Kingfisher Yacht Cyprus

Great day for a sail…  …and Lukas wanted a swim. Ooooh… that looks cold But the main purpose of the swim was a photo/video to make his friends in the UK envious! Now time to get out and warm up in the sun! Even in beanie and fleece  the cabin can still be warmer! Photo… touché!

Well, winter storms have begun. Last night and today we got up to 33 kt winds but gusting a lot higher than that. So I went down to check on Liza and she was sitting happily in her berth!

Not warm enough for all of us but Elisabeth went swimming!

The forecast from Windfinder showed a gentle 9, then 11 then 7 knots, with gusts of 11, 12 and 8 knots respectively from East, South East then South today. Just the day for taking out some friends of friends for a nice gentle sail then lunch and a swim behind the port. Or so I thought… Yesterday had been somewhat blowy.  That had been predicted, though the forecast was actually higher sustained winds and lower gusts. The gusts reaching 35 knots, according to windfinder . A gust is defined as a sudden increase of the wind's speed that lasts no more than 20 seconds. I've sailed through gusts before. Note in the definition ' that lasts no more than 20 seconds' . So with East then South East we headed north up the coast. Because of the strong winds yesterday (which seemed a lot stronger than the chart above showed for the average) there was a swell in the water which meant though sailing was pleasant and quiet the rolling of the boat was uncomfortable...

An irritating problem, and don't know if there are any structural diagrams for the K20+ Here's what happened: I fitted a new bladder type water tank under the starboard cabin berth. The filler pipe goes through the starboard lazarette/locker into this bladder. It works very well. This week in filling up the tank I didn't notice the filler pipe had come off the deck fitting... meaning that it filled up the starboard lazarette/locker. This overflowed into the void betwee n the locker and the under starboard berth... that void appears to be connected to a void under the main cabin, possibly under the cockpit... So there is water sloshing around there. Well, not just there. When I rewired the boat I put the battery in what was the starboard wet locker (we don't really need a wet locker in the Med, but we do need an electric cool box which is located there). So the cables went under the port berth. Somehow it appears that the under cabin void is connected to a void b...

Well it's working now! The wind sensor that is. And I'm very pleased with it. There was one difficulty, and that was threading the wire down the inside of the mast. My idea was to attach a screw to some whipping twine and drop that, then attach the cable and pull it through. Helen was at the bottom of the mast trying to hear how far down the mast it got. It never got to the bottom, that's for sure.  So then I tried taping a screw on the wire itself and dropping that. With a lot of jiggling it ended up at the bottom of the mast and then I could solder the connections and route the wire though to the display. Then we needed to calibrate the sensor. So this time Helen went up the mast and I touched the relevant wires together and hey presto… we had a working wind sensor. This final step we did before going out for a sail. The winds were light -- 9-12 knots but enabled us to get very close to across the bay and back. A really enjoyable sail. When we got to...

I have a depth gauge on Liza and the only other thing I really want in the instrument line is a wind sensor and indicator. Yes, I know a couple of strands of wool or torn sail cloth attached to the standing rigging goes a long way, but something a little better was needed. So I bought a Nasa Marine Target 2 system while I was visiting the UK in August. It looked simple enough to fit. Masthead unit and a display unit! All I need to do is use the bosuns chair, up the mast, four screws and I'm done! Well, firstly, Liza is light so I thought I'd let Helen try it as she's a lot lighter than me and so would swing at the top of the mast less. Drilling with the battery drill into the mast proved beyond her, so two days ago I went up… Because Liza only displaces 1.2 tonnes and the twin keels of Liza are only 500kg combined, it's quite tricky I found at the top of the mast compared to larger boats (which I was more used to). Any slight movement and I swung around...

A day of chilling out with Jess and Jim. A really nice day. Last day on Liza for at least two weeks. Their family are all 'water babies' loving swimming and diving. First Jess diving in then Noah doing a canon ball.   Erin and Noah started off slightly concerned but by the end of the day they were natural sailors! Erin loved the bright pink life jacket.  And Noah looks the budding skipper! Helen came as my experienced crew member, so she's on the helm there while Jim and I smile for the camera (Helen is smiling because she's sailing!) I was a wee bit more careful when the youngest Cook wished to helm the boat. I'm not sure she quite understood and would lean on the tiller or try waggling it as hard as she could.  And this is how it ended up... what better way for a day chilling out on the water!

There are rarely photos of me sailing, but on Saturday we went out with some friends and they took photos of me! Helen came along as my 'crew' since they haven't sailed before. It was a wonderful gentle sail, then lunch and a swim. One of the nice things about sailing in weather that is calm is that it's 50% sailing and 50% socialising! Liza is kind of the ideal boat for this. A day boat that means you can take small kids who might need the toilet and safe for them but not too large so the sailing is a bit more than setting the autopilot and leaving it sail itself. Fishing? No, we don't do that.

A gentle sail with Rod and Marianne… and Helen. Then lunch behind the port. Then Helen swims... well lots of things really. Just for fun here's a few slo-mo cannon balls and jumps.

Today is Kataklysmos Monday. (Whit Monday in English). I offered to take the Lange girls to bring their lunch onto Liza and swim. Elisabeth gets slightly seasick so the plan was to just motor to the anchorage behind the port, have lunch and swim and then motor back. There were a few more boats anchored today than Saturday. Sheila was looking after the young daughter of a friend and she went in with gusto -- wearing a buoyancy aid for safety! Helen complained the water was cold… but insisted on smiling for the camera! Elisabeth decided the water was cold but didn't smile for the camera! Both of them swam around deciding it wasn't cold when they got in. I really don't like swimming so just stay on the boat. Of course, once they were in, they were in and out and jumping in. Then it started to rain… in June… in Cyprus… so we went into the cabin for lunch.

We sailed from 10:30 till 14:30 then anchored behind the port for leisurely lunch and motored back to the marina. We were the only yacht out in Larnaca Bay that we saw today, despite being absolutely ideal weather for sailing. Katie is maybe not the most avid sailor…  but certainly enjoys being out on the water! This being Kataklysmos weekend I hope to sail at least one more time! 

What a wonderful relaxing day. We left the marina at about 10:15 and sailed out into the bay. Wind perfect. Sailing Perfect. There were at least a dozen other yachts out sailing, quite a few spinnakers in evidence. Anchor for lunch Then off to behind the port to anchor. Quite a few other boats there, some rafted up, others anchored.  Wind was south-east so the port breakwater protected us nicely.  Traditional lunch on board…  Fried Halloumi in pitta bread with salad. Lukas added an extra to this today with salami. Now that was a really brilliant mixture -- Halloumi with salami! Then time for a swim!  Lukas dived in… Helen jumped in! That is Lukas and Helen went swimming…  …I prefer to remain on board. Playing with slo-mo for when they jump in… Finally back at the marina we take the dinghy out and check it. It needs some repairs but the electric outboard worked well.