The joy of boats!
Boats! Specifically, 12 year old boats! Lying in our bed there was a squeaking just behind our heads with every gentle rock of the boat. Now that was going to drive us crazy! At 4 in the morning I was in the saloon, just below the mast base listening intently for the source of the sound. Thank goodness it wasn't the mast (that would probably not have been fixable), it came from lower down. More intent listening. The water tank is fitted under the saloon seats, it seemed to be coming from there somewhere. On the point of giving up and going back to bed I put my hand behind the tank and pulled - ever so slightly it made a squeak -I had got it! The sound was caused by the stainless steel tank rubbing on its wooden mounting with each movement of the boat. The problem was the tank was very fixed in and would weigh an awful lot. A problem for the morning.
Come morning, out came my tool bag and brain was engaged. I did manage to get the fixings undone at the problem end but how to lift a very heavy steel tank, under a bench and still fixed at one end, sufficiently to get some cloth between the tank and its support? To cut a long story short, I spotted that there was a hatch directly above the tank and the boom was above that. Good old fashioned mechanics was to be the solution.
We emptied the water out, hauled on the rope and up it came just enough to slip an old piece of carpet underneath - oh silence is bliss!
Then there was this rather unpleasant smell coming from the starboard toilet. Now toilets I know about having spent many an unpleasant hour fixing the toilets in Moondance. I took a valve apart and sure enough.....
Urine and sea water react to cause a calcium that lines the pipework and valves. The calcium can build up to the point when the unblocked diameter of the pipe is less than half the original, too small for solids to pass. Memories came back of employing Messrs Bucket and Chuckit on Moondance until it was sorted! I cleaned out the leaking valve and put the lid back on determined to bury my head in the sand until I could get hold of a magic cleaner that I have discovered. I am a little sceptical as to its ability to clear calcium build up this bad but we shall see!
In the mean time we had Corsica to see.
It is very mountainous here, the largest reaching 9000' and is snow capped. At this time of year there are still patches of snow around as low as 5000'. We made landfall at Saint Florent on the north west coast and dropped anchor in a beautifal bay with a dramatic mountainous backdrop.
On the small headland stood a rather splendid tower which turned out to have an interesting bit of history significant to us Brits. Our south coast is dottted all along its length with Martello towers, small defensive forts built in the 19th century.
Lord Hood took the British fleet to Corsica in the late 1700's to help the Corsican rebels who were fighting our old enemy the French. Hood easily took the town at the head of our bay but the tower on Point de las Mortella refused to surrender and seemed impervious to bombardment. A strong force of marines took the tower in the end but the strength of the tower so impressed Hood that he had the design and specifications recorded and, on his return, advised that similar towers be built for the coastal defences of Britain. Many towers were built, the name being twisted from the original name from Mortella point to the one we know today - Martello. Ironically the towers were built to thwart the ambitions of a Corsican, Napoleon Bonaparte!
The trouble with the beaches here is they can get a little crowded!
From Saint Florent we sailed down to Clavi where we found a nice anchorage and hired a car for 3 days. We set off for some great walking coming back to the boat a night then off early the next morning.
It certainly seemed to wear Woody out!
I had a bit of a close call with some hot liquid. Melanie and I were sat on the back steps of the boat having a cup of tea in the afternoon sunshine. We managed to knock over my cup of tea just out of the kettle, which spilt over my leg. Quick as a flash I leapt into the drink to get cold water onto my leg - resulting in some serious money laundering! Happily the cold water applied so quickly did the trick and I was left with only a minor burn.
This may be the Med but we are struggling with mountain weather. We soon clocked that the mountains clouded over by midday and often rained in the afternoons so we were up at 6 to get our walking in before we got wet.
Our next anchorage heading south was so close to the base of the mountains that we were permanently in cloud and often rain whilst looking out to sea we could see blue skies; if that was where the sun was that is where we would go! On our way out we passed this boat with a rather splendid toy - I want one of those slides!
Sailing out we had some good wind and dramatic skies!
We headed off to Ajaccio, the capital of Corsica and far enough from the mountains to be anchored in beautiful sunshine and get some more great walking.
Come morning, out came my tool bag and brain was engaged. I did manage to get the fixings undone at the problem end but how to lift a very heavy steel tank, under a bench and still fixed at one end, sufficiently to get some cloth between the tank and its support? To cut a long story short, I spotted that there was a hatch directly above the tank and the boom was above that. Good old fashioned mechanics was to be the solution.
We emptied the water out, hauled on the rope and up it came just enough to slip an old piece of carpet underneath - oh silence is bliss!
Then there was this rather unpleasant smell coming from the starboard toilet. Now toilets I know about having spent many an unpleasant hour fixing the toilets in Moondance. I took a valve apart and sure enough.....
Urine and sea water react to cause a calcium that lines the pipework and valves. The calcium can build up to the point when the unblocked diameter of the pipe is less than half the original, too small for solids to pass. Memories came back of employing Messrs Bucket and Chuckit on Moondance until it was sorted! I cleaned out the leaking valve and put the lid back on determined to bury my head in the sand until I could get hold of a magic cleaner that I have discovered. I am a little sceptical as to its ability to clear calcium build up this bad but we shall see!
In the mean time we had Corsica to see.
It is very mountainous here, the largest reaching 9000' and is snow capped. At this time of year there are still patches of snow around as low as 5000'. We made landfall at Saint Florent on the north west coast and dropped anchor in a beautifal bay with a dramatic mountainous backdrop.
On the small headland stood a rather splendid tower which turned out to have an interesting bit of history significant to us Brits. Our south coast is dottted all along its length with Martello towers, small defensive forts built in the 19th century.
Lord Hood took the British fleet to Corsica in the late 1700's to help the Corsican rebels who were fighting our old enemy the French. Hood easily took the town at the head of our bay but the tower on Point de las Mortella refused to surrender and seemed impervious to bombardment. A strong force of marines took the tower in the end but the strength of the tower so impressed Hood that he had the design and specifications recorded and, on his return, advised that similar towers be built for the coastal defences of Britain. Many towers were built, the name being twisted from the original name from Mortella point to the one we know today - Martello. Ironically the towers were built to thwart the ambitions of a Corsican, Napoleon Bonaparte!
The trouble with the beaches here is they can get a little crowded!From Saint Florent we sailed down to Clavi where we found a nice anchorage and hired a car for 3 days. We set off for some great walking coming back to the boat a night then off early the next morning.
It certainly seemed to wear Woody out!
I had a bit of a close call with some hot liquid. Melanie and I were sat on the back steps of the boat having a cup of tea in the afternoon sunshine. We managed to knock over my cup of tea just out of the kettle, which spilt over my leg. Quick as a flash I leapt into the drink to get cold water onto my leg - resulting in some serious money laundering! Happily the cold water applied so quickly did the trick and I was left with only a minor burn.This may be the Med but we are struggling with mountain weather. We soon clocked that the mountains clouded over by midday and often rained in the afternoons so we were up at 6 to get our walking in before we got wet.
Our next anchorage heading south was so close to the base of the mountains that we were permanently in cloud and often rain whilst looking out to sea we could see blue skies; if that was where the sun was that is where we would go! On our way out we passed this boat with a rather splendid toy - I want one of those slides!
Sailing out we had some good wind and dramatic skies!
We headed off to Ajaccio, the capital of Corsica and far enough from the mountains to be anchored in beautiful sunshine and get some more great walking.
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