Un-prepared for winter storms

Earlier we'd blogged about preparing for winter storms. Nature seems to have gotten the upper hand, and we'll have to buy a brand new tarpaulin, this time of a heavier sort. Our "low-weight" tarp is now of the "see-thru-the-seams" variety, and lets water through. The A-frame was more or less intact after a month of not visiting the boat.



So off to Veneilijän Verkkokauppa or Captain's Shop we go... installing a new tarpaulin is something I've never done during the Christmas week :)

Nature was also flooding the Verkkosaari pier, one more meter of water and we'd float away.

Ok, we can take a hint...

Took a gander today at how Summertime was coping under the extra tarpaulins. They seem to do their thing, as the bilge was totally dry. The added springy cords and extra weights had also kept the structure from taking off in heavy winds.

We had tied the aft A-frame to our neighbours heavy-duty steel boat support. I guess this wasn't such a great idea -- today that rope was hanging neatly in a suggestive loop shape:



We'll take the hint and stop hijacking others' supports :)

Preparing for winter storms

The "light-weight" tarpaulin we chose last year is already showing it's age, so we've now added two more "light-weight" tarps on top -- as if this combination will withstand the winter storms. We'll see (and hope for the best).



We also fed the Volvo engine some water and anti-freeze mix, this time in record time of 10 minutes (compared to 4 hours last year :-)).

Terra firma finalmente

All good things come to an end, and so did our first marine season with Summertime. On a beautiful Saturday morning we sailed to the Verkkosaari pier, to wait for our allotted slot #20 to be hoisted up.



We waited less than an hour for our turn, enjoying tea & Dallas buns, with the boat hooked to this eco-and-recycling-friendly buoy:



The friendly dockmaster and the driver from the Reffe transport company guided Summertime to her usual spot, with Mikko tugging at the rope too.







Then remained the dull part of the day: washing the rear-and-underwater parts of Lady Summertime. And she was dirty: bay barnacle (Balanus improvisus aka merirokko or näkki in finnish) all over her. It seems that next spring we'll choose some other anti-fouling paint than Blakes Cruising. Or add some chili to the paint...

And the hunting is easy..

Or maybe not. Results for todays hunt at Päntäri island: zero birds, zero fish. But it's wide open sea out there, and still you can see the Helsinki Cathedral.



Pertti had his plastic ducks in a row, but it didn't fool no real birds, so he enjoyed untangling some Motonet rope instead :)

And the fishin' is easy...

Zero fish, 100% enjoyment! Managed to get back to the Tervasaari dock in darkness. The secret is to "sail" slow and keep calm :)



We took Summertime at a steady speed of 2.5 to 4 knots to Vanhankaupunginlahti. Pertti used his "fishing rod with a reel", while me and Janne settled for the basic Abu Garcia Siesta 400/500 "hook and line".



There was no wind in the willows, and no fish in the sea either. But a nice evening, and one of the last for Summertime this season -- her first in Finland. Here's Pertti cheering us up, with Sambuca and Chocolate :)

Summer remembrances

Here's a selection of images from our recent voyages on the sea.

Live and learn

Lesson: if you leave a radio on for two weeks, it'll exhaust two 12V marine batteries.

That's what we did and our planned overnight trip to Malkasaari changed to hanging out at the Tervasaari pier. We had a good time anyways, and after charging the batteries we did a short sightseeing trip to check out our local attractions:

Le Grande Succee Marine!

Had our best ever trip last night. We went to Iso Vasikkasaari and stayed the night at the Gula Villan's pier. Night was calm and warm. Engine worked flawlessly throughout the whole journey, as did the crew. Here are some random shots:

King size to Optimus Prime size

I went back to the boat to check the scratches on the port side hull. It turned out the big scratch I thought was the worst was actually just some white plastic from Meri-Kukka's fenders. I wiped it away and problem was solved. Some of the longer scratches we deep enough to let wood show through the varnish (just some 2mm wide scratches). I applied some Impreg 1 to these scratches with a rug. We'll take care of these properly when we take the boat out of water in the fall.

I also brought the middle piece to turn our fore king-size double berth into an optimus prime -size triple berth:

Topped with the mattress Teija made, the fore-cabin can now easily accommodate 1-4 people in perfect comfort:

Anchor 'n' Bathing

We (Mikko, Teija, Alisa, Inka and Asta) did a successful journey to the Hietaniemi beach, where we cast an anchor about 200 meters from the beach. There we swam and ate some hotdogs and spagetti a la Teija (with tofu). The stove worked perfectly, as soon as we understood to remove the safety cap between the spirit container and the stove head.

