We've been in the Las Palmas, Gran Canaria for a week now, well technically a week and a day. We have checked the weather forcast and it is time to move on. We have repaired our ripped sail, out fitted new clasps for all our rusted ones, fitted netting so xena will have a less likely chance of falling into the water. We have cleaned the boat on the inside as well as scrubbing the hull underneath. We have drove into the marina without reverse and made it out without hitting any million dollar boats. Our water is topped off, and our food (1 euro for a dozen eggs...nice) is full. The wind turbine is mounted again, hopefully it last onto the other side of the ocean.
I have installed diodes on the electrical system, as well as adding 180 AH of battery. We have replaced every single light with LED's making our consumption 1 watt per a bulb. I will change the oil tomorrow, on the sea as we warm it up as we take off on sail.
With no other vital preparations we need in sight, we debated getting a refrigerator for 700 euro,or even an extra outboard engine, as the electric one is nice maybe for a lake, but will not hold against some of the currents in the ocean. 527 for a 2.5 hP seemed like a good steal, but we decided that we will not need either for the crossing and are not up to installing a fridge today and taking off tomorrow, as everything seems to go on the fritz. I tried to start the laptop, which is another item, as well as our previous inverter that had salt water leak onto it from the leaking companionway hatch. We have re-silicone the hatch, so we should no longer get any leaking from this, the roof shows the hatch has leaked for some time, so why the previous owners did not fix this, I do not know. BOATMAINTENANCE PEOPLE! ahahha, ok.
I hope to message you all in 26-40 days depending on our average speed. Hopefully we go a bit quicker then our trip from portugal, I am hoping for 120 miles a day, but we will see. We have cleaned the hull, so we are hoping for extra speed. I also plan to also raise a second head sail. We'll see how that goes. We hope to post pictures ad videos on the other side, as we have fixed our battery problem, we should be able to charge more regularly....that being said I am writing this on steff's IPAD as mine is dead.
Here we go to crossing the Atlantic in a 26ft Sailboat....
Jillion, Westerly Centaur 26', set off from Hayling Island, UK on the 12th of July 2013 on a mission to circumnavigate the globe. Crossing the vast and dangerous waters of the Bay of Biscay, A TranAtlantic, and working its way through the Caribbean it now faces the choice to continue its voyage or find a safe harbour.
Letztes Abenteuer in Portugal
Hey, tut mir leid lang nichts mehr gepostet zu haben, aber ich war nach dem letzten mal etwas frustriert, als ich einen langen Text verfasst hatte und meine App abgestürzt ist, die Gelegenheiten darauf hatten wir ein wenig Strommangel.
Wir sind mittlerweile gut auf den Kanarischen Inseln, genauer auf Gran Canaria angekommen und das Wetter ist meistens super sonnig bei 25*C.
Aber nun mal zurück zu Portugal, Sagres, denn das war unser nächster Stop nach Cascais.
Nachdem wir den Motor wieder zum laufen gebracht haben und Cascais verlassen konnten lief soweit alles gut, der erste Tag war etwas anstrengend, die Wellen kamen immer schön von der Seite.
Wir beschlossen daraufhin das wir uns über Nacht einen Ankerplatz suchen um in Ruhe schlafen zu können, denn das war uns bei dem Wellengang nicht gegönnt. Mitten in der Nacht fanden wir dann auch endlich einen, allerdings war der Schlaf alles andere als erholsam, die Wellen rüttelten uns ganz gut durch und die Ankerkette ließ uns denken wir driften, was aber nicht der Fall war.
Am nächsten morgen machten wir uns direkt wieder auf den Weg, den Wellen zu trotz.
Auch der nächste Tag war nicht viel besser, die Welle kamen immer schön von der Seite und machten es uns nicht leicht. Von Cascais aus ließen wie den Motor die ganze Zeit laufen um den neuen Kolben einarbeiten zu lassen, wie die Internet Community es geraten hat.
Unser Motor allerdings schien diese Regel nicht zu kennen oder zu mögen, man hörte nur ein fieses hohen quitschendes Geräusch und wir stellten den Motor ab und begannen zu segeln.
Das Abenteuer beginnt.
Kaum hatten wir uns damit abgefunden die nächst etwas größere Marine unter Segel anzusteuern wurden die Wellen höher und die Landspitze um die wir herum mussten näher.
Solange die Wellen von hinten oder von vorne kommen sind auch die Hohen super händelbar, aber sobald sie von der Seite kommen können sie dir schon ziemlich angst machen.
