March 11, 2025 – Lazure Marina, Montenegro
Up early with high wind and rain continuing. There was a
brief power outage in the morning that got my mind racing, but it only lasted
about 30 minutes. This was a good opportunity to catch up on writing.
Next chore on the list was to fix the pump on Suzette’s
shower. I had brought a repair kit from home. It was a lot easier to remove and
work on the pump this time compared to the last time. With the repair kit in
all seemed to be working well, I could see that the seal had been damaged in
the original assembly of the pump. Suzette was happy to use her own shower and
not have to walk to the marina shower. I will say the marina showers are nice,
but the weather is not.
Next job was to replace one of the RO elements on the water
maker. This turned into a much bigger job than anticipated. Once I had the tube
extracted, I could not figure out how to open it and replace the element. I
reached out to my friend Martin at Dessalator and he got right back to me with
a video showing me the magic. I needed to fabricate a hose assembly that I
could attach to the high-pressure inlet at one end and a hose bib on the other.
Fortunately, I had everything I needed in my spares, and I had the pressure
vessel opened and the RO element replaced in no time. Everything went back
together cleanly. Now I need to get out into the open sea and run sea water
through the new filter to break it in.
The wind was creating a surge in the marina, so we added a
couple spring lines to mitigate the boat movement. I was not the only one on
the dock checking and adjusting lines. The rain continued into the night, but
the wind subsided making for a peaceful night.
March 12, 2025 – Lazure Marina, Montenegro
The day started out very foggy, a rare thing in our
experience here in the med. The boat is warming up now that we have lived in it
for a while and the heat has been running. The fog moved on quickly and the
weather man said no rain after 1000, time for a walk.
We headed east up the hill and out of the town to see where
people live and take in the view. There were lots of apartments, some occupied
others rented for short stays. Below in the field was a flock of sheep grazing.
As is typical in so many European towns there were several half built and abandoned
buildings and homes. Perhaps they ran out of money or simply lost interest,
seems a great waste to me.
Passing back through town we found a hardware store, I never pass up a hardware store or a chandlery. Suzette on the other hand never passes up a shoe store, dress shop, grocery store, specialty shop… We needed a 230v extension cord, they had what we needed. Back to the boat for some lunch. I have been working on a spreadsheet that I use to plan our ongoing sailing route; start and finish ports, weather, tide and current, distance and duration. It is constantly being updated as the weather forecast changes, but it is a good planning tool. It is sort of a homemade weather routing tool.
Happy to not only have no wind or rain, but a sun that was
trying to shine, we took advantage and went for another walk. A couple of hours
and we felt like we had some exercise. Suzette set about making olive tapenade
and humus, I volunteered to be taste tester as the rain was returning.
Overnight we had a pretty violent thunderstorm with torrential rain and high wind, but it did not last long.
March 13, 2025 – Lazure Marina, Montenegro
You never know how a day is going go and this was no
exception. It was a lazy start with no real plan, just the knowledge that it
was going to be rainy and windy. With a need to do something I decided to clean
and organize my nav station, in other words purge some sh.. I was running out of
handy storage space for chargers, cords, etc. My first discovery was that there
were 7 pairs of sunglasses, several pairs of readers and another 5 or 6 empty
bags and cases for glasses being stored. I spread them out on the table and
suggested to Suzette that she might be able to do without some of these and she
obliged. Not that my hands were clean, I threw out one pair of sunglasses,
several bags and cases, but I can never have too many readers sprinkled around
the house…boat.
The day was much calmer than predicted and the sun was
trying to peak out through the clouds. It was decided that we would leave the
slip and run the water maker to break in the new RO element. First, I needed to
rearrange the dock lines for easy departure. Next, I back flushed the water
maker so it would be ready to run. Two things happened at this point, neither
of them good. First the water maker was leaking where the two RO cylinders connect,
and I could not see a way the address the leak. I reached out again to my
friend Martin at Dessalator for advice. While I waited for his response Suzette
confirmed that her vision in her right eye is getting worse, and we need to go
see the doctor again in Barcelona. I was not the supportive husband that I
should have been, but I rallied and did commence trip planning for Barcelona while Suzette
reached out to the doctor for an appointment.
Just before we left home Suzette had an eye appointment at
Kaiser and discovered that her reading of the eye chart was not as good as the
last visit but dismissed it knowing she would be seeing her doctor in Barcelona
in a week or two. You may recall that the Barcelona appointment was cancelled
at the last minute, and we shrugged it off. Well, we probably should not have
done that because Suzette is feeling that her vision is getting fuzzy again.
She was able to make an appointment for Tuesday next week. The flights to
Barcelona only run on Monday and Friday at this time of year. We booked a round
trip, Monday to Friday. Next an apartment near the doctor’s office and lastly
auto transportation round trip from the marina to Dubrovnik airport. It looks
like we will be spending next week in Barcelona.
Back to the water maker. Martin had good advice for us and
we continued addressing the leak, but then we discovered a new problem, a random
squeal that did not sound healthy. Back to Martin, but no response today. We
cleaned up our mess and hoped for a better day tomorrow. By then it was too
late to go out for a sail or motor so we reconnected the secondary dock lines
in preparation for high wind overnight.
Time for a cocktail and to sleep on my problems.
