longjohnsilver
Well-known member
Now safely back home from helping tcm bring his boat back from Pisa to Antibes, just a bit colder here today than it was yesterday, shorts and t shirt weather.
Suffering from travel fatigue, lack of sleep, too much booze (that’s not really possible is it, can you ever have too much drink?) and too many cigars.
Left Matts place at some ungodly hour of the morning on Monday, pleasant flight to Pisa, spotted the boat as we came in to land, then when about 100’ above the ground the pilot decided that landing on the grass was not a good idea, silly sod blamed the fog for not seeing where the runway was, so landing aborted and Genoa here we come! Anyway one taxi ride later we, that is tcm, me and LJS junior arrive at the boatyard. What a place, bloody huge hulls towering over us, men swarming over them like flies, all in the middle of nowhere.
Tcm checks that evertything’s been done that needed to be done, so we set off down this ditch to Laverno, by now it’s starting to get dark after all the delays (the plane was already late even before the diversion). After a few minutes tcm hands me the wheel and I think bugger me, those banks look awfully close all of a sudden, particularly running on one engine at tickover speeds. Made it safely down to the rivery bit when all of a sudden we stop, run aground on what seemd like a mud bank, black horrible stuff swirling around astern. The chap from the boatyard took over and reversed us off only for a few minutes later one of the engine alarms going off and the starboard engine cuts out. By now it’s pitch black, a fair amount of wind and an ocean going ship coming our way. Engine restarts and promptly stops again several times, suggest putting it astern in case we’d picked up a rope when in the mud, didn’t see anything come off but seemed ok after that. Squeezed into a tiny berth, never been in backwards like that before, neat bit of driving by tcm. Even before we berthed the boatyard bods were there to greet us with tools to hand, charged into the engine room and did whatever down there and pronounced the problem fixed. Never did really find out what they thought the problem was, but all was ok.
Wandered into town for a meal, walked for miles b4 finding a restaurant, pleasant meal nearly over when ljs junior announces he’s not feeling well and wanders back to the boat. Tcm and I found a little bar, no tables or seats but loads of different new drinks which we just had to sample, coffee based thingys with whisky or brandy or possibly even cough medicine, then a bright greeny yellowy thing which tcm “recommended” as being like Fabreze! From that we moved onto liquid marzipan, a strange cognac and after that it all becomes a bit hazy, particularly after stumbling into the second bar and having wine with toasted ham and cheese sandwiches. Total bill for several hours drinking and pack of cigars came to about a tenner! Would certainly go back there again if only I could remember where there was!
Got back to the boat to find sick son had actually been sick 4 times on the way back from the restaurant, luckily not on the boat!. Tcm very impressed that I could get totally lashed and have son being sick for me.
Agreed we would leave at first light, spent the night in the crew cabin with the door to the engine room open. Most peeps get woken by an alarm clock, but two 1200hp diesels being started about 2’ away are far more effective!!!
All the forecasts we saw predicted variable 4-6mph winds, what we actually got was F 4-6 and possibly gusting 7 at times, not exactly ideal for a 150 mile trip. Still Diana 2 took it all in her stride, spray flying everywhere, 22kts or so at 1700 rpm increasing to around 27kts at 2000 revs, all seemed so easy and unstressed. Until the starboard engine decided it would gradually start to lose revs, in the end was only pulling around 1400 so tcm decided to head for the nearest port to investigate further. By this time we were only just over half way and it was nearly mid afternoon having been slowed by some particularly nasty seas.
After a few bacon sarnies the world seemed a better place, and we cleaned a few engine filters and set off again, engines happily running at 2000 revs again, seas flattening off and even a glimpse of some sun. After an hour or so both engines started slowing, till all we could get was about 1300. We made the decision at that point to anchor and check the filters again and to use the compressor which was in the engine room to blow air through the fuel lines back to the tank as we figured that there may be a filter on the fuel pick up line in the fuel tank which maybe was becoming gradually blocked as fuel was being drawn thru and then partially clearing when the engines stopped. Managed to blow diesel all around the crew cabin and engine room, put it all back together again, started engines and upped anchor and bingo, both engines stopped!!
By this stage we were both getting a little concerned, it was getting dark, we had no engines and the vhf wouldn’t work. Tcm says to ljs junior to anchor again as we tried to decide what to do next, so back down to engine room to bleed the engines, shouldn’t really have needed doing as I blew the air back to the fuel tank and not in the direction of the engines. Tcm found the manual pump, a bloody great thing, and sure enough air came pissing out of the bleed screws.
Cleaned ourselves up again, crossed fingers and turned the engines over, and over and over, a few coughs and splutters and then a lovely reassuring roar! We were off! Pull up the anchor tcm says to ljs junior, ah well axshully, tcm, decided that as we were drifting towards Antibes made decision not to put it down in the first place! Tcm most impressed by the not anchoring manouvre.
After that they ran as sweet as a nut and made Antibes several hours after dark, no further problems. Went out for another meal, but all so shattered very few drinks were consumed and a relatively early night was enjoyed.
A good relaxing day yesterday in the sun was a real tonic, boat put to bed and all was well. Diana 2 is certainly an impressive vessel and ideally suited for Med boating, a memorable trip in more ways than one. Thanks for the trip tcm, one never to be forgotten.