On our way back, wind had built up and it was a bit difficult to arrive at our home pier short-handed in quite heavy side wind. Eventually we managed to do it but we did bump into Meri-Kukka (our home-port neighbor) but luckily survived with minor scratches. Didn't see any scratches in Meri-Kukka so all in all, it was a successful approach sans the usual shouting and hand-waving.

Brand New Carb

A short update on our marine saga: for two weeks Summertime has been waiting to get seaborne again. The carburettor seems to be the culprit, as fuel filter and the water separator cup are both clean of any tank debris. So, we've now bought a brand new Weber 32/36 DGV carb from Suomen kaasutinexpertti Oy, and the guys from MM-Marine will install it tomorrow. Naturally we could do it ourselves as it's bolt-compatible with the old carb, but it's better to trust professionals :)

Here's a log of our travels so far:
* 7.5.2011 ~4 km: Verkkosaari - Kulosaari - Tervasaari
* 11.5.2011 13,1 km: Tervasaari - Suomenlinna harbour - Tervasaari
* 22.5.2011 9 km: Tervasaari - Pyysaari restaurant - Tervasaari
* 5.6.2011 3.5 km: Tervasaari - Katajanokka - Tervasaari (engine problems)
* 12.6.2011 23.8 km: Tervasaari - Laajasalo - Malkasaari - Santahamina - Tervasaari
* 24.6.2011 35.3 km: Tervasaari - Lauttasaari - Iso Vasikkasaari - Tervasaari
* 28.6.2011 11.3 km: Tervasaari - Suomenlinna - Tervasaari

So about 100 km total, not bad!

Engine gremlins hit again

Tried to take some friends out for a short trip around Suomenlinna, but this time the engine stalled when going back to idle from 'medium throttle'.. Maybe adjusting the idle-speed screw would've helped, but didn't want to take a chance. So, we enjoyed our picnic at the Tervasaari pier instead.

Good points of the day: the water-separator-glass cup was clean of any crap from the gas tanks, and the gas filter too.

Our saga continues :)

Success!

We had our first trouble-free journey on Friday (midsummer's eve). We visited the Iso Vasikkasaari and ate a great lunch there and headed back to Tervasaari. Engine worked like a charm and so did the crew :-) Even the weather was favorable, a bit windy but sunny during the whole journey.

Okay. Let's be honest. I did once accidentally drove over a buoy and Teemu did drop the aft rope into the sea (too short rope, too eager captain :P) and Inka wet her shirt, pants and towel on the shore but using our standards the journey was trouble-free.

It works! It works!

And hopefully now it will work for good, thanks to the helpful engine service guys at MM-Marine.fi. We booked them to get to the bottom of the engine gremlins, and after two hours they did it. The crap from the copper gasoline tanks was to blame again, and once they got the carburettor clean, all worked splendidly, from idle to high revs. They also changed the oil filter, the seawater impeller, adjusted the ignition timing etc. All that's left for us is to check the oil level and gas filter before starting.

We also screwed with the registration plate that Mikko had prepared from wood and genuine marble. We "borrowed" the Meri-Kukka boat next to us to install the plate:



Compared with the old paper printout, the difference is amazing!



For future trips, we might buy replacement impellers, even though the Volvo Penta original part 3593659 from the seawater pump looked fine. One choice is Biltema where 8,99€ will get you a part number 25-200.

It works! It works!

But for how long?

This time during a 45 minute intensive engine workout our Volvo B18A worked without a hitch. No problems at idle, 1000 rpm, 1600 rpm, 2000 rpm nor 2600 rpm. All this with no change in the idle rpm setting etc. Of course, this was without any load on the engine, and the weather was cold +13 Celcius.

Photo of the day: garbage collection (or lack of it) at the Tervasaari pier:

Oh No, Not Again...

Engine trouble again that is. We had a nice 4 hours at sea, first taking the scenic route via Laajasalo to Malkasaari outside Vuosaari, and returning via the Hevossalmi channel. Unfortunately our engine started shutting down at idle, just as we were in the middle of the Degerö narrow channel! We had to push her from the side of the channel. And similar problems again when returning to the pier.

