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.
Monday 30 May 2011
DOWN RIVER AT LAST 30/5/11 DAY 6 MONDAY
Well, today I will leave the loverly little villages at the top of the Guidiana and head downstream to Villa Real where I will anchor for the night, I had a shave this morning and am feeling refreshed and ready for the challenge अहेअद
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
Sunday 29 May 2011
DAY TWO THURSDAY
DAY TWO THURSDAY 26/5/11 0900
WOW WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT
Firstly the only bus of the day from villa real goes at 1400 and not 1700 hrs so i got to the boat a little early, which was nice,I got a lift down to my mooring with the local taxi boat and climbed aboard Simo looked great , the paint job I had done over the winter was gleaming and it looked as though my owl ( bird scarer ) had done his job keeping the bird shit away and not on my covers, before I even went below i got all the covers off and folded neatly ready to be stowed , I dont think they will be needed for a while. I unlocked and went below and firstly lifted a sole board and was pleased to see a dry bilge , Simo only takes a bit of water when she is driven hard in a rough sea , but when it rains she takes a bit more , and apparently Portugal has had a lot of rain this spring, In fact as I sit here writing this at nine am it is pissing down , but also nice and warm .
Last night I started to prepare the cabin door's for varnish and as long as the rain stops i will finish all the prep on the coachroof and cockpit to give her a coat of varnish before the weekend, I have got to say the varnish is looking very good anyway but i know my chances of doing it in the UK will be limited.
Before I started the the work last night I foung a perfect birds nest with eggs in , how i never noticed it before I dont know , it was made up in the ropes stowed just aft of the mast step , how he escaped the vigilant owl I will not know but the nest was under the covers , and so snug , such a shame I had to offload it all but i took a pic for you all to see .
Anyway I will also goe up to the dock at Alcoutim for a two or three days , I need to get provisions and sort out all sorts of stuff , write list so I dont forget, and my plan will be to head down river on the sunday afternoon tide, spend the night in the entrance and then sail to Faro on nthe monday to stock up with food from the markets, and also the champions leage final is on the Saturday night Man U v Barca.
Sunday 29/5/11 day 5
well my Friends arrived from Sancti Petri down Cadiz way and we all went out for a meal in a resturant and watched the champions league final into the bargain Barca won 3.1 so we were happy, today we shall waatch the Grand prix and will be rooting for Button to win and Vettal to sulk ..
The varnish is all done and Simo is looking pretty smart , and the plan is to leave Alcoutim tomorow ( Monday ) with the tide and anchor at the bottom of the river. then on tuesday sail out and up to Faro and anchor in culatra, i want to get provisioned up by the end of the week, so i am ready for departure,
Forgot to tell you I went to a bit of a jump up on friday night at a little finca just dowwn the river , we had curry that was fab and I had far to much wine just like everybody else, the party wqs put on by a guy called Robert Black and he is part of a band called The Journey men , great bloke great mate , Robin and Sue who I had dinner with on Friday ( yes it's just a round of partie's down here)have promised me a dozen fresh eggs fo my trip and i met another couple who made a fab carrot cake , and she promised to make me one for my trip, I gave her old man the carrots yesterday, lovely couple.
Every bdy keeps saying I am mad to go back to the UK and i have to agree ,,, but i am still going and if the weather is good, in a weeks time
all for now
WOW WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT
Firstly the only bus of the day from villa real goes at 1400 and not 1700 hrs so i got to the boat a little early, which was nice,I got a lift down to my mooring with the local taxi boat and climbed aboard Simo looked great , the paint job I had done over the winter was gleaming and it looked as though my owl ( bird scarer ) had done his job keeping the bird shit away and not on my covers, before I even went below i got all the covers off and folded neatly ready to be stowed , I dont think they will be needed for a while. I unlocked and went below and firstly lifted a sole board and was pleased to see a dry bilge , Simo only takes a bit of water when she is driven hard in a rough sea , but when it rains she takes a bit more , and apparently Portugal has had a lot of rain this spring, In fact as I sit here writing this at nine am it is pissing down , but also nice and warm .
Last night I started to prepare the cabin door's for varnish and as long as the rain stops i will finish all the prep on the coachroof and cockpit to give her a coat of varnish before the weekend, I have got to say the varnish is looking very good anyway but i know my chances of doing it in the UK will be limited.
Before I started the the work last night I foung a perfect birds nest with eggs in , how i never noticed it before I dont know , it was made up in the ropes stowed just aft of the mast step , how he escaped the vigilant owl I will not know but the nest was under the covers , and so snug , such a shame I had to offload it all but i took a pic for you all to see .
