Hurricane
Well-Known Member
Real challenge this year.
The boat is now in her 10th season so lots of things needed doing.
Engines had to have their 1000 hour service (valve clearances etc)
I chose to do lots of stuff that isn't on the schedule - change of belts and coolant etc.
We also had a repair to the starboard silencer that needed doing.
All this on top of the usual boatyard maintenance.
And (see a separate thread) the generator needed some TLC - there will be more maintenance for the generator later in the season.
We had also set ourselves the challenge of meeting some guests in Mallorca on the 1st June.
They had planned to do a VERY quick cruise with us before returning on the boat with us to Sant Carles.
All to be done in a week.
And that needed the weather to behave itself as well!!
In the end, everything turned out well but we had to work hard on the weather - getting ourselves in the right place to maximise the time available.
When we set off, it was clear that the wind and swell was going to come from the south west.
So, we opted to make our landfall on the north coast of Mallorca.
The plan was to anchor in Calobra with the port of Soller as a refuge if the swell became untenable.
In fact, it was idyllic and we had a perfect first night under those fantastic cliffs.
We then moved on to Santa Ponsa where we spent a couple of nights.
A good friend has bought a villa in Santa Ponsa and was waiting for the delivery of his new Axopar so we were able to use his berth for our tender.
JW stayed on anchor of course.
The weather forecast was for heavy rain over the weekend so we booked into Palma for one night.
Then it was on to Ibiza and Portinatx - if you get it right, it can be just like anchoring in a swimming pool.
The next day we moved over to San Miguel and tied back to the rocks.
It is always a bit of a challenge setting the rope and anchor but well worthwhile as we then get the bows facing into any swell.
After two comfortable nights, we headed back to Sant Carles.
The idea was to pop in to the Columbrettes (some remote islands between Ibiza and the mainland) for lunch but the weather picked up and we had to battle through some rough seas back to our home port.
All in all, it was a success and the boat is ready for the season.
The solar panels are still proving to be a great addition.
This year, I changed the old galley fridge for a domestic high efficiency one - wow what an improvement - the old fridge must have been a huge drain on our batteries - I reckon the new one saves between 5 and 6 amps (at 24v) over the old fridge.
Even with overcast days, we are now getting a net gain to our batteries so most days, they reach 100% by mid afternoon.
The new Flexiteak on the bathing platform worked well - not much hotter than the wood but it is early days yet.
It was certainly not a problem on this trip.
We are staying on the boat in Sant Carles for most of the summer so we will be able to report on the Flexiteak later in the year.
Anyway, here is a video of the trip.
I've tried to show where the anchorages are located by including a zooming clip at various stages in the video.
No apologies for the audio track - I wanted to use a royalty free track so that it is available in all countries - so I just picked some Youtube royalty free music.
Some of the clips are from the drone - a replaced Mavic Pro (some will remember my Mavic last year taking a swim!!)
On some of the drone clips, I made a bit of a mistake fitting a too higher NV filter but I've managed to correct it in the post processor.
The rest of the videos were taken using my Samsung S8 Android Phone and a hand held gimball - a cheap £60 one.
I'm really quite impressed with the gimball - there is no way I could have held my old SLR as still as that.
You can see it working particularly well at 1:48 in the video - where the boat moves and the camera seems to be still.
All the post processing was done using KDENLive - a free open source video editor.
I am REALLY impressed with it - having used Premier Pro and other top of the range editors, this Open Source package has the lot.
I'm using it under Linux but it is multi platform.
So, here's the video
But if you prefer to see those cliffs in full HD follow this link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=IJZg7qSjGzw&vq=hd1080
The boat is now in her 10th season so lots of things needed doing.
Engines had to have their 1000 hour service (valve clearances etc)
I chose to do lots of stuff that isn't on the schedule - change of belts and coolant etc.
We also had a repair to the starboard silencer that needed doing.
All this on top of the usual boatyard maintenance.
And (see a separate thread) the generator needed some TLC - there will be more maintenance for the generator later in the season.
We had also set ourselves the challenge of meeting some guests in Mallorca on the 1st June.
They had planned to do a VERY quick cruise with us before returning on the boat with us to Sant Carles.
All to be done in a week.
And that needed the weather to behave itself as well!!
In the end, everything turned out well but we had to work hard on the weather - getting ourselves in the right place to maximise the time available.
When we set off, it was clear that the wind and swell was going to come from the south west.
So, we opted to make our landfall on the north coast of Mallorca.
The plan was to anchor in Calobra with the port of Soller as a refuge if the swell became untenable.
In fact, it was idyllic and we had a perfect first night under those fantastic cliffs.
We then moved on to Santa Ponsa where we spent a couple of nights.
A good friend has bought a villa in Santa Ponsa and was waiting for the delivery of his new Axopar so we were able to use his berth for our tender.
JW stayed on anchor of course.
The weather forecast was for heavy rain over the weekend so we booked into Palma for one night.
Then it was on to Ibiza and Portinatx - if you get it right, it can be just like anchoring in a swimming pool.
The next day we moved over to San Miguel and tied back to the rocks.
It is always a bit of a challenge setting the rope and anchor but well worthwhile as we then get the bows facing into any swell.
After two comfortable nights, we headed back to Sant Carles.
The idea was to pop in to the Columbrettes (some remote islands between Ibiza and the mainland) for lunch but the weather picked up and we had to battle through some rough seas back to our home port.
All in all, it was a success and the boat is ready for the season.
The solar panels are still proving to be a great addition.
This year, I changed the old galley fridge for a domestic high efficiency one - wow what an improvement - the old fridge must have been a huge drain on our batteries - I reckon the new one saves between 5 and 6 amps (at 24v) over the old fridge.
Even with overcast days, we are now getting a net gain to our batteries so most days, they reach 100% by mid afternoon.
The new Flexiteak on the bathing platform worked well - not much hotter than the wood but it is early days yet.
It was certainly not a problem on this trip.
We are staying on the boat in Sant Carles for most of the summer so we will be able to report on the Flexiteak later in the year.
Anyway, here is a video of the trip.
I've tried to show where the anchorages are located by including a zooming clip at various stages in the video.
No apologies for the audio track - I wanted to use a royalty free track so that it is available in all countries - so I just picked some Youtube royalty free music.
Some of the clips are from the drone - a replaced Mavic Pro (some will remember my Mavic last year taking a swim!!)
On some of the drone clips, I made a bit of a mistake fitting a too higher NV filter but I've managed to correct it in the post processor.
The rest of the videos were taken using my Samsung S8 Android Phone and a hand held gimball - a cheap £60 one.
I'm really quite impressed with the gimball - there is no way I could have held my old SLR as still as that.
You can see it working particularly well at 1:48 in the video - where the boat moves and the camera seems to be still.
All the post processing was done using KDENLive - a free open source video editor.
I am REALLY impressed with it - having used Premier Pro and other top of the range editors, this Open Source package has the lot.
I'm using it under Linux but it is multi platform.
So, here's the video
But if you prefer to see those cliffs in full HD follow this link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=IJZg7qSjGzw&vq=hd1080
