Pelican
New member
Back in office and with nothing to do I thought I might pass some time and tell u sailors how I spend the last few days on the waters of lake Geneva. So with the wife and dwarfs away sking, on late thursday afternoon the boat (a 35 year old 24ft Beneteau motor sailor) was victualed up and I slipped my moorings in Genthod (about 7km outside of Geneva) and headed up the lake. Lake Geneva is the biggest lake in Europe with Kms106 or 100 miles approx in circumference - about two thirds of the shore line is Swiss and the rest French. As a northerly wind called the bize was blowing - a good force 4-5, it was quite rough with waves a metre or two high (taking them on the nose fortunately) and as on a lake the waves are very close together unlike the sea. The temperature was minus five - and here I learnt a lesson. My first overnight stop was Nyon about 20 kms away which normally my 25hp Volvo MD2B wud cover in two hours - on account of the conditions this trip now took me three hours. I have an astrodome or a glass bubble fitted to the sliding hatch so in adverse conditions I can stay below decks and steer from inside for I have a remote contol fitted to the Autohelm. This was the case last thursday as the boat was plunging hard into the seas and waves going right over the boat. On arrival in Nyon in the dark, wind still very strong I tied up in the visitors moorings - stern line to a buoy and bows to jetty. It took me five minutes to get into the harbour and approach the jetty and in that time all the water on the boat FROZE - this means my cockpit lockers were frozen solid as were my MOORING lines!!! I only realized this as I went to go to the foredeck and had to slide on my bum along the cabin top for there was ice everywhere, and on arrival on the foredeck the bowline was frozen to the deck!!! Holding boat to jetty with boathook managed to ripe rope off deck and althou it was very stiff managed to tie up. Bummed it back to cockpit and fell below into the warm cabin where my Bengco heater was roaring away - after warming up with a dram or six, I returned on deck to cut off my motor after pouring a litre of anti freeze into the cooling system for it is raw water cooled. During the night the outside temperature dropped to minus ten, and for the first time in 50 years of boating, my mooring lines frooze as solid as iron bars so much so that I had to get out of my warm bunk at 4am to boil up some water to pour on the aft mooring line knot so as to be able to open it and loosen the line - hence stopping the awful jerking movement of the boat. I understand lines can break easily when frozen.
THE MORAL OF THIS STORY IS, in freezing temperatures, to keep ones mooring lines below decks in the warm cabin (heat below varies between 20 to 30C depending on stove setting). The next morning I had to use boiling water to loosen the knots on the lines so as to be able to cast off! The wind had died during the night and the lake was like a mirror and there were very few boats out. Spent the next few days roaming from various harbours on the Swiss and French sides, Morges, Montreaux, Evian, Thonon eating, reading and been merry, in brillant sunshine but still very very cold and back to Geneva Sunday. Am looking forward to getting away tomorrow for another four days run..... Happy New Year to you all and many thanks for the pleasure of having had, over the last year of reading so many posts, some so funny, some sad some angry but overall great fun! I log on first thing every morning before doing any work!
Cheers
Pelican
<hr width=100% size=1>
THE MORAL OF THIS STORY IS, in freezing temperatures, to keep ones mooring lines below decks in the warm cabin (heat below varies between 20 to 30C depending on stove setting). The next morning I had to use boiling water to loosen the knots on the lines so as to be able to cast off! The wind had died during the night and the lake was like a mirror and there were very few boats out. Spent the next few days roaming from various harbours on the Swiss and French sides, Morges, Montreaux, Evian, Thonon eating, reading and been merry, in brillant sunshine but still very very cold and back to Geneva Sunday. Am looking forward to getting away tomorrow for another four days run..... Happy New Year to you all and many thanks for the pleasure of having had, over the last year of reading so many posts, some so funny, some sad some angry but overall great fun! I log on first thing every morning before doing any work!
Cheers
Pelican
<hr width=100% size=1>
