Well guys , It has been a big disappointment for you and of course for me , In not doing the trip as planned .
The problem with the engine is still ongoing although we now know the reason for it 's failure , one of the exhaust hoses pipes had a tiny leak and was spraying a fine mist of salt water around the air intake area , and so the engine was taking in water , this in turn corroded the valves so they would not seat probably and so we had little or no compression , The boat is out of the water at Marinas Formosa and the engine is being rebuilt , and I will take that time to make the bilge around the engine look like new again .
I was pretty quick to call it a day , when the gale came , and was left with very little choice after the engine problem , \I am currently sitting in an airport waiting for a flight home , where i will mull things over , I will also try and put a bit of vid and some pics on if I can ,
I am due to come out here ( Faro ) again fort a few days on the 5th july and hope to relaunch around the 20th July ,
be in touch
Tuesday 21 June 2011
Tuesday 7 June 2011
TUESDAY 7TH JUNE
Hey guys, if you have been watching the spot and worried , plese dont i am ok after a about turn just north of Sines in portugal, I will write in full at a later stage but basicly the engine failed , and had to then encounter a lot of wind , which forced me to backtrack , I am not sure as yet the next stage , but am pretty sure the trip will be abandoned from here on in , gotta be carefull with the battery power as untill I can get to a marina to charge I am depleting the battery's, should all be sorted in a few day's and may have to sail back to Lago's to get it all sorted , about 36hours or so , but right now it is blowing a hooooooooooooolie so I will sit tight and try and eat two weeks worth of food ,
more in a few days
more in a few days
Saturday 4 June 2011
SATURDAY 4TH JUNE
Well , I left olhiow, and came out through the faro entrance about an hour after high water so the ebb was well under way , I could see the white water for quite a distance and managed to shut and lock everything ( me and this entrance have history ) I was motor sailing even though there was about 10 knots of breeze , i found the least devlish place to go out about 100 yards from the eastern breakwater , I had the video on for you all to see, but when I finally hit the overfalls I had to hang on for dear life as severall waves just came over the bow and raced along the side decks to try and get me , It put me flat on my pants and the camera waving wildly about so I am afraid that when you get to see the vid it wont give a true discription , never mind I got through ok and than headed west doing about 4.5 knots with all sail set , it lasted a couple of hours and then fell light so on went the beta and by 430 pm I was alongside the entrance to Portimao so decided to have a quiet night , next morning I set off after speaking with mission control on the skype and arrive at just about low water at Lagos , I filled up with diesal and water and checked in , she let me stay on the visitors pontoon cos I said I wanted an early start the next day ( ie sunday ), I went off to Pingo the supermarket and got a few bits and bobs ( 4 more bars of chocolate ) because of an accident with it the night before,
( I ate a whole bar ) a man has to have a luxury, then caught up with an old mate of mine called ED, I then spent the rest of the day getting the boat ready for the trip ,. The weather looks fine and i shall be leaving lagos tomorow morning about 0730am , .... what that means is you wont hear from me again untill the trip is over and i get back to the UK but you will be able to see may daily positions if you click on the link on the front page , All those who sent me good wishes thanks very much it was much appreciated ,, and for all those who didn't well Bo_____s and I hope you have a nice day , I am looking forward to getting started , and i know ther will be bits I hate , but at leaast i have six bars of chocolate and 14 snickers bars ,
so Falmouth here I come
( I ate a whole bar ) a man has to have a luxury, then caught up with an old mate of mine called ED, I then spent the rest of the day getting the boat ready for the trip ,. The weather looks fine and i shall be leaving lagos tomorow morning about 0730am , .... what that means is you wont hear from me again untill the trip is over and i get back to the UK but you will be able to see may daily positions if you click on the link on the front page , All those who sent me good wishes thanks very much it was much appreciated ,, and for all those who didn't well Bo_____s and I hope you have a nice day , I am looking forward to getting started , and i know ther will be bits I hate , but at leaast i have six bars of chocolate and 14 snickers bars ,
so Falmouth here I come
Thursday 2 June 2011
TUESDAY
On Tuesday i hope to sail west to Faro and Olhiow where I will stock up with food for the trip, water toilet rolls snickers bars etc etc
My gaz bottle ran out last night so i will replace this morning , so i will have two full bottles ,.
My guess is that i should finally leave the hard stuff ( land ) in about a week I am checking the gribs weather daily to try and get a pattern and will use my spot GPS from today so you can get a bit of a handle on it
The trip down river was not fantastic in fact we had strong southerlies which caused quite a chop with the tide ebbing fast , we found a little spot to anchor and I had another meal on John and vanessa's boat and far to much wine again , but a peacefull night at anchor ,
Tuesday Morning
In the morningwith about 10/12 knots blowing from the south east we set sail and cleared the western breakwater and had a slow sail for two or three hours and then we decided to motor sail in company for t5he rest of the way as the wind died and t5hen came in stronger from the west , with the contra current/tide the boat was doing 5.5 knots but only 2.5 knots over the ground I eventually arrived about 1930 hrs and anchord in Culatra,
Wednesday 1st June
I upped anchor and motord round to a vacant pontoon berth , and my idea was to get all the shopping from Pingo and then trolley the lot round to the pontoon to save any carrying and it worked great, I was to late for all the fresh food so went back to culatra had a few beers and another very nice curry thanks to vanessa john and the old cat whose name I think eas Stan , During the course of all the procceedings i saw maggie and Humph on there wylo, I went back to catch up with them the next morning but they were all fast asleep I only wanted to tell them that they could use my mooring if they wanted on the Guidiana ,.
