Author: Duncan
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Replacing the danbuoy
The existing danbuoy on Blue Opal is well past its prime. The plastic cap is brittle, the rope looks like it’s suffered from sun exposure, and the buoyancy disk is dead, for lack of a better word. While in Viking Marine, my local chandlery, buying an extension for the 16A shore power cable, I noticed […]
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A day of tinkering
Spent today alongside, as I’m tethered to my phone and laptop (the joys of being on-call for a technology company). First job was to reduce the starting amount of furling line on the drum for the yankee. This was the easy part. When putting back the torx M6 bolts, one of them went for a […]
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EI-SZ-4
After a month of waiting, the civil service has produced a certificate for me, with Blue Opal’s call sign and MMSI. I now have a licence to establish a wireless telegraph ship station!
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An afternoon by Lambay
Yesterday I decided to sail to Lambay Island, north of Howth, mostly because it’s there. The tides were just right, with a low tide at 10:30 in the morning, and a high at 16:45 – perfect for catching the flood to Lambay, and the ebb back to Dun Laoghaire. Dun Laoghaire to the Bailey lighthouse […]
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Pondering the head sea-cock
The sea-cock under the head, the one used for the outlet, is pretty darn stiff. This was noted on the survey, and the prior owner indicated that they had addressed this issue (I assume by putting grease up the hole from the outside while she was on land). However, K can’t operate it, and my […]
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Leaving the pontoon
Blue Opal was alongside today so that I could get some shore power to run a steam pressure cleaner (a simple Kärcher one) in the head to get rid of some of the dirt on the fittings and piping. Alas, I couldn’t get actual shore power, because her 16A -> Marinco cable isn’t long enough […]
