The entrance to Licata.....and the exit
Since we arrived back on board, we have had the engine
serviced, the steering checked, the spreaders inspected by the Admiral, a new
gauge fitted to the aft holding tank, a replacement bow thruster/windlass
battery installed, an Amp gauge for the wind generator fitted, a few more LEDs
replacing a few more old bulbs, a proper US-to-EU gas bottle filling gauge
arrived, and the chain stripper refitted to the front of the windlass.
It was a bit of luck that I got Giovanni and Elijah from the
boat yard to come to do the engine.
Mostly I wanted someone experienced to look for things I wouldn’t
notice. Sure enough, when Giovanni was
changing the alternator belt he heard that a bearing had gone and it was headed
for kaputsville. Alternator off to
Giuseppe’s dad to have the bearings replaced.
A good find. Belt changed,
filters changed, oil changed, steering cables checked, gear changer and
accelerator cables checked. All good
from Giovanni’s point of view - €150 for him, €40 for Giuseppe’s dad for the
alternator. Good value for money as they
do good stuff.
Our starboard spreader is noticeably higher than our port
spreader. This caused a good deal of
consideration, with questions back to the Catalina 42 Owner’s association plus
other knowledgeable friends. Carol went
up in the climber to have a little look-see and took a few photos. With the benefit of these, we determined that
the gap which we can see between the inner edge of the spreader and the mast
has actually been there since at least when we were in St George’s Dinghy Club
in Bermuda, so we’ve crossed the Atlantic like that, and sailed all across the
Med, up and down, and it hasn’t moved.
So we’ve decided to leave well enough alone.
Giuseppe came to fit the new amp gauge for the wind
generator, then back again to help with the new gauge on the aft holding
tank. I fitted the sensor strips but I
needed him to sort out the cable that sends the info back to the reader, as it
had rotted away in its dank environment.
The nasty part of the exercise is telling the sensor what “full” is and
what “empty” is, neither of which can be determined without having the top of
the tank open. Still, it’s done
now. Giuseppe also started to check out
why our bow thruster was again not working.
Luckily, the cause was determined in minutes and, as usual, was the
remote control. Another €30 for
Giuseppe, and again well spent.
With the help of Miroslav, we found a source in Germany for
a fill gauge to a US propane bottle. If
only we had this three years ago we wouldn’t have had to do things like sail
from the Bay of Marathon, to Piraeus just to get gas. Being German, the guys who sold us the
fitting added, free, a connector to go from their German tip to make it an
Italian tip, because they saw it was being shipped to Italy. Nothing quite like that German
efficiency. Now, Gustaf, a Finn, but
with a US boat, ourselves and Geoff from Tweed Heads all can get our US bottles
filled. (Geoff and Pauline on Southern Accent, also bought their boat up in
Annapolis where we bought ours).
The chain stripper was problematic. When it snapped off a few years ago, there
was, of course, a substantial amount of force applied to it before the metal sheared. As a consequence, one of the two screws was
bent in its hole and was resisting extraction.
I tried solvents and then an impact driver. I gave up on the impact driver when it became
obvious it wasn’t going to move and all I was doing was driving it around in
the same thread and not extracting it at all.
Enter Geoff. With a flat
screwdriver shank, very large, and a pair of Alligator grips, he just took the
strain and turned the thing out. I
should mention here that Geoffrey is one giant of a man who is enormously
powerful.
Geoff and Pauline
The stripper should make anchor retrieval a lot easier this
year.
The outboard now sits on a new support board on the stern –
the original finally cracked in two after thousands of miles of stress and
strain. I’ve added stainless steel
plates to either side of this one to provide strength and bolted them through
in 9 places. Hard to see it flexing now.
We’ve made a resolution that we will play more seriously
with light winds this year to avoid that terrible sound of the engine on for
hours We have our new pole to pole out
the genoa, and the spinnaker is going to live tied to the mast in its bag,
ready to go up in a flash. We have made
up dedicated sheet/block sets for both situations so there’s not delay in
finding any “bits” to run either one out.
It was our neighbour, Marina’s birthday yesterday. She and her hubby Lars have a large powerboat
with two magnificent Caterpillar engines, truly a wonder to listen to when Lars
starts them up
Lars paying attention to Marina's speech (in case there are questions afterward!)
We sang Happy Birthday to Marina in 10 languages!
We had a BBQ which got
quite out of hand when some people who should have known better started to do
feats of athletic prowess that should best be done in the a.m. after stretching
instead of 11p.m. after many bottles of wine and beer. Many slept in for a very long time this
morning.
It’s the end of the month tomorrow and a large number of
cruisers will be leaving, as the winter contracts expire. There will be equally as many who will stay a
month or more extra for one reason or another but most will be heading out to
cruising grounds in Greece and Malta, and also up into the Adriatic to Venice
and over to Croatia and Albania. We’re
stuck because the wind is from the West and we’re trying to get to Pantelleria
and on to Tunisia to reset our VAT tax clock.
Everyone else has the wind abeam when they turn out of the heads here
but we’ll have it on the nose and 30 hours of that is not something we’re keen
to do. Maybe Sunday? Maybe Monday?
It will be sad to leave Sicily. My impression from when I was very young,
gained from my Sicilian school friends, was that it was bleak and
unsupportive. That’s certainly not the
case, as there is superb soil, plenty of water, and the food, wine and meat are
magnificent. The people are both proud
and also welcoming. They are a delight
to live among. There is always the undercurrent
of the “southern disease” but on an interpersonal level it is a wonderful place
to live for a while.
May the seas be calm and the wind just strong enough and blowing in the right direction to St Somewhere =) safe travels!
ReplyDeleteThanks Carol xx
ReplyDelete