finally under way to Porto Santo

We had been delaying our departure to the Madeira Islands day by day as the weather was ugly with rain and the wind from where we wanted to go.

Yesterday the wind started to veer and this morning we were able to leave Portimao at with a nice NNW. Passing Sao Vicente the wind picked up into the mid 20 knot range and we are now underway rather fast, averaging a bit over 8 knots. Very rough sea at the cape but getting significantly better now as we approach midnight and have sailed some 150 miles.

This entry will be sent with via winlink over SSB, a first try how that works. Obviously we cannot seriously send pictures along, but there was not much to see, except for some freighters sparkling waves.

Plan is to arrive in Porto Santo sometime during daylight on Thursday, if we keep going like this, it will be very early.

Back in the water and ready to leave these shores

After a 12 day break, back in Germany, during which we became grand parents, we returned to Taniwani on May 22, with our bags full of spare parts for the bow thruster.
Thanks to the Sopromar team, Taniwani was almost ready, with the fixed rudder fitted again. Soon the leg of the thruster was reassembled and it was on us to reconnect the steering and reinstall the bow-thruster.

All this was done quickly and by Tuesday morning Taniwani was ready to get back into its element. But as it was the day on which new cables were fitted to the travel-lift, we had to wait for another day.
This was easy, as we were in good company, since sister-ship Lahaina had joined us on the hard while we were away. First picture is Taniwani's bow with Lahaina in the back.

Finally on Wednesday we were lifted back into the water. There was some excitement as the newly fitted bow-thruster caught the front belt of the travel-lift when we were told to back out of the box.
Unusual as this is one of the most experienced travel-lift crews we had seen around the world, and only because of this we had the bow thruster out and ready to combat the gusty side wind if need be.
Luckily the maneuver only lifted Taniwani's bow and stopped our exit, without doing any further damage.

Eventually we took off to the anchorage at Portimao. After some 'sea trials' checking sails and water-maker, we are back again to this anchorage, now waiting for a small depression to pass before setting off to Porto Santo and Madeira.

Light at the end of the maintenance tunnel

Rudder taken out and cut open for inspection. Looks like suspected corrosion isn't that bad. Certainly water had infiltrated between shaft and fiberglass and a lot of crumbled and wet filler was found. Luckily corrosion is not so bad that we would have to worry about structural weakness of the shaft. Joao, the local epoxy magician thinks he will easily fix it so it last at least 20 more years - we shall see...

More of a problem are the spare parts for the MaxPower bow-thruster:After a week, the Portuguese dealer told us it would take to the end of May to get the spares. Luckily a call to Sailtec in Germany revealed that they have the needed assembly in stock. Too late to ship it to Portugal while we are still here, so we will pick it up in Germany and bring it with us when we return to the boat.

But this means we will not be able to bring Taniwani back to the berth in Albufeira before we fly back home. Taniwani will have to wait in exactly the same well known spot, where in 2009 the major repair took place.

At least we now hope that when we return, all we need to do is to assemble and refit the bowthruster and then get back in the water quickly.

On the dry for longer...

It feels a bit like two years ago when we had been stranded in this shipyard for several months. Hope it will not be that long again, but it seems clear today that we will most likely not get back in the water before we fly back home on Mai 10th. Maybe by end of May, when we really want to take off towards Madeira and the Canaries Taniwani will be ready again.

What happened?

Well, the known problem with the bow thruster turned out to be worn out bezel gears in the foot. Sopromar could even locate the spare part (the whole foot section), but the ordering process is not clear yet, as the maker company MaxPower was taken over by Plastimo some time ago and now Plastimo became part of the Navico group and logistics are all unclear. Still, there is hope the part will be here in a week or so.

The next part is the cutlass bearing that we really needed to replace after 3400 hours. The old one is out and the new one supposed to be here by Wednesday May 4.

The real problem, and a big surprise in addition is the rudder. The folks who were cleaning the boat, prparing it for fresh anti-fouling paint found a crack on the front edge of the rudder, usually well hidden behind the skeg. It must have been there for some time, as it has been painted over at the last anti fouling job. Strangely the fibre-glass still sits snug on the shaft, almost as if the fibre-glass cover has shrunk. The opposite however is more likely: The expert at Najad thinks that rudder shaft has grown due to some unexplainable corrosion.

We will soon know what it is when we open the rudder, it is already free, but we need the travel-lift to lift the boat a bit to get it out. Hopefully this will happen on Monday and then we need to see if we can repair it or if a new rudder is needed. All this will of course take time.

In the mean time we are enjoying the rain in Lagos....

On the dry

Well, we had asked if they (Sopromar) are open on the Easter Monday and the answer was, yes all these dates are fine just come to our dock and we'll arrange the haul-out. Turns out this Monday is Revolution Day here and off course the whole yard was at sleep when we arrived.

So we tied up to a Swedish boat and waited for the next day. And indeed, around 8 am, things got busy and it didn't take long and Taniwani was out of the water safely. After a bottom wash we were dropped at the exact same spot that we had spent several not so happy months two year ago.

This time we only need fresh anti-fouling and we need to fix the bow thruster. For the anti-fouling the boat has to dry off for two or three days and regarding the bow thruster Harald spent several hours trying to get the lower part out. Eventually received help from the yard mechanic who was able to get out one resilient bolt, but had to retire eventually at the end of the work day. Harald finally found that an oil filler nipple was blocking the whole thing and managed to get the whole thing out in the evening, before heading out for wine and food.

Tomorrow the lower part of the thruster will need to be disassembled and only then we will see what part(s) are broken and how long it may take to get them.

If we can fix it locally we would be back in the water by the end of the week, if not .......

We'll let you know.

Meeting in Portimao

After three rainy working days, getting Taniwani ready, we enjoyed a fairly sunny day at the anchorage of Portimao.

Here we met up with sister-ship Lahaina, a long time e-mail contact, but never met in person.

Lahaina will slowly move to the Med, and we need to go to the shipyard in Lagos tomorrow to haul out for a few days.

More from there...

On board again....

We are back on Taniwani now for two days, getting the boat ready and stocking up supplies again.
Taniwani had safely wintered in the Marina of Albufeira, a good place to leave the boat alone, but not a good place to live on board. Without a car shopping is rather far away and with car they seem to make sure your car doesn't get stolen. Though that service is not cheap at €91.-
We plan to leave here tomorrow (Saturday) for two days at anchor and then on to Sopromar at Lagos for a quick haul out.
More from there...