Log entry #3: Malkasaari (26 km)

Let's have the facts first:
* date: 2012-06-10
* duration: 1 hour 45 minutes
* length: 26 km
* max speed: 17,7 km/h

Malkasaari welcomed us with a nice summer sunshine, and both tofu and "real meat" sausages warmed up nicely in the "barbeque hut". Also on the menu: fresh salad, strawberries with whipped cream, sparkling wine...

Log entry #1: launch (4,9 km)

Just to keep our log book nice and tidy, here are some facts about the launch day:
* date: 2012-05-30
* duration: 23 minutes
* length: 4,9 km
* max speed: 22,3 km/h

Log entry #2: Vasikkasaari (17,5 km)

Today was a good day. A great sunny day. But first we had to give way to a way bigger boat. After all, it had the right of way, coming from the right...

Then a nice salmon soup at the Valimo bar pier, followed by some sightseeing in Vasikkasaari. We docked at the Helsinki City pier, as there was no other choice for visiting boats.

The evening ended with the "Sonisphere" concert. It's great to have these free events :) Metallica rulezz!!

Moments of truth

As you can see from Teemu's marvelous photos beneath, Mrs Summertime is back in action. There were times when I almost lost my faith and thought yesterday wasn't going to be 100% successful but we managed to bring her to the home pier. Here are some photos from Wednesday:

She sure looks long when seen from this angle!

At this point I started to feel a little worried when the water kept rising at a rate of approx. 1mm/minute.

Brand new bilge pump trying to fulfill its destiny but not quite succeeding...

After 2 or so hours of tender care, we left her on her own, with water pouring happily from the port side nozzle.

And here's one shot for the records (odometer at the beginning of the season)

It's the result that counts...

Today we had some ups and downs, but finally succeeded. We turned at 8am sharp at the docks to get Summertime lifted and lowered, but the place was empty and wouldn't you know, we had to come back at noon. The professional guys from Reffe Oy hoisted her up and down ((watch a short video on YouTube).

Unfortunately she leaked like a sieve, and our new bilge pump (Rule-Mate 1100A from Captain's Shop) couldn't handle all the water coming in. While I filled buckets and buckets with warmish sea water, Mikko bought a submersible pump from Alppi-Rauta. After an hour the water level got lower and we were able to get underway to our pier at Tervasaari.

And after some preliminary hickups, the engine purred and we finished our first leg of 2012 season without incidents (4.9 km)!

Spring begins

Started to work on her: Starboard side received one coat of anti-foul paint and the "targa" beam was scraped, sanded and oiled with Impreg 1 to later receive 32 coats (well... 2 at least) of varnish.

Our boat is now properly winterized

We went to drop some snow off the tarpaulin and shovel snow around the sides. Boat was ok, safely tucked in amidst the snow.

Taking care of her

Since it has snowed a lot, we decided to check on her and take the load off. Here are the before and after pics:

This is what it looked like inside the tarpaulin with the snow cover on:

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!