Working on the chain gang

Summertime had her first work-related trip. Went to Villinki for sprint end meetings and "some" refreshments afterwards. Here are some pics of the trip:

Log entry #9: Keilalahti

Fact sheet:
* date: 2012-07-12
* duration: 2 hours 30 minutes
* length: 30 km

This time it was just me and Pertti, heading for a short trip to do some fishing. First we filled the tanks at the HMVK ST1 station. About 28 liters of liquid gold went in, making the average fuel consumption on our return leg from Porvoo about 0,6 liters per km (or about 1.1 liter per nautical mile).

We first headed to Lauttasaari and after consulting a more experienced fisherman over the phone, moved to the bay between Lehtisaari and Keilaniemi. Fish wasn't biting, but we cooked a nice lunch with Kabanossi sausages, at anchor near the small island of Leppäluoto.

The menu was tasty and healthy: A-class sausages, rye bread, salad with olive oil, and mint tea for dessert :)

It was soon time to head back, to give the boat to Mikko for their afternoon outing. Our route was a new one, going via Hanasaari and Käärmeluodot, and then joining the familiar route from Melkki eastward.
We had good timing, as the rain started only at Tervasaari pier, welcoming Mikko's family aboard :)

Log entry #8: Porvoo

Fact sheet:
* date: 2012-07-05/06
* duration: 7 hours 30 minutes
* length: 106 km

This time we did a whopper of a journey to Porvoo and back! One way is about 53 km and 3 hours and 45 minutes without any breaks. Of course we did take a long lunch break, to test our Croatian wineholder/co-skipper. On the menu we had new potatoes, salad and finnish salmon. And all this fresh from the Helsinki market square vendors!

Porvoo was very welcoming for us; the guest harbour was full but the friendly people from Jokiranta Cafe guided us to a vacant buoy near them, and it was perfect!

We had a great meal at Timbaali restaurant and then sipped the rest of the Croatian Posip white wine while watching the sun set. The next day we invested heavily in various shops around Porvoo and headed back. The passenger ship J.L.Runeberg greeted us in the Porvoonjoki delta.

Yours truly also tried to make the return trip more interesting with some "heel-and-toe" steering :)

The highlight of the return trip was hopping on the huge waves of a cargo tanker, scary! But Summertime survived without damage.

Log entry #6: Pihlajasaari

Fact sheet:
* date: 2012-06-12
* duration: 93 minutes
* length: 16 km

Our sixth journey took us to the island of Pihlajasaari for a dip in the cold cold sea. Our Lowrance temp meter indicated a low temperature of +15,5 Celcius...brrr! During this leg we had no "älämölö" (finnish for marine distress yelling), although our aft buoy-hook-rope turned out to be a little short (13 m) for the first buoy we tried. But Veneilijän verkkokauppa will come to the rescue with 22 meters of FSE Robline RIO mooring rope.

We then headed to Suomenlinna guest harbour for some familiar salmon soup, and then back to pier at Tervasaari. Suomenlinna was packed to the max with marine holidayers, but we just squeezed in :)

Gear happy

We had a long day at the pier today, bolting the mast back in place and installing a brand new toy: the Lowrance X-4 fish sonar. We'll use it mainly to scout for underwater rocks instead of fish. And as a bonus it will show us the voltage of our boats batteries!

First we turned the boat around and backed to the pier, to have easier access to the transom. After drilling the hole, Mikko was the courageous one, measuring and screwing below the waterline, in chilly water of +15 Celcius. Routing the sensor cable to the cockpit was a mighty tight fit, but in the end it worked out, with about 5 cm to spare.

The duct tape is for demonstration purposes only, tomorrow we'll screw it down properly, connect the battery and give it a test drive. And it should also give an accurate reading of the water temperature -- what a marine multi-meter!

Docking aft-first was very handy for getting aboard, maybe we'll continue this way in the future too...

Log entry #5: Malkasaari

We'll have to tally our numbers to get the log entry facts straight, but we had a great "sleep-over" trip to Malkasaari. We took the shortest route and arrived in a record time of 42 minutes. The weather was perfect: glaring sun and no waves to speak of. Mikko cooked a salmon medallion to perfection and we enjoyed mozzarella salad as well. The archipelago near Malkasaari looks great at sunset!

Saturday turned out to be the hottest day of the summer so far: +23 degrees Celcius! And a great way to cool oneself is to start rowing a 35€ rubber dinghy from Clas Ohlson :)

After Malkasaari we mad a nice tour via Kalliosaari to Mustalahti, near the Uutela outdoor area. We moored at the guest pier of Vuosaaren Urheilukalastajat. There was no charge as we only stayed for lunch at Kahvila Kampela. As always, they had a great salmon soup in both creamy and clear versions.

On the way back we did a detour to SEO Puotila marine gas station, and had some danish at anchor, before heading back to Tervasaari via the Degerö channel.

Log entry #4: Suomenlinna (11 km)

Fact sheet:
* date: 2012-06-12
* duration: 46 minutes
* length: 11 km
* max speed: 21,3 km/h

Took some spanish class mates to Suomenlinna, for a nice evening at Valimo, Panimo and Yläkerho (what a great selection of music they had in the jukebox!).

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 :)