Nun waren wir im Kampf mit den Wellen, das sie uns ja nicht zu nah an die Felswände tragen, als dann der Wind einsetzte, je näher wir der Landspitze von Portugal kamen desto stärker und unvorhersehbarer wurde er.
Der Wind zwang uns die Segel bis aufs minimale einzufahren, sogar unser Windgenerator mussten wir unterbrechen und irgendwie fixieren, durch den stark aufkommenden Wind fing er an das Boot zu drehen, der Wind war stärker als die Turbine hätte drehen können.
Brandon schloss daher den Generator kurz, sodass die Turbine langsamer wurde und beinahe zu stehen kam, meine Aufgabe war es eines der Blätter zu greifen und eine Schlinge darum zu legen.
Als dieser recht schwierige Part geschafft war konnte wir uns wieder dem Segeln widmen und dem Kampf mit den Wellen.
Es vergingen einige Stunden und nachdem wir durchs Wenden eine Weile geradeaus nach Westen gesegelt waren, gewannen wir einen guten, sicheren Abstand zu den Felsen.
Die Landspitze hatten wir nun endlich passiert, doch die Wellen wurden höher und wirkten noch bedrohlicher, angesichts der noch immer sehr nahen Felswänden.
Mitten in dem Kampf mit Wellen und starken Windböen riss auf einmal der Knoten des Seiles welches das Genoa (kleine vordere Segel), unser einziges, minimal aufgerolltes Segel, hielt.
Nun waren wir dort, zwar hinter der Landspitze, aber dennoch verdammt nah an den Felsen, und hatten nichts was die Wellen davon abhält uns an die Felsen zu schmetter.
Brandon ließ daraufhin etwas von unserm Großsegel aus und begab sich nach vorne um irgendwie unser Genoa zu fixen, ich versuchte währenddessen das Boot irgendwie zu lenken und es möglichst ruhig zu halten, ich bin mir sicher das eine Rettungsaktion für Brandon echt hart geworden wäre (so ganz ohne Motor).
Nach einer gefühlten Ewigkeit kam er endlich wieder zurück ins Cockpit und ich sah, das er das Genoa wieder gescheit gehisst hatte, mit einem anderen Seil das wir für solche Fällt vorsichtshalber installiert haben.
Von da an lief es alles etwas besser, wir sind eine Weile in die Wellen gesegelt und als wir den richtigen Winkel hatten, konnten wir mit den Wellen segeln, oder besser gesagt auf den Wellen surfen.
Die nächte Marine war Sagres und wir waren echt verdammt erleichtert als wir endlich dort ankamen.
Fürs erste haben wir etwas abseits von den anderen Booten geankert, so ohne Motor wollten wir nicht zu viel riskieren.
Sagres war ein kleines Dörfchen mit etwas 100 kleinen Restaurants und Imbissen, 2 ziemlich kleinen und gefühlt sehr teuren Supermärkten und einem 4* Hotelresort.
Der nächste große Supermarkt lag etwa 5km entfernt, wir nahmen diesen Weg in Kauf uns machten einige Besorgungen für die erste längere Überfahrt
Brandon inspezierte unseren Motor und stellte schnell fest was erneuert werden musste und kümmerte sich darum die Ersatzteile im benachbarten Lagos, bei dem nächsten Volvo Penta Händler, zu bestellen. Auch mussten wir einen Drehmoment Schlüssel bestellen, da niemand bereit war uns einen zu borgen, es scheint ein sehr sehr rares Werkzeug mit sehr hohem Wert zu sein.
Kaum war das erledigt kam ein kleiner Sturm auf, wir dachten uns etwas mehr geschützt als wir es waren und wurden in der Nacht ziemlich durchgeschüttelt und die Halterungen des Seils die die Kette hielten, damit wir das knartschen der Kette nicht hören mussten, riss ein paar male, jedes mal ging Brandon raus um eine neue Halterung zu kreiren, in der Hoffnung die neue würde besser halten.
Beim letzten Mal wo er sich raus machte um das Seil zu fixen kam ich mit um zu schauen wie sich unser Beiboot macht bei diesem Sturm... doch von unserm Beiboot war nichts zu sehen, der Knoten war gerissen und unser Beiboot wurde von den Wellen und der Strömung raus aufs Meer getrieben.