But we will take this with a stiff upper lip, and just learn to adjust the idling speed of the engine. Time to dig out the Weber carburettor PDF manual again...

It works! It works!

Hallelujah, after changing the gas filter the engine was back to its normal, great running self! So the next time we (or you dear reader) see a filter full of green gunk like this, do change the filter before blaming the carburettor:



For future reference, our carb is Weber type "36DCD14". Thanks also to Pertti for helping to identify the problem, and cleaning the jets in the carburettor. For the future we'll equip the boat with a load of replacement filter (of the see-thru and not opaque kind).

May Day!

Almost at least. Our reliable Volvo B18A engine gave up the ghost after just half a mile into our last Sundays journey. More precisely, the engine stalls when giving it any gas. Our first idea was that one of the barrels of the dual-barrel Weber DCD carburetor was stuck, but that seems to be just part of the progressive design: the first barrel starts opening instantly, whereas the second opens only when the pedal is about 75% to the metal.



Check for yourselves this clip:

So this week we'll consult our engine specialist Pertti, and also some online resources:
Weber carburetor troubleshooting guide
Weber DCD manual (PDF)

Spiders and Plates

We have now made 3 journeys with Summertime, and approximately 10 approaches to pier :-)

Tomorrow's going to be the fourth, as we plan to head west and check out an island.

I visited her today to fetch the varnish for the license number plate and noticed that we are not the only ones loving to hang around in the boat:

I got the varnish and applied first layer to the license plates. After a couple of layers they'll be ready and we can attach them to the sides underneath the side windows:

Virgin Voyage

Today was a good day, and the first (real) voyage for Summertime in our hands. We took her from the home harbour at Tervasaari to the Suomenlinna fortress island, where for 6 euros we parked and had a nice salmon soup (not included in the parking fee). Check out Valimo 2011



For the first leg Mikko was at the helm and Teemu tended to the ropes etc. On the return trip we switched roles and sailed through the infamous Kustaanmiekka channel. Didn't make contact with any big boats :)


Some stats about today's trip:
Length: 13 km
Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Max Speed: 19,7 km/h
Avg Speed: 9 km/h

I will leave it to the reader to convert these to knots and miles :)

Home, at last

Finally Summertime has returned home, to the sea.

We lowered her down at Verkkosaaren Telakka and checked the water-tightness for a couple of hours before we had enough confidence to start the first journey. She didn't seem to be too thirsty as the bilge didn't fill up more than a couple of centimeters:

We then headed to Kulosaari pier to fill her up. Entering the pier has relatively easy but getting her out of there was a bit tricky. It looks like we require some 20 meters of clear water to turn her around. Hopefully we'll be able to turn the boat in a smaller space once we acquire more skills.

Her home pier is next to Tervasaari and our place has a buoy aft which we needed to catch to get her "parked". On our first attempt to enter the pier we did manage to catch the buoy but noticed that the ropes were too short to reach the pier. After some shouting and pointless hand-waving we decided to reverse and head back towards clear waters. We combined two ropes to make a longer one and made our second approach. This time the rope was long enough and after catching a wrong buoy and cleverly switching to a right one she was secured and we could pop the champagne (well, sparking wine, anyhow). Here she dwells:

Magic Moments

Mind if I clean your windows, Sir?



Fill her up, please!



Cheers!



I just hope the bilge pump keeps working :-)

Seal and Sticky tape

Here's what Mikko was talking about: a photo of the self-made seal for the water separator glass bowl, including the old broken seal and the bowl:



And as a final touch today I applied adhesive tape to the problem areas in the bottom of Summertime. Do note the use of double taping: first the narrow blue tape and on top of that wider regular masking tape. Fingers crossed and thumbs up for tomorrow...

Preparing for the launch

Again, 3 or so hours spent at the docks...

As we expected, Biltema didn't have a spare sealing part for the water separator so I bought some rubber "mat" and cut a piece that closely resembles the original seal we had. It turned out to work just fine and engine started on the first try. Teemu will surely blog a picture of this masterpiece we constructed.

As Summertime seemed a bit thirsty, we poured some 200 liters of water to the bilge. It all came out happily on the other side:

Then we disassembled the A-frame and left just the tarpaulin so that she wouldn't dry up during Friday. Saturday is scheduled to be the big day as we are "ready" to launch the boat any time after 8am... Scary...