Anyway I will also goe up to the dock at Alcoutim for a two or three days , I need to get provisions and sort out all sorts of stuff , write list so I dont forget, and my plan will be to head down river on the sunday afternoon tide, spend the night in the entrance and then sail to Faro on nthe monday to stock up with food from the markets, and also the champions leage final is on the Saturday night Man U v Barca.
Sunday 29/5/11 day 5
well my Friends arrived from Sancti Petri down Cadiz way and we all went out for a meal in a resturant and watched the champions league final into the bargain Barca won 3.1 so we were happy, today we shall waatch the Grand prix and will be rooting for Button to win and Vettal to sulk ..
The varnish is all done and Simo is looking pretty smart , and the plan is to leave Alcoutim tomorow ( Monday ) with the tide and anchor at the bottom of the river. then on tuesday sail out and up to Faro and anchor in culatra, i want to get provisioned up by the end of the week, so i am ready for departure,
Forgot to tell you I went to a bit of a jump up on friday night at a little finca just dowwn the river , we had curry that was fab and I had far to much wine just like everybody else, the party wqs put on by a guy called Robert Black and he is part of a band called The Journey men , great bloke great mate , Robin and Sue who I had dinner with on Friday ( yes it's just a round of partie's down here)have promised me a dozen fresh eggs fo my trip and i met another couple who made a fab carrot cake , and she promised to make me one for my trip, I gave her old man the carrots yesterday, lovely couple.
Every bdy keeps saying I am mad to go back to the UK and i have to agree ,,, but i am still going and if the weather is good, in a weeks time
all for now
Wednesday 25 May 2011
24th May 2010 1400
24th May 2010 1400
Well today is the day I fly out to Portugal to pick up Simo and bring her back to the UK well Ipswich and the Orwell actually, I suppose the task ahead is beginning to dawn on me and whilst I know ther will be some great sailing there are undoutably going to be moments when I would rather be somewhere else.
My bag is packed right on the weight limit set by ryanairoflot, I am having to wear three shirts just to keep the वेइघ्त,, down plus cam corder and loads of other bits are in the pockets of my big sailing jacket, so it weighs pretty heavy,
1630,
we get to the airport and Jackie say's her goodbyes I go through to check in and breeze through without getting weighed , at security I forgot to take the net book out of my bag for seperate screening and they never noticed it , but they were very keen on a half used tube of sensodyn toothpaste, I had to wait 10 minutes while they tested it on a little stick with some chemichals, I got the all clear , but gotta say these security staff seem to have lost sight of what a terriorist looks like,,, I mean a suicide bomber dont normally take his wife and two kids on the plane ( unless I am mistaken )and that was the family in front of me ,the flight was on time and had a piece of pizza on chiabatta bread with a cup of tea , the tea was great but the Pizza was perhaps the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten and the whole lot set me back 8 euro's when I finished it I was idl'y looking at the label of the packet that the pizza came in and the red mist descended when I saw the sell by date, it said 24/4 I complained as one does to the flight attendant and she very calmy asked me to look closer at the date it said 24/4/2012, A BLOODY YEAR AWAY , so they leave these made up pizza in the packets for over a year before serving, O'leary need to spend some of the 41 million profit on giving food fit to eat ( nuff gripes) At least I missed the ash cloud.
landed fine and got a moody taxi driver to the little hotel in Faro It was now 2230 so I grabbed a sandwich and coffee and went to bed .
as I write I am sitting in the bus station waiting for the bus to Villa Real it leaves at 1100 and takes about an hour , when I get there i will have some lunch because my bus up to Alcoutin does not leave till 1700 hrs so by the time i get on the boat tonight it will have been a long day in the algarve sun,
Well today is the day I fly out to Portugal to pick up Simo and bring her back to the UK well Ipswich and the Orwell actually, I suppose the task ahead is beginning to dawn on me and whilst I know ther will be some great sailing there are undoutably going to be moments when I would rather be somewhere else.