Am nächsten Tag haben wir uns dann beraten was zu tun ist, wie und welche alternative wir uns nun anschaffen sollen. Außerdem entschieden wir uns an einen der mooring balls zu gehen (fest im Boden verankerte Seile mit einem "Ball" an der Wasseroberfläche"), der Bereich war besser von Wind und Wellen geschützt und wir mussten uns wegen dem Anker keine sorgen machen.
Über Amazon haben wir letzt endlich ein neues Beiboot und einen kleinen Elektromotor bestellt. Wir saßen bis zur Lieferung auf unserm Boot fest, aber Essen und Wasser hatten wir ausreichend.
Etwa 6 Tage nach der Bestellung mussten wir uns dann mit den Lieferdiensten in Verbindung setzen, da sie die Adresse nicht kannten und die Poststelle im Ort nur Briefe von der selben Firma akzeptiert.
Nachdem wir uns eine Portugiesische prepaid Karte kaufen mussten lief alles glatt, die Lieferanten riefen uns an sobald sie in Sagres waren und wir konnten einen Treffpunkt ausmachen und unsere Pakete entgegennehmen.
Mit einem neuen Beiboot und der guten Nachricht aus Lagos das auch die Ersatzteile angekommen sind machte Brandon sich auf und fuhr mit dem Bus dorthin um sie abzuholen, ich blieb währenddessen am Boot, da der Busfahrer Xena nur in einer Box mitnehmen wollte... Und allein auf dem Boot für so lange würde Xena nicht überleben.
Brandon kam am späten Nachmittag zurück und wir planten Sagres zu verlassen sobald die neuen Teile eingebaut waren und der Motor wieder läuft. Allerdings entpuppte sich diese Aufgabe als schwieriger als gedacht und diese Ventilfeder (valve spring) schien sich nur mit einem speziellen Werkzeug einzuspannen. Es vergingen etwa 3 Stunden des versuchens und überlegenes wie wir die Feder einspannen können und diese kleinen Dinger, welche die Feder gespannt halten, aber nur lose an der mittleren Stange saßen, anbringen können. Zu guter letzt klappte es irgendwie, doch es war schon ziemlich spät so das wir uns entschieden doch noch die Nacht in sarge zu verbringen.
Am nächsten Morgen ging es dann mit neuer Motivation in Richtung Gran Canaria, das Wetter war super und auch die Wellen gingen mit uns. Der 7 Tage Trip konnte beginnen.
Outfitting in Canaries
I was a little worried aswell, the weather was against us from the start, but we are now in the clear, should be smooth sailing from here....ha...whatever that means. They have good facilities in las palmas so we are getting our sails fitted with new uv protection stripping, aswell I fitted the last LED today, so now we only consume 1 watt per bulb. We are also going to purchase another 105 amp hour battery just for kicks. The wind turbine tower took a beating in a storm before we left sagres and on the last day of the crossing it fell over into the ocean hooked on by a securing cable. We dragged it back in with the waves pushing us from behind...surprised I stayed on board on a few of them. We refitted that as well, and also fitted a new windex on top of the mast, ended up going up twice for that, as I was bringing it up via rope it caught on a wire and the cheap plastic snapped in two, gorilla glued it together and went back up, hopefully it holds. We sailed 700 miles without it, so if it doesn't we aren't worried. The rest of the week well continue to tidy up the boat and fix any short comings, ie. a new boey light, as ours is out. Hopefully enjoy some more 70 degree weather and enjoy the local butcheries as we cook fine cuisine on board. We'll shoot some pics of our various dishes when we get something together, but we're usually getting smashed around by waves and a camera seems just out of arms reach; or we're hungry to boot.
Good Bye Portugal
Goodbye good people, good food, and 23% tax. The engine is put together, and our dinghy is stowed, it is time to hit the road. The sun is shining, and the winds are favorable, what we have been trying to get to all trip. Sucks we had to break the engine twice to get to the weather because of our late start, but the sailing should be easy from here.
Here is a video we've tried out our new GOPRO, as well as follow us on our tracker, and don't be afraid to give some love.
This post may seem short, but with the video, and pictures, with our barely there in and out Internet and standing in the cold outside a closed cafe using their slow upload speed, there was lots of hours out into communicating. It seemed a lot easier on my lazy boy and auto connecting to my wifi with 10mb a sec speed.
See you all in seven days.
This post may seem short, but with the video, and pictures, with our barely there in and out Internet and standing in the cold outside a closed cafe using their slow upload speed, there was lots of hours out into communicating. It seemed a lot easier on my lazy boy and auto connecting to my wifi with 10mb a sec speed.
