LinoCat

We have to think about Wind, temperature, waves and currents. So we need different information sources. The easiest is the internet where you can find maps like this to the left. There are current maps and predicted ones for up to 72hours and some even up to 90 hours. We also download GRIB data, which is then used to calculate wind strength and direction in 3 hour steps. The Software for this is free at www.grib.usw so you can play around with it. Seastate and winds should be OK and so we might leave if the work on the trampoline is finished today.

Hi, this is the last time for a long time when we leave Lagos, one of our favorite Marinas. we are heading to Portimao to get the spare part which arrived today and to get the new trampoline installed. If thing go according to plan, then we are of to Madeira tomorrow. Weather should be fine with seas not more than 2m and winds around 15-20knots.

Even an unwanted one..... We anchored near lagos for a swim at one of the beaches which you can only reach via boat. When we wanted to get the anchor up i realized that it was stuck completly. Should we call for a scuba diver? NO WAY! So we opened the compartment with the diving gear and i got a 10L tank with a backplate and a wing out. Of course one o-ring failed on one of the regulators but this was fixed quick. Then i only had the turtlefins which are HUGE so i put on one pair of my boat shoes in them. The sailing gloves and a fishing knife and the old topping lift line should do as tools. The idea was to install a trip line on the anchor and pull it out from the other side. Maybe with the Dinghy. But when i decided i felt at home. I had a BIIIIIIGGGG smile doing my first dive after 3years. Visibility was around 6-8m and some small fish were around. The anchor was jammed under a rock plate but i could move it out and it digged into the sand. Back up to the boat, anchor up and off we...

The customs in Lisbon are holding my parcel with the sparepart for more than 24hours and they have released it so it could not go onto todays delivery. Since yesterday we have finally managed to have the cable for the LED Tricolor masthead ligh IN the proper cable canal i had to rewire the light at the lower mastend inside the boat. When i tested all cables in the mast for function later i also tested the steaming light which i have coupled with the lower navigational lights. The twocolor light at the bow of the boat was dead. So this morning i was checking everything starting from the switches etc. Of course i had thought of the bulb also but if you messed around with all the cables you think that it is more likely that you disconnected one of the cables. It really WAS the bulb and around noon all was up an running. In the afernoon i was winched up the mast and so you see the tricolor/anchor light combination. To the right the black thing is the meter for the windspeed and direction a...

The part that has failed was identified as i reported in the last entry "Little problem". It was a load splitter from a swiss company called studer. The symptoms were that only one engine was loading the batteries. After talking to a technician in Switzerland he told me that with the tests he would agree that there unit was faulty. I asked him if they could send me a new one but they usually do not deliver to end customers. Since it was a factory installed equipment and i was stuck in Portugal he agreed to send me a new part directly to the marina. They would send it after they received my payment. Due to the fact that Switzerland is not part of the Euro payment agreement for fast transaction i could not do an express transfer but a normal SEPA transfer. Nevertheless, they directy sent the part without waiting for the payment. That is what i call a nice example of good customer service. They als emailed me the tracking number from TNT. 03 Sep 2009 08:11:58 Lisbon Shipment Rec...

Is till remember in India, when Anka told us that her maid has burned her passport while trying to get it dry over the gas stove. "Little problem with your passport mam". This is what i thought when i realized that the new cable for the masthead tricolor has not been placed in the tube inside the mast which is used as cable canal but just inside the mast itself. It is slamming like crazy and so today we had to fit 2 maststeps up there to then undo the complete top of the mast tomorrow. Also i realized on the way to Alvor that one Alternator (the left one) does not seem to charge at all. A little bit of measuring and testing (roughly 2 hours) and i was sure that it is the "load repartitor", a Studer MBI 2/100/3 which has died on one port. This means that one engine is giving all power to one starter battery and nothing to the main batteries or the other starter and that the other input is fine. When i switched the input cables on the alternator the other motor was no...

What do you do the whole day long? Well for example filling up the gas tank for the Dinghy and take it to shopping in the village of Alvor. Then head back, have lunch and a nap for the little one. Meanwhile you swim around the boat and clean the area where the antifouling marine coating ends (thats the under water coating) and the white of the glassfibre of the boat starts. You use a sponge and swim around the boat and clean that. Ah yeah right, a catamaran has 4 sides :-( All together we have around 50m of cleaning area, where you scrub with one hand and swim with the other. After you are done with that, its time for some free diving, but only half a meter deep to the saildrives and propellers. Even though LinoCat has been in the water only around 5 weeks, there is significant growth on the saildrive shafts and so it took me maybe 20 dives to scrub it off. Then a little bit of more swimming and splashing with the little one. In the bay of Alvor our thermometer showed 28 Celcius. NICE!...