Thursday 2nd June
I put the engine on and came back round to the markets and was ready to stock the boat withh all the fresh stuff I could take
60 potatoes 3 cabbages 12 oranges 12 apples , etc etc , the stall was very helpfull and lent me a sack barrow and I loaded it all in the dingy and rowed out to the boat and started packing it all away , I then decided to change the oil and filter on the engine top up the transmision fluid and generally spray wd 40 around the place, i washed out the bilge and then decided to give the engine as go with the new oil, Batte3ry on swith over ( nothing ) try again ( nothing ) I could not understand it , i had not touched the wiring and the whole3 lot was dead , i spent half an hour aimlessly looking ( i know nothing about engines or electricity ), I started to get a bit of a panic attack and the migrane was about to start with euro signs before my eyes , But help may be at hand karol and old mate from a couple years back was anchord just behind me , so i rowed over to see if he new any one , dont worry said he i will come across with my multimetre and see if we can fix it, He came over straight away and went through everything, took about two hours , and then finaly I looked around the area , Or Karol did and we saw a great big socket and plug had parted company , probably where i was trying to get a container in to drain the oil i8 nhad disloged it Bingo that was it and we both smiled and the engine fired up,.
I put a string thru the bstalks of my peppers and hung stem up , apparently they last a whole lot longer ,
Gonna have dinner ashore tonight the blast of to Lagos at 0600hrs friday morning, the weather is looking good so I hope to be away sometime over the weekend.
My gaz bottle ran out last night so i will replace this morning , so i will have two full bottles ,.
My guess is that i should finally leave the hard stuff ( land ) in about a week I am checking the gribs weather daily to try and get a pattern and will use my spot GPS from today so you can get a bit of a handle on it
The trip down river was not fantastic in fact we had strong southerlies which caused quite a chop with the tide ebbing fast , we found a little spot to anchor and I had another meal on John and vanessa's boat and far to much wine again , but a peacefull night at anchor ,
Tuesday Morning
In the morningwith about 10/12 knots blowing from the south east we set sail and cleared the western breakwater and had a slow sail for two or three hours and then we decided to motor sail in company for t5he rest of the way as the wind died and t5hen came in stronger from the west , with the contra current/tide the boat was doing 5.5 knots but only 2.5 knots over the ground I eventually arrived about 1930 hrs and anchord in Culatra,
Wednesday 1st June
I upped anchor and motord round to a vacant pontoon berth , and my idea was to get all the shopping from Pingo and then trolley the lot round to the pontoon to save any carrying and it worked great, I was to late for all the fresh food so went back to culatra had a few beers and another very nice curry thanks to vanessa john and the old cat whose name I think eas Stan , During the course of all the procceedings i saw maggie and Humph on there wylo, I went back to catch up with them the next morning but they were all fast asleep I only wanted to tell them that they could use my mooring if they wanted on the Guidiana ,.
Thursday 2nd June
I put the engine on and came back round to the markets and was ready to stock the boat withh all the fresh stuff I could take
60 potatoes 3 cabbages 12 oranges 12 apples , etc etc , the stall was very helpfull and lent me a sack barrow and I loaded it all in the dingy and rowed out to the boat and started packing it all away , I then decided to change the oil and filter on the engine top up the transmision fluid and generally spray wd 40 around the place, i washed out the bilge and then decided to give the engine as go with the new oil, Batte3ry on swith over ( nothing ) try again ( nothing ) I could not understand it , i had not touched the wiring and the whole3 lot was dead , i spent half an hour aimlessly looking ( i know nothing about engines or electricity ), I started to get a bit of a panic attack and the migrane was about to start with euro signs before my eyes , But help may be at hand karol and old mate from a couple years back was anchord just behind me , so i rowed over to see if he new any one , dont worry said he i will come across with my multimetre and see if we can fix it, He came over straight away and went through everything, took about two hours , and then finaly I looked around the area , Or Karol did and we saw a great big socket and plug had parted company , probably where i was trying to get a container in to drain the oil i8 nhad disloged it Bingo that was it and we both smiled and the engine fired up,.
I put a string thru the bstalks of my peppers and hung stem up , apparently they last a whole lot longer ,
Gonna have dinner ashore tonight the blast of to Lagos at 0600hrs friday morning, the weather is looking good so I hope to be away sometime over the weekend.
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