4 Days on Sun Chi

Thursday 31st March - First day and night on the boat with no water pump. With no running water we collected water in containers. Gas and fridge works, so grocery shopping we go and ordered 2 new batteries. While Martin was checking the electrical stuff, I cleaned the cabin, unpacked and made the bed so we now have a place to sleep. Wasn't easy in the confined space and with a lot of extra stuff in the cabin we placed there to storing for "winter". After dinner we promptly went to bed at 7:45.

Friday 1st April - Martin started the day with phone calls to the marina in Austria and Koper and the trucking company. Once Martin lined up all his ducks, he called Gregor to update him on our arrival and departure times and was told by Gregor that will need three whole days to work on Sun Chi as one of his staff is sick. We have come to an arrangement, we will do the antifoul if he supplies all the equipment. Crisis averted. 

The rest of the day was

• me swabbing the deck while we had a break in the rain
• playing go-fer for Martin while he
• placed one battery in - we now have running water but we can't let it drain in the sink as the pump for the grey water has a broken clamp.
• working on how to run the engine without the Battery Isolator (I call it the blue box)
• buying groceries to last until we arrive in Koper 
• buying an adaptor for my computer Europe to Australian 

Saturday 2nd April 22

• Drive to Trieste to find a clamp for the grey water pump, didn't find one without having to order one and wait until next week for it to arrive. We did however purchase a heater that rolls up.
• return to Monfalcone and Brico to buy an adaptor with 2 prongs out and three prongs in and a large round bowl to place in the sink.
• Quickly returned our purchases to the boat.
• Return car in time for midday when the rental places shuts for the weekend
• Catch a bus in to Monfalcone central, had lunch and then caught a taxi back to the boat. Would like to say the was a quick trip but we didn't get back until 3:30

Sunday 3rd April 22

• fixed the boat heater / aircon 
• replace the battery for the bow thruster, this included dismantling the bed, 
• baled about 50 litres of rain water out of the bow thruster housing
• reassembled and remade the bed,
• couldn't work out why the bow thruster still didn't work
• dismantled the bed again and did more fault finding on the bow thruster
• got out the manual for the bow thruster and realised it needed to be turned on
• reassembled and remade the bed 
• found the Australian power adapters we left on the Sun Chi,
• cleaned up to ship out tomorrow,
• take the old batteries the the recycling shed here at the boat yard

The blue thing

 

Back in the water

Been a busy day today. This morning we woke (a few times, it's the jet lag) in the hotel and then went for a walk to go and pick up the car we had hired from the airport. Drove to Monfalcone and picked up a couple of Vodafone SIMs on the way. On our way up we heard from Gregor that we had an electrical problem on the boat. This thing takes the 12 volts generated by the alternator and the 12 volts made by the 12V battery charger and works out which one to use and then delivers it to the house battery OR the engine battery OR the bow thruster battery. Needless to say that black gooey stuff coming out is not supposed to be like that.

Also, the house battery and the engine battery are way down on what they should be (7 volts and 4 volts). I guess this is what happens when you leave stuff for 2 and a half years. Anyway, today we hired a car, droved about 130 kms, got two SIMs with data and phone numbers, order 2 batteries and got SunChi back in to the water. Tomorrow is another day.

Frankfurt to Venice

After landing at Frankfurt and getting off the plane at 1330, we had about 90 minutes to clear immigration, pick up our bags and clear customs, check our bags in for the flight to Venice and then clear security. Made it with 45 minutes to spare. We ended up landing at Venice around 1730 and got to the hotel just after 1800. Out for dinner and then crashed. Flew over the Italian alps and the Venetian lagoon on the flight down.

On the way in to Singapore

Going back in time a bit ;-) Took this shot on our descent in to Singapore.

Yeah that's been a long time between drinks

So Covid, yeah, it's been a long while. Anyway, we're due to head out to Sydney on the 27th March and then out to Frankfurt and then Venice on the 28th. Fingers crossed we'll actually get there. Rough plan is CBR-SYD-SIN-DXB-FRA-VCE and then drive up to Monfalcone. Boat in to the water, sail over to Koper in Slovenia. Boat out of the water on to a truck and then up to Tulln in Austria and crane back in to the Danube. Where to from there? Right or left but we plan on ending up in the Rhine river around about Strasbourg. That'll do for now.

