GrowingLad
Well-Known Member
I think after this weekend I can add determined to the words that describe my personality....
Take a seat, this is a long one.....
So, my mate phones me up a few months before and is going to pay us a visit, excellent, an opportunity to get out for some fishing. Time to start planning and finishing off any little jobs on the boat.
A week before my mates visit I'm driving back from the boat and the wheel bearings on one of the back wheels start to make a horrible noise, turns out I can only get the bearings from the main dealer...300 euros ?!?!?! ****, I arrange for my mate to bring them out from the UK and try to arrange for a mechanic to get everything stripped down and ready to fit the bearings on the Friday night, I don't have the time or the right tools for the Land Rover. Turns out the Mechanic isn't going to be in Athens on the Friday and I can't find another one to do the job at short notice. Stuff it, I'll have to nurse the old girl for a couple more trips.
The night before my mate flys out the Air Traffic Control mob decide to call a strike...sleazy jet cancel the flight. Their later flight is full. After a quick look around Chris manages to find another flight with Olympic at an okay price...phew close one.
Saturday morning our little girl wakes up at 04:00 (she's teething and must have fancied a bit of TLC) Being the good husband and being thankful for the Green card for the weekend I do my duties. Get the little one back to sleep, only problem is I'm wide awake looking forward to the trip. Oh well, might as well have a cuppa. Wake up Chris a bit later with a cuppa (the pair of us had a few sherbets the night before so have to ease into the day) I think waking at 04:00 did me a favour as I woke up before my hangover
So off we head for the boat, wheel bearing seems okay, making a slight noise but nothing too much...then a God awful noise for a minute then back to okay....this carries on but we manage to get to the boat..hhhmm how's it going to behave with the boat..we'll just have to wait and see.
Start loading up the gear...oh **** the keys are indoors. I normally keep them in the Land Rover but some scrote tried to break in a few weeks back so I took the keys out...Not to worry, thankfully I left the ignition key in and I was having a new sea cock fitted for the heads so the cabin is open. Still got the pad lock on the wheel clamp but a big set of bolt croppers they have in the yard sorts that out.
Turns out the new skin fitting I had put on for the water intake of the heads has been fitted the wrong way around...oh well, too late now, it will do the job but will have to be sorted out later....I don't know what it is with me....but any job I've had done by a "Professional" working in the boating industry always ends up balls'ed up...at Least I've learnt not to pay a bean until the job has been sorted...
Hitch up the trailer and we're off...seems okay...then it sounds like the wheels going to fall off....then back to okay..come on girl, just get us to the launch site..just a few minutes down the road. Pull up to the place where where they launch you from the beach with a tractor. Turns out they have had a massive build up of sea weed and they can't launch. They have cleared up one lorry load of sea weed but they won't get the rest cleared up until next week...I try a bit further along the road but the same deal...just another challenge...I'll launch from the public slip way a bit further along the coast....hopefully the wheel bearing will last the trip...on the way there I discuss how we launch from this slip, it's a bit tricky and I want to make sure my mate is up to driving off with the trailer to park up (obviously this being Greece a perfect place for boats the facilities are ****...obviously...)
Mate decides he doesn't want to risk it as he's not really driven with a trailer before, fair enough. I pull into a boat yard just up the road from the slip...plead with the guy in the yard who also has a Land Rover for launching to put us in..offer to pay obviously...He won't do it..why I ask, insurance? Nope it's our policy. I explain that my mate is over for the weekend and he'd be doing us a massive favour....Nope he says..Can't quite work out why he doesn't want some extra cash for 5 minutes work...I shall make sure I take my time next time I'm on the slip and he's waiting to launch someone.
We're nearly there now so we decide to at least take a look...sweet..the Marina which is normally packed (and I mean packed) has quite a few spare spaces.....we launch, Chris stays with the boat and I park up the trailer.
We're off....everything is going okay but we've lost a fair bit of time with all the sodding around...As we discussed last week, we really needed to head north in the morning to beat the choppy seas....well we didn't get going early enough..
