Green Monday sail

Saturday was not quite sailing weather, though had it been we had planned to sail. We were seeing 30 knots wind in the marina!





So what we did was to put some spacers on the platform. I discovered that the fake composite wood slipped on the stainless steel frame when we got on and off.

 

So we added some cross members underneath to make it more rigid. You can see four of them on the photo above from the top.







It's very low tide here (time of the month) so I couldn't get to the bottom ones when the platform is lifted to fix them. We'll have to wait for higher tides.

The forecast for today was southerly in the morning and northerly in the later afternoon so I hoped for a brisk sail north up to Dhekelia and then a return sail south back to the marina. (PS remember you can click on the photos or screen captures of the track to the right to see it enlarged).

But, of course, the wind didn't behave... there was far too little wind in the morning so we had to turn back eat lunchtime as far as we had got, which wasn't very far. And the wind became fickle. Sometimes 8 knots, but when it gusted up to 13 knots it then changed direction to just where we didn't want it.

So that was six and a half hours sailing for 10 nautical miles. Not exactly speeding!

Today was winter sun, so really appreciated: No bimini up and Helen and Katie enjoyed it… but it did get cold later!

And when it got cold it became time to read in the cabin!

One of the problems I'd had with the outboard was that it tended to twist round at low revs due to the vibration. Hence it would be pushing the boat in the wrong direction. So I designed a metal brace to stop it doing that. That part worked perfectly.

But… it stopped the motor latching properly so it kicked up when I put it into reverse! I ended up mooring the boat with Sheila standing on the platform with her knee on the engine to hold it down! Ooops…

Now fixed!