Family sailing
Thursday 30th May was national holiday - and with Friday off we got a long weekend. I spent Thursday for preparing Meritaten for sailing - provisioning food, water, fuel and other necessities.
We left Norrtälje on Friday, after late breakfast.
Weather was good although windy. I took rubber dinghy as it can accommodate all three of us.
This is the first family sailing this year so we take it easy - we decided to just sail to Flaten and then see if we want to go any further or stay there. All depends on the weather.
Friday sailing was very relaxing - the wind was strong but conveniently we were sailing broad reach all the way. To keep it calm we went only on genoa.
There were just three other boats on Flaten, all in the inner harbour so we had the concrete, external pontoon only to ourselves.
I avoid going into tight harbours with Meritaten - as a long keel boat she does not like to turn sharply and motoring back is always tricky. On the outside pontoon we have a good position to leave the harbour on sails.
Girls went to explore the island and I took care of folding sails and securing the boat for night stay.
As a simple boat we don’t have refrigerator or ice box but instead we use bilge to store fresh food. It works surprisingly well - temperature there is around 8 degrees.
Girls came back with wild chives which they gathered on rocks.
The rest of day went on exploring the island, reading, smoking pipe and other leisures.
The forecast for the next day, Saturday, did not look promising. With strong and gusty southerly wind, rain and clouds - it was about to change to northerly in the coming night. I was considering which nature harbours should we sail to - or if we stay on Flaten. Or if we just sail back home.
We’ve left it open for the next day and enjoyed the evening.
The night was relatively warm - with 15 degrees - but I started the oil lamp in the morning to heat up the cabin. POD kerosene stove is still waiting in my workshop to be installed.
The weather deteriorated and wind shifted to SE, according to forecast. We didn’t feel like sailing further today so either staying on Flaten or leaving home were the options. Around 11 came more boats to the inner harbour and it became clear that the island will not stay calm as it was yesterday. I decided to take advantage of southerly wind which should gave us beam reach on the way back to Norrtälje.
With reefed mainsail and partially unfurled genoa we’ve left around noon. Rainy and windy, it became in fact close-hauled sailing all the way to home harbour.
Close to Norrtälje the wind calmed and gusts ceased. I shook the reef and we were running under the full sails all the way to the harbour.
We’ve arrived around 17 when heavy rain started..
Night rigging
Final preparations before long weekend and family sailing: I took home all the remaining junk from the boat and installed new madrases which just arrived.
I needed to wait until late evening to work with the mainsail - there was too much wind to safely rise the sail and work with the running rig.
While waiting for the wind to die I finished repairing cleat/winch shelves on cockpit coamings.
All old screw-holes were plugged with mahogany plugs set in epoxy. Port shelf was glued back where it belongs. After the epoxy set I could instal new Tufnol cleats - Aladdin lamps. They will work better than previous clam cleats.
Wind has finally calmed down around 22:00 so I could uncover the main sail and attach reefing track which I got from Börje. It is screwed with eleven M5 screws, set in Loctite blue thread-glue.
(thanks again Albert ! ).
Following advice from Rigging Doctor I installed reefing lines on one side of the sail. I also rigged small blocks on leach grommets, to minimise friction while reefing. Soft shackles do the job here.
After all lines were installed and trimmed the sail is now equipped with all reef lines in traditional slab-reefing manner.
Tomorrow I will provision Meritaten with food, water and fuel and on Friday we will head for sea!
Water pump renovation
I got to my sea-water pump today. Good description of the process can be found here.
The objective is to change two internal sealers: water and oil seal. One of them is probably causing the pump leakage.
Taking it into parts was easy - first came the axle with two bearings.
Gentle taping with wooden hammer got it out in no time.
The problem started with internal water seal. There is no way to remove these without damaging them and access is very limited. One needs to improvise a bit with tools.
In the end I managed to remove both seals. Unfortunately I also dented a bit soft bronze housing of the pump. That can lead to leak under the paper seal so I sanded the whole surface flat on 180 grid paper.
Both seals needed replacement. Bearings show no problems but the axis is a bit used. I would change it already now but this part was not ordered. If the pump still leaks after this maintenance then the axis will need to be replaced.
Assembling back all parts was easy. Special care is needed upon pressing down new seals so that they sit dead flat and all the way down in their cavities. Placing them right side up is also crucial, not to mention avoiding dents inside the bronze housing. Unconventional tools were called for.
Assembled back with new impeller cover - ready to be mounted on the engine.