicker clicked, the light on the solenoid lit, but no gas came out. We found the problem: too much crud in the fuel line. It was actually the awful Greek gas that we bought that the stove didn't like. We pumped all the bad gas out and now the stove runs smoothly; all three burners and the oven working at once. Problem solved!
Italian...
Oggi, abbiamo cercato di accendere il bruciatore sulla nostra stufa e non ha funzionato. Il clicker cliccato, la luce accesa sul solenoide, ma nessun gas è uscito. Abbiamo trovato il problema: troppo crud nel tubo del carburante. E 'stato effettivamente il gas terribile greco che abbiamo comprato la stufa che non piaceva. Siamo tutti fuori pompato il gas male e ora la stufa senza intoppi; tutti e tre i fuochi e il forno di lavoro in una volta. Problema risolto!
--By Rigel
Italian...
Oggi, abbiamo cercato di accendere il bruciatore sulla nostra stufa e non ha funzionato. Il clicker cliccato, la luce accesa sul solenoide, ma nessun gas è uscito. Abbiamo trovato il problema: troppo crud nel tubo del carburante. E 'stato effettivamente il gas terribile greco che abbiamo comprato la stufa che non piaceva. Siamo tutti fuori pompato il gas male e ora la stufa senza intoppi; tutti e tre i fuochi e il forno di lavoro in una volta. Problema risolto!
--By Rigel
Saturday, August 14, 2010
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Latitude:39.1102
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GPS location Date/Time:08/14/2010 10:06:41 GMT
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Friday, August 13, 2010
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Latitude:38.82715
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Latitude:38.91355
Longitude:10.7843
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Thursday, August 12, 2010
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Latitude:38.93558
Longitude:13.43083
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Wednesday, August 11, 2010
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Latitude:38.50109
Longitude:14.9993
GPS location Date/Time:08/11/2010 10:51:28 GMT
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Sunday, August 8, 2010
The Alternator
The Alternator
For a while, one of the jobs to do right before starting the motor was to plug in one of the alternators. It's the bigger one, the 100 amp one. The one that wasn't broken in Trizonia. We had to plug it in because if we left it plugged in when the engine was off, it drained the batteries. This was the battery drain that we had been looking for since Florida. We have now successfully tracked down the problem. There is a secondary ignition switch in the aft lazerette, which is usually inaccessible because of the external gas bottles. We have discovered that it is this switch, not the primary ignition switch on the panel, that turns off the alternator circuit. Dad decided to put in a switch to control the alternator circuit, which will be much more accessible than the secondary ignition switch and less dangerous that plugging in and taking out a live wire.
--Orion
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For a while, one of the jobs to do right before starting the motor was to plug in one of the alternators. It's the bigger one, the 100 amp one. The one that wasn't broken in Trizonia. We had to plug it in because if we left it plugged in when the engine was off, it drained the batteries. This was the battery drain that we had been looking for since Florida. We have now successfully tracked down the problem. There is a secondary ignition switch in the aft lazerette, which is usually inaccessible because of the external gas bottles. We have discovered that it is this switch, not the primary ignition switch on the panel, that turns off the alternator circuit. Dad decided to put in a switch to control the alternator circuit, which will be much more accessible than the secondary ignition switch and less dangerous that plugging in and taking out a live wire.
--Orion
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Saturday, August 7, 2010
Friday, August 6, 2010
Thursday, August 5, 2010
What else a €2 Frisbee, er, flying disc
From a street vendor in Siracusa, Sicilia.
Roller furler repairs in the field.
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Wednesday, August 4, 2010
The Ferries
For as long as we have been in this anchorage, there has almost always
been ferries going in or out. Now, I wouldn't have a problem with that,
except these ferries make the most enormous wakes. The biggest ones come
from hydrofoils. This is because when they come off of plane, their
whole weight comes down on the water, creating huge displacement waves.
