All is well and we are at Corfu again, having been there in early August, cruised south, and now returned. This posting brings us up to 14 August.
In early August we cruised from Levkas up to Corfu, and berthed at the large Gouvia Marina to meet our friends Doug and Mary, and get a few jobs done aboard Envoy.
Gouvia is a well organised and reasonably priced marina at Euro 68 (about NZ$103) per day including electricity and water, but it’s unsuitable to leave Envoy for the winter, as it has a very small and unsecured hardstand area - that’s why we plan to leave Envoy at Lefkas Marina.
Corfu is a great island and town, with a strong English influence – it’s the only place in Greece with a cricket pitch. The Duke of Edinburgh comes from Corfu.
The Old Town is really interesting with great shops. Even I enjoyed shopping – and that’s rare!
Doug & Mary arrived on the ninth, and on that night we had a great dinner at a Taverna aptly named Zorba’s.
The next day Doug and I fitted the new house batteries (see Technical) while Diane and Mary checked out the end-of-summer sales in Corfu town.
The marina’s chandlery shop had this unusual sign – what a bargain, 15% ON the prices
This large motor vessel is owned by an artist and has a most unusual (and unattractive) paint job, which is considered a work-of-art
Leaving the marina we headed south again to Mourtos – a great area to anchor with several small islands providing secluded and quiet coves, and spoilt only by inconsiderate people in small speedboats traveling too fast and dangerously close to anchored vessels. The temperature was still in the low 30s and we had a moonlight swim before bed.
The sunset from our anchorage at Mourtos
.JPG)
Looking at the entrance to Mourtos harbour from Envoy’s anchorage
.JPG)
Next day we cruised over to Gaios on the island of Paxos. We started in calm conditions, but half way across the wind came up over 20 knots and a 1.5m sea quickly built up, breaking on our port bow, and making Doug a bit queasy.
But Gaios is a delightful little village, sheltered from the open sea by a narrow but navigable channel.
Laurie, Doug and Mary having breakfast in Gaios – shirts off as over 30d
Buying olive oil from rustic shop in Gaios where they decant it from barrels into plastic bottles
Laurie with his new friend the pirate outside taverna – which one’s the dummy!
In Greece we often see large RHIBs, about 7-10m long, with a full canopy from the bow to amidships that are used for camping at sea. Their owners sleep aboard, but mostly eat ashore at one of the many very cheap tavernas.
Greek-style RHIB used for sleeping aboard
.JPG)
Laurie, Doug and Mary enjoying dinner at upmarket taverna in Ormos Vlikho
.JPG)
Laurie and Di aboard Envoy’s RHIB
.JPG)
TECHNICAL. In Gouvia Marina we got some maintenance done.
I changed the engine oil and filters on the Lugger, which is done about every 200 hours.
A small puncture was fixed on our small RIB – I probably caused this while laying out a stern anchor a few weeks back. I find that both RIBs need a few pumps of air every couple of weeks.
The larger RIB was taken out of the water to get a leaking gelcoat abrasion repaired, and the hull repainted at the same time.
Our Maxwell windlass gearbox had been leaking oil, so this was removed, the two halves of the gearbox casing were machined flat where they seal together, a new gasket made and fitted, and the windlass re-mounted. A sticking clutch was also greased.
Doug and I removed the six old 6 volt House Bank batteries and replaced them with new Deka AGM batteries from the US. As expected, these have made a huge difference and we no longer need to run the Genset at night if we’ve been cruising during the day, and in the morning our voltage is typically 12.5 volts instead of the previous 12.2 to 12.3 volts (this may not sound much but is a 16% to 25% greater voltage.
We also had to buy a new gas bottle as we couldn’t get our Turkish one re-filled.
We tried to get our main engine tachometer fixed but no luck – neither Doug and I nor a marine electrician could find where its sender unit is located (more on this later).
Doug (who is an electrician) checked Envoy’s charging systems – our alternator and regulator and pronounced them to be working great. While doing this he found that the negative terminal on the Start Bank battery terminal was very loose. This Bank was replaced early last year, and the electrician must have tightened the nut on the terminal as tight as it would go, but there is a problem with the thread and it doesn’t tighten completely, leaving the cables very loose. This could be the cause of occasional starting problems we’ve had with our Lugger and our generator even since the new batteries were fitted. We could neither tighten nor loosen this nut, and eventually broke the top half of the battery’s terminal bolt. No problem for Doug – we have a tap and die set on board, so Doug cleaned up the thread on the remaining half of the terminal bolt, and we were able to fit the negative wire tightly as it should have been in the first place.
Since then there has been no further starting problems.
