Get a Job!

It's the holiday season and I'm slaving my life away!

That's not a very cheerful message but it's true. At least it's sunny, not -20º C and dark like in Sweden [private joke]. The sun is shining so bright that I feel like running outside and climbing a tree or some damn thing...anything except this work crap.



Cluttered work space and Buddha on the window sill

I did go to the marina after lunch. What was supposed to be a fast boat check turned into two hours of gabbing on the pontoon. I was talking to Ryker in the warm sun and, in a wink, we were joined by a group of boat owners. Before long nearly everyone was threatening to shoot or hang the politician they despise most. I'm not kidding.

The boat is fine. Dried the bilges (when it rains they always collect a bit of water from the anchor chain pipe, the loose emergency tiller connection and probably a couple of other places). The battery charger and wind generator are working fine.

An Amel Super Maramu left the port as I was leaving. On the way home I saw it from the Paimogo road going south with all sails up.

I have a huge, I MEAN HUGE, translation for January 21 and it ain't going to be easy.

Well, fuck a duck, as they say in Canada. Grit my teeth and plow into the headwind. Way back when I was still normal, my mother used to say "get a job and stop doing crazy things." Maybe she was right.

Happy New Year.


 

Rutland Wind Generator Retires

Today was my boat day.

Although I hadn't planned on taking the wind generator down yet, when I arrived at the marina I couldn't bear to have a stuffed rooster on a pole. It just sat there refusing to spin.

I quickly devised a plan. I'd remove it from the pole, take it to Fernando, the marine electrician, and see what happened. No sense on getting a new one yet just to sit in the marina for some time to come.

So I disconnected the wires, loosened the two bolts holding the stub shaft in the pole, pushed up and nothing - it wouldn't budge. Heaved, pushed, wacked it and nothing...just a lot of wasted groaning.

After taking the pole and generator down, managed to pull the shaft out about an inch, no more. Pulled and tugged some more in vain. Damn it, I was getting frustrated and decided to make lunch.

Rutland about to be beheaded

After lunch, I placed the one-legged generator on the pontoon and began pulling on the pipe back and forth while bracing the generator with my foot. Finally it parted when I broke the splice connecting the generator's wires to the wires going into the boat.

I think I'll get an electric battery charger like everyone else.

Sheep on the Road

Ana is on holiday and at home, which altered by routine. As a result, my boat day began after lunch and I didn't even bother taking the laptop. I'm ahead on a translation and don't expect to receive any more work until tomorrow.

Once in a while I cross paths with this shepherd near Paimogo. Today I was able to take a few photographs.


There's normally a small flock of egrets following the herd, but I only got two, the others flew away as the jeep approached

It took a while to pass the herd. The dog barked and the shepherd shouted, but the placid sheep couldn't care less. What's the hurry when you're a sheep; some have a milking appointment in the evening - big deal. That was fine by me, I was in no hurry either.

Does he have an iPhone in his bag?

If I loved my job half as much as this German Shepherd dog loves his, you'd never hear a complaint out of me again, ever!

At the marina I saw Manuel motoring around the port testing his new Beta engine. If you're a faithful reader, you'll recall that his Volvo engine, which was running like a clock, imploded unexpectedly as we were returning from the Algarve this summer. The camshaft broke and everything went to hell. What was destined to be a peaceful 4-day trip turned into an exciting adventure, in a minor way.

I called him on the mobile, he came along my boat, I stepped aboard and off we went motoring around trying all kinds of maneuvers, speeds and all that stuff boat owners get excited about.

The one great advantage of owning a boat is the socializing benefit in the real world, which is a lot better than doing it on Facebook. Hey, I'm on Facebook too, but I can't hear the engine running or feel the wind on my face.

A Scavenger

This blog is turning me into a scavenger...a vulture looking for tidbits to write about.

It will be about 4 months before I sail to Nazare for a haul-out and a gearbox replacement. Then it will be another 2 months before I sail to the Algarve and make my innovative mooring. That's the plan. But right now the blog menu is looking pretty damn thin.

And it's getting worse by the day. This morning, out of desperation, I squeezed the camcorder between the passenger seat and the headrest to film my trip to the marina. Shit, as if that's a big deal everybody is dying to see, right?

Since I drive a jeep and the roads are rough, the short clip was mostly a vibrating mess. I got dizzy just from watching it. I've heard of worse ideas, but not many.

Then I decided to speed it up and to apply Youtube's stabilization option and voilá, here it is.

So yeah, went out to the boat, did some translation work, had lunch and then started the engine. The new, and obviously stupid, thermostat hose also leaked. Gave up and went for a walk.