See you all in seven days.
Boat Mantinance
As we sit here for the second time because of a engine overheating problem from a internal engine malfunction, I can't help but ponder on the ability to prevent such accurances with proper maintance and upkeep of your vessel. I bought this boat in July and used it for 6 days and had it stored in Porto, Portugal for 5 months upon arrival in December. I'm not saying that this boat wasn't running fine for what its purposes were before, seeing as a family owned and it was mainly used to go from one bay to the next probably with the most a few hours on the engine and a few under sail. I have definately pushed the boat to the limits of its age and have seen its flaws.
The MD11C, 2 cylinder, 23 hp, diesel Inboard installed orginally in the 1976 Westerly Centaur, that I own has known problems if not flushed with acid once every other season or so, in order to clear the small coolant passages along the head and cylinder walls. I'm not saying the last owner failed to properly store the engine, but I am having a hard time coming to the conclusion that the engine had the ability to seize after one time out, on top of the engine showing signs of over heating on the last trip. Although it started find and had been overhauled in 2005 with a new piston rings and sealant rings, they did not install new springs or any inner parts of the head. The rebuild would of been more efficient in my mind to spend the extra hundred dollars on new springs.
On top of proper engine maintenance there is the fact that I tore apart the front furling sail, which was rope tied to the side obviously showing signs of problems in the past. After disassembling found two completely seized bearings. This shows that the previous owner new of furling problems and failed, no neglected to fixed said maintenance. The front furler was spinning the front stay in circles instead of furling with the drum, causing unneeded wear on the standing rigging.
I wish I would of owned the boat prior, as it seems the boat had a fantastic owner from 1993-2003 which did major upgrades and installed new electronics. The boat shows the guts of having a "stowe" brain installed with the instruments to match, but the surveys since show each owner neglecting the problems and doing easy fixes in order to continue their journey with no out of pocket expenses.
This is further shown by the external VHF speaker, which was in-op when I stepped onboard. I took it apart and melted the old speaker out and had a new one installed in less then an hour. The previous owner found it better just to cut the wire....cut......instead of unplugging, or fixing the problem. This reaches even further to the speed inductor which was just filled instead of diagnosed.
Maybe it was the lack of knowledge by the previous owner, or it was the apathy. It seems that his mistakes are becoming my demise. For all you boat owners out there, take the extra time in order to properly fix the aging boat beneath your feet, and I assure you, you will have a sound vessel, and sleep better at night. Let alone the inherit fact that the next vessel I choose to purchase will show me that there are good boat owners out there. I suppose shopping for a boat over the internet, never meeting the owner, and using a surveyor I found over the internet didn't help the fact. When you are chained to the desk, with no time or money to fly in-between countries, this is what you are left with though.
This journey will not continue to be at the mercy of failed maintenance by its owner, as there is new management. Our next post should be of us departing Sagres, Portugal in route to the Canary Islands. Talk soon.
Our wood needed some oil, as well. I have messed with sealer on a previous boat and decided I would only teak oil my boat, but found a bottle of wood sealer on the boat and mistakenly used it on the teak surrounding the hull.....messy business. At least in this time of rest we were able to fix the other misfortunes as well. We also fixed the toilet, TMC manual. That I am not sure if anyone was aware of, as it was not inputting sea water from the input, but it turned out to be a gasket failure, which is fixed by manually applying suction until the bowl fills.
The amount of posts before were a sign of beating against the wind. We will try to be more informative of what is occurring the issues we are running against. We will do a cost analysis as well and post our current projection of costs. This will be higher than expected due to the clogged engine, which cause overheating, which caused the seizing.
Until Tonight.
Rare Commonities
It has been two weeks since we have come to this southern Peak in portugal. It all started when our valve broke on our engine, that left us in bad waves, and wind coming from the direction we wanted to travel(as usual). It seemed as if the guides that said you souldnt do this route after october were right after all, lesson learned. Travel during the times of past sailors, ok got it, but obviously our jobs wouldn't allow it, so here we are in the wrong season, doing the wrong route. And seemingly breaking out 36 year old boat in the process.
A brief recap of our hours before we our in Porto Baleeira.