Suffering from travel fatigue, lack of sleep, too much booze (that’s not really possible is it, can you ever have too much drink?) and too many cigars.
Left Matts place at some ungodly hour of the morning on Monday, pleasant flight to Pisa, spotted the boat as we came in to land, then when about 100’ above the ground the pilot decided that landing on the grass was not a good idea, silly sod blamed the fog for not seeing where the runway was, so landing aborted and Genoa here we come! Anyway one taxi ride later we, that is tcm, me and LJS junior arrive at the boatyard. What a place, bloody huge hulls towering over us, men swarming over them like flies, all in the middle of nowhere.
Tcm checks that evertything’s been done that needed to be done, so we set off down this ditch to Laverno, by now it’s starting to get dark after all the delays (the plane was already late even before the diversion). After a few minutes tcm hands me the wheel and I think bugger me, those banks look awfully close all of a sudden, particularly running on one engine at tickover speeds. Made it safely down to the rivery bit when all of a sudden we stop, run aground on what seemd like a mud bank, black horrible stuff swirling around astern. The chap from the boatyard took over and reversed us off only for a few minutes later one of the engine alarms going off and the starboard engine cuts out. By now it’s pitch black, a fair amount of wind and an ocean going ship coming our way. Engine restarts and promptly stops again several times, suggest putting it astern in case we’d picked up a rope when in the mud, didn’t see anything come off but seemed ok after that. Squeezed into a tiny berth, never been in backwards like that before, neat bit of driving by tcm. Even before we berthed the boatyard bods were there to greet us with tools to hand, charged into the engine room and did whatever down there and pronounced the problem fixed. Never did really find out what they thought the problem was, but all was ok.
Wandered into town for a meal, walked for miles b4 finding a restaurant, pleasant meal nearly over when ljs junior announces he’s not feeling well and wanders back to the boat. Tcm and I found a little bar, no tables or seats but loads of different new drinks which we just had to sample, coffee based thingys with whisky or brandy or possibly even cough medicine, then a bright greeny yellowy thing which tcm “recommended” as being like Fabreze! From that we moved onto liquid marzipan, a strange cognac and after that it all becomes a bit hazy, particularly after stumbling into the second bar and having wine with toasted ham and cheese sandwiches. Total bill for several hours drinking and pack of cigars came to about a tenner! Would certainly go back there again if only I could remember where there was!
Got back to the boat to find sick son had actually been sick 4 times on the way back from the restaurant, luckily not on the boat!. Tcm very impressed that I could get totally lashed and have son being sick for me.
Agreed we would leave at first light, spent the night in the crew cabin with the door to the engine room open. Most peeps get woken by an alarm clock, but two 1200hp diesels being started about 2’ away are far more effective!!!
All the forecasts we saw predicted variable 4-6mph winds, what we actually got was F 4-6 and possibly gusting 7 at times, not exactly ideal for a 150 mile trip. Still Diana 2 took it all in her stride, spray flying everywhere, 22kts or so at 1700 rpm increasing to around 27kts at 2000 revs, all seemed so easy and unstressed. Until the starboard engine decided it would gradually start to lose revs, in the end was only pulling around 1400 so tcm decided to head for the nearest port to investigate further. By this time we were only just over half way and it was nearly mid afternoon having been slowed by some particularly nasty seas.
After a few bacon sarnies the world seemed a better place, and we cleaned a few engine filters and set off again, engines happily running at 2000 revs again, seas flattening off and even a glimpse of some sun. After an hour or so both engines started slowing, till all we could get was about 1300. We made the decision at that point to anchor and check the filters again and to use the compressor which was in the engine room to blow air through the fuel lines back to the tank as we figured that there may be a filter on the fuel pick up line in the fuel tank which maybe was becoming gradually blocked as fuel was being drawn thru and then partially clearing when the engines stopped. Managed to blow diesel all around the crew cabin and engine room, put it all back together again, started engines and upped anchor and bingo, both engines stopped!!
By this stage we were both getting a little concerned, it was getting dark, we had no engines and the vhf wouldn’t work. Tcm says to ljs junior to anchor again as we tried to decide what to do next, so back down to engine room to bleed the engines, shouldn’t really have needed doing as I blew the air back to the fuel tank and not in the direction of the engines. Tcm found the manual pump, a bloody great thing, and sure enough air came pissing out of the bleed screws.
Cleaned ourselves up again, crossed fingers and turned the engines over, and over and over, a few coughs and splutters and then a lovely reassuring roar! We were off! Pull up the anchor tcm says to ljs junior, ah well axshully, tcm, decided that as we were drifting towards Antibes made decision not to put it down in the first place! Tcm most impressed by the not anchoring manouvre.
After that they ran as sweet as a nut and made Antibes several hours after dark, no further problems. Went out for another meal, but all so shattered very few drinks were consumed and a relatively early night was enjoyed.
A good relaxing day yesterday in the sun was a real tonic, boat put to bed and all was well. Diana 2 is certainly an impressive vessel and ideally suited for Med boating, a memorable trip in more ways than one. Thanks for the trip tcm, one never to be forgotten.