March 14, 2025 – Lazure Marina, Montenegro
Up early to the sound of wind and rain. Martin had gotten
back to us and requested a video, with sound, of the offending water maker. We launched into the water maker
and made a video. Martin was quick to respond and was reasonably certain that
the large pulley on the 12v side was going bad. He did indicate that it is
interchangeable with the 120v side in a pinch. Knowing that Martin is located
in Spain, and we were going to Spain I asked if he had a replacement pully in
stock. He did, and for 550 euros it could be mine. Oh, and I will need to rent
a car and drive 4 hours south to Denia to pick it up. I am going to sleep on
it. I was just happy that it was not the hydraulic pump, and we had a
contingency plan. Isn’t boating fun!
Next on my agenda was to resurrect my shore water filtration
system that I had built some time ago. I had tried previously to mount it
permanently in the boat and it just never worked out. Now I will restore it to
its portable dock side configuration and use it that way. This is a two filter system, polyphosphates to
eliminate hardwater scale and a 5 micron charcoal filter for taste. It
definitely improved the water quality and taste.
A very windy and surgy night, up at 0300 to adjust lines and
put more load on the lines with shock absorbers. The admiral gets credit for
orchestrating the line adjustments. This helped settle out the jerking motion.
March 15, 2025 - Lazure Marina, Montenegro
Another gray day with significant wind and surge. We always
start the day with a pot of coffee. Today we used the new Montenegro coffee,
but it was not very good. Hope we can find something better to replace it. We
may have to go to the café for a decent cup. Somehow, the cafe manages to make
a better cup of coffee.
Considering the cost of the pully for the water maker, the
admiral reminded me that we are still under warranty. This precipitated a long
email to our Jeanneau warranty manager and hope that we can get reimbursed for
the new pully. I reached out to Martin at Dessalator to confirm that we would
drive to his shop on Wednesday. He responded that Wednesday was a huge holiday
in Spain and nothing would be open. It seems that these people are always on
holiday. The celebration is called Falla, and it is celebrated primarily in
Valencia Provence not Catalonia where Barcelona is located.
The Falla festival starts on March 1 and culminates with the
grand finally on March 19. The festival symbolizes the coming of spring,
providing an opportunity for collective creativity and safeguarding traditional
arts and crafts. In the past the festivity was a way of preserving the
Valencian language at a time when it was prohibited. The “Falla” is a giant
monument created by local artists and crafts people, which provides an
often-satirical commentary on contemporary social issues. The culminating
activities include fireworks and the Falla is burnt to the ground a la
Burning Man.
Martin confirmed that we could come on Thursday, but we have
to pay in cash, he is not set up for credit cards! Good thing, I brought a lot
of euros from home this time. In preparation I dismantled the pully on the
water maker. The day continued with a heavy overcast, wind and the threat of
rain, but we had to get out and walk. It is always enjoyable to walk the town
and the promenade overlooking the bay.
We arrived back at the boat in time to beat the rain. I spent some time researching solar panel systems thinking that I might expand ours for more juice. My only conclusion was the need for a better battery monitoring system, sounds like a trip to the chandlery, but it is Saturday afternoon so that will have to wait until Monday.
We settled in for a Pod Cast, a grazing dinner of various leftovers,
cards and a Movie. The wind and rain calmed down for the night making for a
great sleep.
March 16, 2025 – Lazure Marina, Montenegro
Up early with lots of things running through my brain. It
was foggy, my brain and the weather, but the weather was predicted to be calm with light rain. The plan
was to get out of the slip and motor around the Bay of Kotor, we have dock fever.
It is probably just as well that we are going to Barcelona as a high is coming
in on Tuesday and, in spite of being sunny, the temperature will be a low of 38
degrees F and 40 knot winds!
The skies quickly cleared, and we saw the sun and blue sky
for the first time in days! Ready the boat we are going sailing. Leaving the
dock is no small chore, but we will be returning to this same spot, so the
shock absorber lines, water hose, water filter and electric cord were all left
on the dock. We slipped the lines with very little wind and motored out of the
Marina. The breeze was light, so we motored out toward the open sea at speed to
shed some of the winter growth on the bottom. We have ablative bottom paint,
which requires about 7-8 knots of boat speed to shed the bottom growth.
Satisfied with our shedding we came about and headed back into the beautiful
Bay of Kotor at a slower pace.
Deep in the bay we found another church and monastery, Our
Lady of Mercy, built on a tiny island and dating back to 1479. The wind was
picking up, we unfurled the sails and shut down the engine. This was turning
out to be not only a good shakedown cruise, but an excellent sail. The wind was
a bit fickle but finally steadied around 15 to 20 for a great sailboat ride.
With the self-tacking jib and close hauled we tacked up the bay enjoying the
calm water and beautiful surroundings.
It was still blowing 15 when we arrived outside the marina and furled the sails. Once inside the marina the wind was mild and blowing out of our slip making for a safe docking. Since we were leaving the boat for the week and the high winds were predicted we did the full tie up, double stern line, shock absorber lines and spring lines crossing the stern. Utilities reconnected the boat was settled back in after an exhilarating day of sailing.
It was time to turn our attention to our trip to Barcelona. We packed a little day pack for each of us and checked on our travel reservations. All seems to be in good order. All that fresh air and sailing had me ready for a nap, I resisted and rallied to help Suzette make a delicious vegetable stir fry for dinner. A couple rounds of Pinochle and off to bed.
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