LOG. Up to 14 August had spent 137 days aboard, and cruised 1,293 miles for 243 engine hours.
In early August we cruised from Levkas up to Corfu, and berthed at the large Gouvia Marina to meet our friends Doug and Mary, and get a few jobs done aboard Envoy.
Gouvia is a well organised and reasonably priced marina at Euro 68 (about NZ$103) per day including electricity and water, but it’s unsuitable to leave Envoy for the winter, as it has a very small and unsecured hardstand area - that’s why we plan to leave Envoy at Lefkas Marina.
Corfu is a great island and town, with a strong English influence – it’s the only place in Greece with a cricket pitch. The Duke of Edinburgh comes from Corfu.
The Old Town is really interesting with great shops. Even I enjoyed shopping – and that’s rare!
Doug & Mary arrived on the ninth, and on that night we had a great dinner at a Taverna aptly named Zorba’s.
The next day Doug and I fitted the new house batteries (see Technical) while Diane and Mary checked out the end-of-summer sales in Corfu town.
The marina’s chandlery shop had this unusual sign – what a bargain, 15% ON the prices
This large motor vessel is owned by an artist and has a most unusual (and unattractive) paint job, which is considered a work-of-art
Leaving the marina we headed south again to Mourtos – a great area to anchor with several small islands providing secluded and quiet coves, and spoilt only by inconsiderate people in small speedboats traveling too fast and dangerously close to anchored vessels. The temperature was still in the low 30s and we had a moonlight swim before bed.
The sunset from our anchorage at Mourtos
.JPG)
Looking at the entrance to Mourtos harbour from Envoy’s anchorage
.JPG)
Next day we cruised over to Gaios on the island of Paxos. We started in calm conditions, but half way across the wind came up over 20 knots and a 1.5m sea quickly built up, breaking on our port bow, and making Doug a bit queasy.
But Gaios is a delightful little village, sheltered from the open sea by a narrow but navigable channel.
Laurie, Doug and Mary having breakfast in Gaios – shirts off as over 30d
Buying olive oil from rustic shop in Gaios where they decant it from barrels into plastic bottles
Laurie with his new friend the pirate outside taverna – which one’s the dummy!
In Greece we often see large RHIBs, about 7-10m long, with a full canopy from the bow to amidships that are used for camping at sea. Their owners sleep aboard, but mostly eat ashore at one of the many very cheap tavernas.
Greek-style RHIB used for sleeping aboard
.JPG)
Laurie, Doug and Mary enjoying dinner at upmarket taverna in Ormos Vlikho
.JPG)
Laurie and Di aboard Envoy’s RHIB
.JPG)
TECHNICAL. In Gouvia Marina we got some maintenance done.
I changed the engine oil and filters on the Lugger, which is done about every 200 hours.
A small puncture was fixed on our small RIB – I probably caused this while laying out a stern anchor a few weeks back. I find that both RIBs need a few pumps of air every couple of weeks.
The larger RIB was taken out of the water to get a leaking gelcoat abrasion repaired, and the hull repainted at the same time.
Our Maxwell windlass gearbox had been leaking oil, so this was removed, the two halves of the gearbox casing were machined flat where they seal together, a new gasket made and fitted, and the windlass re-mounted. A sticking clutch was also greased.
Doug and I removed the six old 6 volt House Bank batteries and replaced them with new Deka AGM batteries from the US. As expected, these have made a huge difference and we no longer need to run the Genset at night if we’ve been cruising during the day, and in the morning our voltage is typically 12.5 volts instead of the previous 12.2 to 12.3 volts (this may not sound much but is a 16% to 25% greater voltage.
We also had to buy a new gas bottle as we couldn’t get our Turkish one re-filled.
We tried to get our main engine tachometer fixed but no luck – neither Doug and I nor a marine electrician could find where its sender unit is located (more on this later).
Doug (who is an electrician) checked Envoy’s charging systems – our alternator and regulator and pronounced them to be working great. While doing this he found that the negative terminal on the Start Bank battery terminal was very loose. This Bank was replaced early last year, and the electrician must have tightened the nut on the terminal as tight as it would go, but there is a problem with the thread and it doesn’t tighten completely, leaving the cables very loose. This could be the cause of occasional starting problems we’ve had with our Lugger and our generator even since the new batteries were fitted. We could neither tighten nor loosen this nut, and eventually broke the top half of the battery’s terminal bolt. No problem for Doug – we have a tap and die set on board, so Doug cleaned up the thread on the remaining half of the terminal bolt, and we were able to fit the negative wire tightly as it should have been in the first place.
Since then there has been no further starting problems.
LOG. Up to 14 August had spent 137 days aboard, and cruised 1,293 miles for 243 engine hours.
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