Category: Sailing
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Cutless bearing – new tube glassed in
It’s been a long time since I last saw “Blue Opal”, though I’ve been able to keep up with what’s happening to her via regular calls to the yard where she’s being worked on. Today, I got a photographic status update. That’s the new stern tube glassed in, filler work has started, and they’re doing…
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Cutless bearing – open hull surgery
After a bit of a wait, the work on Blue Opal’s stern gear has started. The rudder was dropped a little while ago, and other topside work was done while things were being sorted out for the actual investigation and dismantling. Close investigation of the open hull surgery photo reveals distinct pinking of the metal;…
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Sailing to Pwllheli – Navtex log
Unfortunately, I forgot to turn the Navtex logger on when we were alongside the pontoon, so the log starts somewhere out past the Burford Buoy. More reason to write the code for the ESP8266 and build my data logger. Day Day/time (IST) Latitude Longitude SoG (knots) Heading (True) 2018-07-06 2144 53ยฐ 14.811′ N 005ยฐ 57.360′…
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Sailing to Pwllheli
Blue Opal was delivered to Pwllheli yesterday afternoon, after a pleasant 16 hour trip from Dun Laoghaire. I brought her alongside the club around 1700 on Friday, and left the engine running under load to chill the fridge. Put supplies away, tidied up – all the stuff you do right before making a passage. We…
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Dun Laoghaire -> Pwllheli
Having called around to the local yards and engineers, all of whom have said “yes, we can do that in winter” or “sorry mate, I’m more on the commercial side”, I consulted with the gent who acted on my behalf in Conwy when I purchased Blue Opal. The suggestion was a yard in Pwllheli, and…
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Cutless bearing – hypothesis
As far as I am aware, Blue Opal was kept in Conwy from when she was launched until I bought her. Conwy happens to be at the mouth of a river, and the marina gets a fair bit of fresh water flowing into it – I’m not saying it’s fresh water, but it’s almost certainly…