The poor old girl is a bit under pressure punching against the waves and is smoking a bit..what with the fumes, the waves, the beers the night before and the sodding around in the morning the pair of us are feeling a bit jaded. We put up the cover and its stops the smoke being drawn back into the wheel house...okay, we're starting to feel a bit better, progress is slow but we're making head way...fishing is out for the day, we'll just get to our destination and perhaps an afternoon kip....Chris isn't feeling too great so I get him on the helm so he has something to concentrate on...We can see the little place we are heading to, nearly there...all of a sudden the temp shoots up...Christ..drop off power down to tick over but temp isn't dropping. I shut off the engine and check the raw water strainer, nope, that's okay, eventually get the thermostat out and can see for some reason the new stat that I paid over the odds for compared to a car stat that I fitted just last summer has decided to stay closed and stay shut...oh well, that will have to stay out, close everything up and get going...problem is we've been wallowing in the chop for 15 minutes yep...we both have to lean over the side and take care of business...feeling a bit better we carry on and no further temp problems.
Finally get to our destination:
Chopped out the "bung" of the thermostat and fitted that back in so at least there was some resistance, temp gauge is now reading 50*c, finished off a couple of other silly jobs that I noticed needed sorting out on the way over. We headed out for grub after a clean up to the only place that was open. Food was okay, not great but seemed to improve with every class of wine.
Needless to say the pair of us slept like logs.
Next day after a couple of bacon sarnies we head back, the sea is much calmer which is funny as 5 were forecast all day, I'd say it was 3-4's most of the way back. Anyways she's up on the plane and the 4 hour trip up was 2.45 back.
Only "excitement" on the way back was when we were cruising along quite happily when the speed suddenly dropped and the engine sounded strained. I was trying to lift the leg (I've got an old 100 leg so it's manual) when I noticed a big thick piece of blue plastic float up...I assume that must have got wrapped around the leg, as I started her up again and everything was fine.
Sooooo, to sum up, boat seems to be okay in a bit of chop although I think I need to get her tuned up as I think she may be running a bit rich..I noticed a couple of times on tick over after the engine was hot she would die and it took 15-20 seconds to start up again and it smelt like she was flooding a bit....that's for another post.
Also very happy that I stick to near perfect weather when I go out with my wife and baby...just a little bit of weather and something like the thermostat screwing up, could really throw the spanner in the works.
The old Land Rover got us back home but the bearings well and truly have had it....just one more thing to sort out!!!
Take a seat, this is a long one.....
So, my mate phones me up a few months before and is going to pay us a visit, excellent, an opportunity to get out for some fishing. Time to start planning and finishing off any little jobs on the boat.
A week before my mates visit I'm driving back from the boat and the wheel bearings on one of the back wheels start to make a horrible noise, turns out I can only get the bearings from the main dealer...300 euros ?!?!?! ****, I arrange for my mate to bring them out from the UK and try to arrange for a mechanic to get everything stripped down and ready to fit the bearings on the Friday night, I don't have the time or the right tools for the Land Rover. Turns out the Mechanic isn't going to be in Athens on the Friday and I can't find another one to do the job at short notice. Stuff it, I'll have to nurse the old girl for a couple more trips.
The night before my mate flys out the Air Traffic Control mob decide to call a strike...sleazy jet cancel the flight. Their later flight is full. After a quick look around Chris manages to find another flight with Olympic at an okay price...phew close one.
Saturday morning our little girl wakes up at 04:00 (she's teething and must have fancied a bit of TLC) Being the good husband and being thankful for the Green card for the weekend I do my duties. Get the little one back to sleep, only problem is I'm wide awake looking forward to the trip. Oh well, might as well have a cuppa. Wake up Chris a bit later with a cuppa (the pair of us had a few sherbets the night before so have to ease into the day) I think waking at 04:00 did me a favour as I woke up before my hangover
So off we head for the boat, wheel bearing seems okay, making a slight noise but nothing too much...then a God awful noise for a minute then back to okay....this carries on but we manage to get to the boat..hhhmm how's it going to behave with the boat..we'll just have to wait and see.
Start loading up the gear...oh **** the keys are indoors. I normally keep them in the Land Rover but some scrote tried to break in a few weeks back so I took the keys out...Not to worry, thankfully I left the ignition key in and I was having a new sea cock fitted for the heads so the cabin is open. Still got the pad lock on the wheel clamp but a big set of bolt croppers they have in the yard sorts that out.