Came across Ryker on his fishing boat and he said that it wasn't the hose. "two hoses don't leak in the same spot." He told me about the days when he worked on oil drilling rigs and had to find tiny leaks even in pouring rain using compressed air. He said he could find a leak even underwater and that he'd come over later to have a look.

That was good to know, so good I went over to Nigel (the unlucky sailor) who was untangling a big pile of lines on the pontoon. His ribs are much better and he had finally pumped most of the water out of his boat. It turns out that a couple of his batteries were still usable so he bought a portable battery charger and got his bilge pumps going. He also told me somebody stole his electronics while the boat was at dock unlocked and he was in hospital.

Back at my boat, I discovered the famous leak all by myself. Took a strong flashlight to it and by squinting real hard discovered that it's coming from the thermostat gasket right next to the hose fitting. A little persistence goes a long way.

The wind generator is up and running again, but looking like it has been rolling in the mud.

The Rutland 913 was spinning when I took the picture.

Life After Death

It's Thursday, my boat day, and the rain started falling as I drove into Peniche.

Don't ask me why, but I decided to take photographs as I drove into town. Why hadn't I ever though of that before. Here is a good way to enhance the virtual show. There was a slight problem though, the camera's flash was switched on. On my second shot, the FLASH exploded in the jeep just as I saw a police car approaching from the opposite direction. Damn, here I was driving and taking photographs. As we crossed paths, the two policemen slowed down and looked at me but kept going. I could almost sense what they were thinking: "Is that legal?"



Rainy day in Peniche

The port and the new Clube Naval building in the completion stage, as seen on the far left

My heart was still beating a shade above normal when I slowed down to a crawl before turning left into the port's parking lot. Just then a guy in an old Mercedes came speeding down the blind curve in the road ahead. He must have thought I wasn't going to stop, put on his brakes, went into a skid and nearly sideswiped some parked cars. Can't you just see the policemen if the guy had hit something..."hey, that's the dude taking pictures, handcuff the lunatic!"

I've been crossing paths with a lot of birds lately. Must be a sign, who knows?

Seagull invasion

Fernando the electrician and his employee arrived and got to work setting up the charger, AC breaker panel and a power socket. It was too wet to install the wind generator and the through-deck AC socket. Tomorrow, there's always tomorrow.

And yes, there is life after death. After one week without any charge the battery showed 12.72 volts and the hydrometer float reached the 100% charge level. So yes, all you boaters and battery owners, if your battery is on the blink hook up a dinky battery charger without a cut-off sensor and boil that sucker at 14.8 V until it resuscitates. But no more than that or it will die for real.

One week after intravenous shock treatment and it's healthier than ever

And here is the new stuff nicely concealed in the pilot house locker.

AC breaker panel on right charger on left

Blackbirds Leaving Me Behind

“To know how to free oneself is nothing; the arduous thing is to know what to do with one’s freedom”

- Andre Gide

Stole this quote from Alex at Project Bluesphere, but I did pay to download one of his video clips as a way of saying thank you. The funny thing is that although many people are lusting to be in his situation - living on a sailboat in exotic places - they would most likely become bored stiff and miserable within 2 or 3 weeks.

I think I'll write an essay about the above quote someday. For now I'm going to write about blackbirds and fireplaces. It's important because I'll want to read it when I'm 80 and have nothing better to do.

The blackbird migration has begun. At first I thought they were forming a huge flock and getting ready to fly south, but then I realised that dozens of thousands of blackbirds couldn't just have popped out of nowhere overnight.

They've flown from somewhere farther north and stopped for a breather. I'd also guess that they pick up smaller flocks as they fly on their route to some warmer climate. Lucky birds.

Anyway, huge flocks of birds were flying everywhere and all I got was this photograph showing a couple of hundred of them on the wing (I was driving). Obviously, you'll have to take my word for it. It was quite the sight and reminded me of Hitchcock's movie "The Birds".



Migrating Blackbirds

I wish I was going south with them (on the boat of course). Instead I stayed home and lit up the fireplace. The weather changed from a balmy day to a chilly night pretty quick, if you consider 10º C chilly. To maintain the tradition, I once more apologise to all the Swedes, Icelanders, Norwegians, Russians (you bet, I got Russian readers too...or maybe they just look at the pictures and daydream) who are freezing their butts off somewhere in tundra land.


Fireplace and thermometer - 15º C is way too cold for me.

Another fact I have to clarify is that, by looking at this and other pictures, you may suspect that I'm wealthy or a least well off. Nonsense! I got a little deal going with the bank: as long I pay them a chunk of my income every month, they will let me live here. Mighty nice of them; mighty stupid of me. I should be living on my boat just messing around doing whatever I desire. More on that later.