ENVOY CRUISING AGAIN

We are now cruising aboard Envoy with our friends Frank and Marie aboard at the island of
 Paxxos, south of Corfu.

Nearly all fire-related jobs were completed and now we're only still awaiting the curved pilot house window and new VHF antenna but decided to commence cruising without these. Subsequently the antenna arrived at Lefkas awaiting our return while a temporary Plexiglas window has been made to be fitted until we can get the correct tempered glass one made. Currently we have a very temporary flexible plastic cover over the window cavity.

Envoy's very temporary pilothouse "window"

A crane lifts our newly-painted mast into position

Laurie inspects Envoy's new hull paint

Repairs almost completed prior to launching

Envoy in the travel lift ready for launching

Other jobs were completed too.

The keel cooler was removed for internal and external cleaning and re-sealing the through hull fitting.
The windlass motor was checked and re-installed.
The air horn motor was repaired and re-installed.
Two technicians came from Athens to replace the through hull seals on the Naiad stabilisers. When doing so they found that the large stainless pins coming through the hull that the fins attach to had a little surface corrosion. So they took these back to Athens to be re-surfaced and polished. At the same time two sets of bearings on each side were replaced. They also modified the hydraulic system so that when the stabilisers are not in use the fins lock in the central position. Up to now they move around if the boat is rolling at anchor and we've had to use locking bolts to centre them – a process which takes about 15 minutes.

Looking down onto our stabilisers' hydraulic rams

A new domestic fresh water filtration system has been installed.
The flush problem for our main head was resolved by replacing the blocked outlet hose and cleaning the blocked sea cock.
A new autopilot sender unit was installed solving an intermittent problem.

Envoy was launched on 30/6 and a sea trial confirmed that all was working well. We were ready to leave the marina on 3 July but strong winds closed it – the first time we can recall this happening so we finally left on the 4^th.

It sure was great to be back on the water again and we headed north towards Corfu stopping at Two Rock Bay for our first night out.

There we tested our water maker and it ran fine, although subsequently we've had a problem with it. This doesn't effect our cruising though as there are plenty of places ashore to get fresh water using our tote tanks and pump. We also have a problem with our inverter so next week will go into Corfu's Mandraki Marina to resolve these issues. Again, the inverter problem doesn't stop us cruising as we simply use the generator to produce AC power – indeed we have to run it for three hours daily to produce AC power for refrigeration.

Next posting will talk more about fun times cruising with Frank and Marie plus progress with our inverter and water maker issues.