We are experiencing a wake as I write this. It's also irritating when
swimming, because you will take a breath and be quite surprised when you
get a mouthful of water instead of air. I realize the need for these
ferries, but I cannot help but be annoyed with them.
been ferries going in or out. Now, I wouldn't have a problem with that,
except these ferries make the most enormous wakes. The biggest ones come
from hydrofoils. This is because when they come off of plane, their
whole weight comes down on the water, creating huge displacement waves.
We are experiencing a wake as I write this. It's also irritating when
swimming, because you will take a breath and be quite surprised when you
get a mouthful of water instead of air. I realize the need for these
ferries, but I cannot help but be annoyed with them.
-- Orion Date
P.S. I agree wholeheartedly with my brother's statements about Easyjet,
it stinks.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Grease gun
We had problems with the grease gun today. We were putting grease in the rudder post packing gland when we saw that the grease gun was empty. So we had a wrestling match with the stupid thing to replace the cartridge. Annoying!
Italian...
Abbiamo avuto problemi con la pistola di grasso di oggi. Stavamo mettendo grasso nel premistoppa timone post quando abbiamo visto che la pistola di grasso era vuoto. Così abbiamo avuto un incontro di lotta con la cosa stupida di sostituire la cartuccia. Fastidiosi!
--By Rigel
Easyjet stinks
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Climbing to the crater
Climbing to the Crater
Today we climbed about 1,300 feet to the top rim of Gran Cratere, the active volcano crater that overlooks our anchorage. It was a hard slog, and we had to pay twelve euros for the four of us, but the view is spectacular from up there. The crater looks like something out of a cartoon, a round, steep crater that is venting smoke from its rim. It looked like the surface of the moon, except for the blue sky and the yellow areas marking the sulfuric vents. At the top of the volcano the ashy sand turns to rock which on closer inspection proves to be compacted volcanic ash. From the very top we could see Sicily, and most notably Etna. It's startling to think that where we just walked a volcano once erupted, let's just hope that if it does go off again, it waits until we've safely left.
-- Orion Date
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Today we climbed about 1,300 feet to the top rim of Gran Cratere, the active volcano crater that overlooks our anchorage. It was a hard slog, and we had to pay twelve euros for the four of us, but the view is spectacular from up there. The crater looks like something out of a cartoon, a round, steep crater that is venting smoke from its rim. It looked like the surface of the moon, except for the blue sky and the yellow areas marking the sulfuric vents. At the top of the volcano the ashy sand turns to rock which on closer inspection proves to be compacted volcanic ash. From the very top we could see Sicily, and most notably Etna. It's startling to think that where we just walked a volcano once erupted, let's just hope that if it does go off again, it waits until we've safely left.
-- Orion Date
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Vulcano (again)
Vulcano (again)
For a few days we have been in one or the other of the two anchorages near Gran Cratere. Gran Cratere is the active crater of Vulcano, the small island off Sicily that we visited last year. It's very different now, there is a small marina in the larger anchorage, and the island is extremely crowded now that it is summer. Where we are now it is possible to smell the odor of sulfur that emanates from the mud baths. I still don't understand why people like to slather themselves with mud and then wash it off in the sea. It seems a little bit weird to me. Oh well, I guess that some people think that it's healthy mud, and it may be, I wouldn't know. I seems like just foul-smelling mud to me. Well, this is a very familiar place, and I'm glad to be here again.
-- Orion Date
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For a few days we have been in one or the other of the two anchorages near Gran Cratere. Gran Cratere is the active crater of Vulcano, the small island off Sicily that we visited last year. It's very different now, there is a small marina in the larger anchorage, and the island is extremely crowded now that it is summer. Where we are now it is possible to smell the odor of sulfur that emanates from the mud baths. I still don't understand why people like to slather themselves with mud and then wash it off in the sea. It seems a little bit weird to me. Oh well, I guess that some people think that it's healthy mud, and it may be, I wouldn't know. I seems like just foul-smelling mud to me. Well, this is a very familiar place, and I'm glad to be here again.
-- Orion Date
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
Our two anchorages
That's Stromboli off on the horizon to the north.
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