Year 1 in the Med

It's been a big year. When we arrived in Italy in mid April and then made our way up to Monfalcone we had a boat that we had only spent less than 1 hour aboard. And that was on dry land and 2 metres in the air.

Now, we have:
registered the boat in Australia
a place to call home for 4 months a year
pillows, sheets, towels, etc
cutlery and crockery
all sorts of cooking utensils
worked out how the satellite tv works and bought a new tv
modified the dining table so it works for us and is easily modified for when guests arrive
We've had guests stay
We've worked out how to drive and park this sucker on diesel and electric without hitting anything
We've also worked out how most of the electronics stuff works and fixed a couple of boating and mechanical issues

Belinda has a done a bunch of work remotely and Martin has done nothing.
We've learnt about the Italian canals and marinas and spent a month in Venice like a local. It's a much nicer place when you are a local.
Spent a month in a marina / camping ground in Italy and decided that was pretty good. (Met some lovely poms while we there and will probably catch up with them next year)
Been to Slovenia and spent time in each of their 4 ports. (And decided we quite like the place)
Made a plan to go round the bottom of Italy and then changed it
Made a plan to move the boat via truck to Germany next year and then decided that maybe we'll give the Med a bit longer
Had a day trip to Croatia in a hire car and decided that we really want to spend more time there next year.

I'm now in the process of learning the wintering process while we're doing the cleaning.

On Monday, Sun Chi gets hauled out and we stay the night in a local hotel. Tuesday we fly to Rome and then on to Seoul in the evening. A couple of nights there to help us with the jet lag and by Saturday the 21st we'll be back in Canberra. Monday the 23rd and we're both back at work.

Oh yeah, by mid December we should be in the new apartment in Woden.

Pretty much, if it's in the red zone we've been there.

Folding Radar Mast

One day when we get to the canals we're going to need to have this folding mast. The fixed mast at the moment means that we need about 3.6 metres clearance under any bridges. By the time we've got this fitted and then fold the radar , TV and VHF antennae down in one movement we'll only need about 2.4 metres.

That means that a whole bunch of French canals are now possible and assuming we get back to Netherlands at some stage where we would have had to wait for bridges to be opened we'll be able to go straight thru.

The job now (after I've gone and bought the right tools) is to remove everything from the old one and then refit.

Guest accommodation

Visitors accommodation. Trudy and Justin arrived for a couple of days and this is the second time we've been able to try the additional bedding. We have definitely got better with the air conditioner and certainly comfortable enough for a couple of days.

It's been a lot more convenient this time as we're on a dock connected to the mainland. No ferries for us.

Morning walks and flex-a-rail

Most mornings we have been walking and getting in 5,000 steps before breakfast. I've got to admit that breakfast here in Slovenia has regularly consisted of coffee and a croissant while we're out.
We've kind of settled on two 'locals'. The morning local is pretty close to the Spar supermarket and the coffee (latte macchiatto) is the closest we can get to a flat white.
For the full price of EUR 5.80 we get two glasses of water, two coffees, a creme croissant and a jam croissant. Not bad.

I digress.

This morning we walked a couple of kms to a sailmaker hoping to be able to get some more flex-a-rail. As it turns out he's on holidays this week so I said I'd send him an email.

This is what the flex-a-rail is used for.

And this is the full version of the shade cloth that we bought from Bunnings in Australia.

The plan is to extend the rail so that it goes up both sides of the boat and when we come back next year we'll probably have another 3 or 4 metres of shade cloth.

Plenty of jobs to do

So yesterday I needed to clean out the grey water holding tank. There's an electronic sensor that detects when there is water and automatically turns on the pump. When it has pumped enough water out, the pumps stops. Sound simple, doesn't it.
Not quite, the sludge ends up providing the electronic contact and the pump keeps going and going and going. Anyway, I got sick of doing a quick clean every couple of weeks and this time I spent an hour or so down there giving the tank the best clean it's had in 8 years. Hopefully it'll be a while before I need to do it again.

We also discovered that the bottom part of the swim ladder was attached to the fibreglass with self tapping screws. Not ideal and two of the four were loose and couldn't be tightened.

This morning instead of the normal morning walk of 5,000 steps before breakfast we took a bus ride to Koper and walked to the chandlers and picked up some bolts and locknuts.

While we were in Koper we clocked up the 5,000 steps so it was time for breakfast. Coffee and a croissant each with this view.

While we were in Koper we also did a little shopping, had lunch and then came home to finish off those jobs.