My bag is packed right on the weight limit set by ryanairoflot, I am having to wear three shirts just to keep the वेइघ्त,, down plus cam corder and loads of other bits are in the pockets of my big sailing jacket, so it weighs pretty heavy,
1630,
we get to the airport and Jackie say's her goodbyes I go through to check in and breeze through without getting weighed , at security I forgot to take the net book out of my bag for seperate screening and they never noticed it , but they were very keen on a half used tube of sensodyn toothpaste, I had to wait 10 minutes while they tested it on a little stick with some chemichals, I got the all clear , but gotta say these security staff seem to have lost sight of what a terriorist looks like,,, I mean a suicide bomber dont normally take his wife and two kids on the plane ( unless I am mistaken )and that was the family in front of me ,the flight was on time and had a piece of pizza on chiabatta bread with a cup of tea , the tea was great but the Pizza was perhaps the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten and the whole lot set me back 8 euro's when I finished it I was idl'y looking at the label of the packet that the pizza came in and the red mist descended when I saw the sell by date, it said 24/4 I complained as one does to the flight attendant and she very calmy asked me to look closer at the date it said 24/4/2012, A BLOODY YEAR AWAY , so they leave these made up pizza in the packets for over a year before serving, O'leary need to spend some of the 41 million profit on giving food fit to eat ( nuff gripes) At least I missed the ash cloud.
landed fine and got a moody taxi driver to the little hotel in Faro It was now 2230 so I grabbed a sandwich and coffee and went to bed .
as I write I am sitting in the bus station waiting for the bus to Villa Real it leaves at 1100 and takes about an hour , when I get there i will have some lunch because my bus up to Alcoutin does not leave till 1700 hrs so by the time i get on the boat tonight it will have been a long day in the algarve sun,
Saturday 21 May 2011
A few chores at home before departure
Well it is saturday the 21st May and I should be planning all sorts for the trip but here I am getting into the my new vegy patch , this is all new to me, before the spring I had never owned a pair of green wellies and could not tell the difference between a dock leaf and a carrott, but I have been learning and now have a vast knowledge, of the green industry , Jackie has of course helped, Today I have given everything a thorough soak and put up some carry bags as bird scarers, hope they work, later on this afternoon I will knuckle down and work out some menus and stuff like that and try and work out how much water to take ( My main tank only holds 40litres )so I will get some 10 litre bottles , Its funny really I am not overly excited about the trip, and whilst prevoius trips have involved loads of planning I think on this one most stuff is sorted ,I have been getting into the habit of checking the grib files for the weather, generally you can get a good forecast for 5 days, but as my trip could take up to seventeen days , I will just have to take what comes , the boat goes well to windward in all conditions under sail,In fact she love's it, it's me that's not to keen on bashing to windward, sitting on the toilet and cooking in a lot of wind cannot be likened to anything else I can think of ,,, I will also carry about 95 litres of diesel for when it is very light winds and bear in mind she uses less than one litre an hour and does five knots, that is quite a long range ( I'll let you work it out ), I should be on the boat by thursday and will give the spot gps thingy a go to make sure it works for you, jackie has just asked for a brief itinary and it looks as though the final departure from the great cape vicente may not be till about the 6th June ,we'll see, so all for now ,
take care
take care
Sunday 15 May 2011
16thMay
Well its the 16th May already and my flight out is on the 24th May I have ordered some new charts of the English channel and western approaches also another small waterproof camcorder to do the daily blog , a few Led's to hang up should I need to hove to at night, there does not seem to be much in the planning at the moment The boat is all ready really, I will give her a another coat of varnish before I leave and will stock up with fresh food at Olhiow market the day before departure , I will also do two or three day hops to get me right up to Sagres ( the bottom corner of portugal ) and then leave at dawn so I get a good spirt ouit and across the shipping lanes at Vicente before dark, I had a little work out on the chart to see how long the trip to Falmouth would be , and came up with 14 to 17 days, lets hope it is more like 14,I will obviosly do this blog right up to when i leave and have a wifi Signal and then you can watch my progress on my shared page ( link on front page of blog ) and then when I get back and have caught my breath will write it all up for you and give you the opportunity of getting a copy of the dvd If you want it of course,
all for now as I have to go to the doctors to get the all clear and pick up some serious pain killers ( just in case ),,..
More soon
all for now as I have to go to the doctors to get the all clear and pick up some serious pain killers ( just in case ),,..
More soon
Thursday 28 April 2011
Video
just thought some of you may not have seen the footage of Simo sailing , apolagies to those who have but here it is
Tuesday 26 April 2011
April
Well it is late April and my thoughts are of the trip I want to make this year.
Simo has been in the sun for the last few years in the Med and on the Algarve, and I want to bring her home to the UK, the Orwell to be exact on the East coast. I am more than likely to do it single handed, trying to entice someone on board when the life raft is three years out of date just doesn't seem right somehow , not that I am thinking of using it anyway , but you never know .I have been repainting Simo and doing a bit of work on her over the winter and last week returned her to her mooring on the Guidiana at San Luca, where my mates Robin and Sue will keep an eye on her.
She was out of the water most of the winter and although protected from the sun when she went back in, we had a few leaks that should take up in a few days.we also had a new spray-hood fitted that will help protect me on the trip back.
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