"We hit a rough spot right before we got to the cove we are in, front sail snapped coming around a peak of cliffs, weather and waves pushing us into the wall, engine was broke, had to jump up front and re run a new line and bring the sail down and up. The system had seized to bring it down as well. It seemed everything was against us, but luckily we tacked just enough to get us around the peak. But as we came around the waves were too strong for our boat. And would round us out every time, leaving us so we couldn't stear, like when you turn your car on ice, and we tried to stear out but the wave would push us back in. We did this for about 5 hours, before we could come up and get into a cove. The waves beat us up for the next three nights, broke out dinghy loose and smashed it on the rocks. We threw out a second anchor and the waves were bringing us up and down and the current seemed as if it was in circles. Ending up snapping one anchor line, and luckily the second was chain, but it snapped it loose twice. Spent the hole night chasing down the anchor line on the bow."
So here we sit, as I said, for two weeks, waiting for our new dinghy to arrive and our new parts from Lagos, sopromar, the Volvo Penta Dealer. The parts arrived today, but allas, no one in the mind will lend me a torque wrench. It seems they are very expensive and you can't buy them anywhere. I ran around lagos for 4 hours trying to track one down to no avail. So we have to order one of them aswell. So, here starts the waiting game again. Hopefully it will be here by Tuesday, since our weather Looks like it will finally be on our side.
There are no water facilities here, and the nearest supermarket is around 2 miles away. We made our frist trip today, and we are out of water in the next few days. The gas station that is at the marina seems it is only open on demand, and I am not sure how to get their attention, and they will probably charge 15 cents more a liter. That leaves me to taking a trip to the gas statino that is 3 miles away to get gas. Seems my legs will be getting stronger during this stay as well.
The windex is also broke from our trip on the waves as we come into sagres, we were heeled over so far and the waves pushed us so the top of the windex no longer had gravity on its side. It seemed as though the waves may of taken us a few times, but luckily we made it through.
The table mount broke as well on that venture as It crashed into me as I was trying to get the tools to repair our broken jib. I found an old mount in the water locker as well, it seems the last owner had the excat thing occur to him, but instead of choosing a better solutino replaced the part with the same part....genius.
Starting this wednesday we should be onto a better look into things. The Genoa has a new line, we replaced the main line, ordered a new Dinghy, Motor mount, and we went electric with the dinghy motor. Although we have yet to get a battery to operate it as we are snooping to find the best, this is our first battery shopping experience, good fun. We were going to purchase a Windex, but the Sopromar store at the Lagos Marina wants 62 euro for an arrow that points the way the wind direction is coming from because it has glow in the dark tape on the bottom. I just couldn't buy it. We have the new parts for the engine, but here we sit, without a torque wrench waiting for spain to come through. Now we will have one on board for when I decide to take the other head off and replace the valve springs on it as well in some preventive maintanence.
While we were here I also was trying to re rig the jib, and it was jimmy rigged from the last owner and something didn't seem right, so I ended up tearing the drum off the Front Stay and looking at its ineards. The bearings were completely rusted beyond repair. We attempted rust removal chemicals and boiling water for about 4 hours before we called it fair. We ended up finding a British company that handles bearings and I took the measurements and as I was leaning over the side of the boat trying to get signal from the wireless that is over 200 meters away, I was able to place an order. Oh, but were the measurements right? No I acidently ordered the wrong parts, needed to place another order and then call the company in order to confirm to remove the false order. They could barely here me. I ended repeating myself 20 times.
All the parts are ordered..... Come to find out, no one can delvier packages to the post office except for the monopoly CTT which the government owns....great.... We luckily called the local courier and tracked our packages before they sent them backed. They would not try another delivery without a contact number. A local contact number. At this time our dighny was lost from the storm and we were using our internet from one bar to try to make broken calls over skype to the company, while still repeating ourselves 20 times. We have no dinghy, we have no number, we have no address....how are we going to get our parts for the furler, our new dinghy and other packages.
Someone had to suit up.... Since I spent nearly 6 hours repeatedly diving to the bottom to retreive our fouled anchors in CasCais, it was definatly the skippers turn to earn their keep. Stef suited up and swam the 200 meters to shore to get a prepaid phone card from the post office in order to call the company in order for them to deliver the package the following day, she had to swim back to the boat, and then again to retrieve the packages the following day. There will be a video Posted.
After all these events we have some sun on the horrizon, and maybe the only motivation I have in writing this post at all, as it seems some people wonder what has happened to the 26' boat that can't make it from the portugeese shore. We are here, and with the following weather window we will be leaving the Contentital Europe and traveling to the Canary Islands on Wednesday...so help us...
Hopefully with the engine fixed, water supplies topped off, food in our belly, and our bed not soaked from sea water coming over the Bow.
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