Yacht Pipit

      

Let there be light - and the case of the curious smell - 16th June 2014

Dimitri attending to the deck & steaming light at the first floor, shortly before going to the top floor to tend to the anchor light...


Our last stay in Vathy lasted nearly a week, as the weather was a bit unsettled and, as we had nice neighbours one side and a static yacht the other, we were quite happy to stay put. Eventually the weather improved and we ventured out on Friday, all the way to Kapali where we had 2 idyllic days & nights at anchor. The third was not so idyllic - at about 1930, just as I was about to pour the first Mythos of the day, there were rumbles of thunder, the sky turned as black as yer hat all around us within 5 minutes, the mainland disappeared from view and we could see a thunderstorm heading our way. Very quickly we secured everything above & below decks, as we know from experience that thunderstorms can bring strong and very gusty winds. We even gimballed the cooker. Sure enough, within a further 10 minutes we were whirling like a dervish around our anchor, and fearing for our bimini as strong gusts came from all directions. We were confident our anchor was well dug in, and our only other neighbour was a 66 ft Gunboat catamaran who had 80 metres of chain out and two lines ashore, so they were pretty secure. Being made of carbon fibre and therefore light, this can cruise at 30 knots and, being a cat, you don't even have to hold on to your high speed G&T! You could have one too if you happen to have USD 4,000,000 down the back of your chaise longue...

Anyway, after about 40 minutes of the sky being lit up various shades of blue, mauve & purple, the rain and wind subsided, and a while later all was eerily calm. Calm enough to pour that Mythos...

The next day we headed north to Goat Bay as the following day we were going to Lefkas to have some repairs carried out. On arrival at Goat Bay Ann announced that the 'down' button wasn't working on the windlass remote control. No problem I thought, not as tiresome as the 'up' button not working, we could simply release the clutch on the windlass and lower the anchor manually. Except that the clutch was seized together - we haven't used it for two years. After some minutes of 'encouragement' with a specialist tool (i.e. the biggest screwdriver in our tool box) and not a little cursing I managed to free the clutch and Ann was able to lower the anchor in a controlled fashion manually.

I then set about fault finding - my immediate suspicion was the wiring behind the forepeak panelling, the culprit two years ago, the thought of which didn't fill me with joy, but actually the fault lay in the remote control itself - despite the rubber seal and 6 screws holding it together, moisture had delaminated the pcb on which the switches are mounted and one of the tracks was broken. Out with the soldering iron and a repair was fashioned. Meanwhile, we were under attack from a swarm of flies - we've never seen so many in and around Pipit and no amount of burning citronella candles and mosquito coils seemed to discourage them. Still at least we didn't have another thunderstorm...

On Tuesday morning we made our way north through the Lefkas canal to the marina. Within a couple of hours Dimitri (and his colleague Dimitri!) from Waypoint Sails were aboard and wasting no time at all set about replacing our combined deck & steaming light unit, the sealed beam of which was full of water. Dimitri #1 then moved to the top of the mast and fixed the wiring so that we now have an operational masthead anchor LED once again - we have been rigging a temporary one for the last two years after two people have tried and failed to fix it. Dimitri didn't do anything that I couldn't have done, if the problems were at deck level rather than 15 metres up in the air! He did, however, have the best and most comfortable looking bosun's chair I've ever seen, he had all the tools necessary to hand in an excellent canvas bucket, and seemed perfectly at home working at the very top of the mast - that is what we were paying for!

Must get a new CA flag...


Dimitri & Dimitri then set about replacing part of our gooseneck (the joint between the mast & boom for our non-sailor readers) which had become worn, fortunately having the required part in stock. All in all excellent, careful service from Waypoint, and a 10% discount for being Cruising Association members - we'd thoroughly recommend them.

As we were in Lefkas, we took advantage of Carrefour and a couple of other supermarkets and stocked up on food not readily available elsewhere. We also visited a number of chandlers to investigate antifouling and a new freshwater pump. On Thursday morning we made our way back down the canal and there was enough wind for us to raise both sails immediately upon passing the final channel marker buoys. It was about then that we first noticed a curious smell - a heady mix of hot machine oil and cat tinkle. First it was in the cockpit, then down below - very mysterious. I checked the engine compartment, all seemed well. We continued on our way towards Ormos Varko on the mainland and gradually the smell subsided, and so far hasn't returned - any ideas?

We stayed at anchor for 3 nights, enjoying the kind of time we signed up for - no crossed anchors, no thunderstorms, nothing broke, failed or fell off and all was idyllic - regular readers will know that it ain't always so... The full moon was so bright that we didn't need our solar cockpit light. We also had the excitement of simply being able to flick a switch and have a light come on at the top of our mast - whatever next!

Interesting rock formation in Ormos Varko.


The view from our cockpit.


Looking across to Goat Bay and the mountains of Lefkada beyond.


Yesterday, as our holding tank was getting full, we moved back to Kapali, lightening our load en route, if you catch my drift... Once a German yacht left mid afternoon, we were able to park in 'our' place and enjoyed another drama free evening at anchor, before today returning to Vathy for a couple of days to attend to domestic chores - such is the liveaboard's lot...

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