Turns out the new skin fitting I had put on for the water intake of the heads has been fitted the wrong way around...oh well, too late now, it will do the job but will have to be sorted out later....I don't know what it is with me....but any job I've had done by a "Professional" working in the boating industry always ends up balls'ed up...at Least I've learnt not to pay a bean until the job has been sorted...
Hitch up the trailer and we're off...seems okay...then it sounds like the wheels going to fall off....then back to okay..come on girl, just get us to the launch site..just a few minutes down the road. Pull up to the place where where they launch you from the beach with a tractor. Turns out they have had a massive build up of sea weed and they can't launch. They have cleared up one lorry load of sea weed but they won't get the rest cleared up until next week...I try a bit further along the road but the same deal...just another challenge...I'll launch from the public slip way a bit further along the coast....hopefully the wheel bearing will last the trip...on the way there I discuss how we launch from this slip, it's a bit tricky and I want to make sure my mate is up to driving off with the trailer to park up (obviously this being Greece a perfect place for boats the facilities are ****...obviously...)
Mate decides he doesn't want to risk it as he's not really driven with a trailer before, fair enough. I pull into a boat yard just up the road from the slip...plead with the guy in the yard who also has a Land Rover for launching to put us in..offer to pay obviously...He won't do it..why I ask, insurance? Nope it's our policy. I explain that my mate is over for the weekend and he'd be doing us a massive favour....Nope he says..Can't quite work out why he doesn't want some extra cash for 5 minutes work...I shall make sure I take my time next time I'm on the slip and he's waiting to launch someone.
We're nearly there now so we decide to at least take a look...sweet..the Marina which is normally packed (and I mean packed) has quite a few spare spaces.....we launch, Chris stays with the boat and I park up the trailer.
We're off....everything is going okay but we've lost a fair bit of time with all the sodding around...As we discussed last week, we really needed to head north in the morning to beat the choppy seas....well we didn't get going early enough..
The poor old girl is a bit under pressure punching against the waves and is smoking a bit..what with the fumes, the waves, the beers the night before and the sodding around in the morning the pair of us are feeling a bit jaded. We put up the cover and its stops the smoke being drawn back into the wheel house...okay, we're starting to feel a bit better, progress is slow but we're making head way...fishing is out for the day, we'll just get to our destination and perhaps an afternoon kip....Chris isn't feeling too great so I get him on the helm so he has something to concentrate on...We can see the little place we are heading to, nearly there...all of a sudden the temp shoots up...Christ..drop off power down to tick over but temp isn't dropping. I shut off the engine and check the raw water strainer, nope, that's okay, eventually get the thermostat out and can see for some reason the new stat that I paid over the odds for compared to a car stat that I fitted just last summer has decided to stay closed and stay shut...oh well, that will have to stay out, close everything up and get going...problem is we've been wallowing in the chop for 15 minutes yep...we both have to lean over the side and take care of business...feeling a bit better we carry on and no further temp problems.
Finally get to our destination:
Chopped out the "bung" of the thermostat and fitted that back in so at least there was some resistance, temp gauge is now reading 50*c, finished off a couple of other silly jobs that I noticed needed sorting out on the way over. We headed out for grub after a clean up to the only place that was open. Food was okay, not great but seemed to improve with every class of wine.
Needless to say the pair of us slept like logs.
Next day after a couple of bacon sarnies we head back, the sea is much calmer which is funny as 5 were forecast all day, I'd say it was 3-4's most of the way back. Anyways she's up on the plane and the 4 hour trip up was 2.45 back.
Only "excitement" on the way back was when we were cruising along quite happily when the speed suddenly dropped and the engine sounded strained. I was trying to lift the leg (I've got an old 100 leg so it's manual) when I noticed a big thick piece of blue plastic float up...I assume that must have got wrapped around the leg, as I started her up again and everything was fine.
Sooooo, to sum up, boat seems to be okay in a bit of chop although I think I need to get her tuned up as I think she may be running a bit rich..I noticed a couple of times on tick over after the engine was hot she would die and it took 15-20 seconds to start up again and it smelt like she was flooding a bit....that's for another post.
Also very happy that I stick to near perfect weather when I go out with my wife and baby...just a little bit of weather and something like the thermostat screwing up, could really throw the spanner in the works.
The old Land Rover got us back home but the bearings well and truly have had it....just one more thing to sort out!!!
