S.V. Sunny Spells

Soon after I acquired Sunny Spells, I experienced the dreaded “exhaust muffler meltdown”. We were motoring out to a twilight race when the exhaust note suddeny changed and a lot of smoke was emitted from the engine room. We had the main up already so the engine was killed immediately and we continued the race. After the race we picked up a mooring under sail (lucky I was not on my own).

I established that a cooling hose had come off (a separate story could be told about the cause). The plastic water lift muffler had melted and a very simple fault had now resulted in a nasty repair job. Graham Friend, having decades of experience, had fortunately saved the engine by killing it instantly.

After a bit of “Googling” I found what appeared to be the perfect solution to avoid a repeat of the problem. Borel Mfg in the US makes an exhaust temperature alarm that claims to activate immediately should the exhaust temperature rise. It seemed to be reasonably priced at $89 and I ordered one straightaway - it arrived after about a week. Installation was simple enough - the most onerous task being the wiring. I chose to install the alarm below, but ran a repeater wire to the engine alarm in the cockpit.

Borel Wet Exhaust Alarm

I’ve often wondered whether it actually works - it’s just been sitting there for two years, making a quick beep whenever the engine is started… Recently, however, it finally paid for itself many times over, when a raw water impeller failed, and saved me a lot of hassle and expense. The engine and exhaust system was saved by the exhaust temperature alarm when a brand new raw water pump impeller failed. The story of that event is the subject of an earlier post…

A story by Helen Dudley in which the Chief Protagonist is a Bucket as requested by Gerhard who has a Peculiar Bucket Fixation.

Once upon a time there was a very lonely bucket. The bucket had an almost constant companion in his partner, the spade and formerly they had been the best of friends. However, about a year before this story takes place, they had a serious disagreement over who was responsible for them regularly becoming covered with sand with each blaming the other and consequently they were no longer on speaking terms.

One day the children who owned the bucket and spade took the bucket out of its cupboard leaving the spade behind. The bucket was surprised but pleased by the prospect of a solo outing. It was taken to a small wooden jetty and filled with water. Shortly afterwards a strange creature was placed in the bucket.

“Hello” sad the bucket, “what are you?”

“I’m a shrimp” the creature replied. “What are you? And why am I inside you?”

“I’m a bucket and I’m afraid I don’t know what you are doing here” the bucket said. “But I am glad that you came as I’m very lonely” and it related the story of its life with the spade.

While the bucket told its tale they were joined by lots more shrimps and soon they were all talking happily. The bucket couldn’t remember when it had last enjoyed itself so much.

All too soon the children had finished their shrimping and decided to return home. They lifted the bucket and started to tip the shrimps back into the sea.

“Goodbye!” they called to the bucket as they fell.

“No! Please don’t leave me” the bucket begged.

“We can’t help it” they replied, “Come with us! You can live with us n the seabed where you will always be surrounded by friends.”

“Yes!” the bucket cried and it suddenly twisted itself out of the hand of the child who held it and fell into the sea where it rapidly sank.

And now the bucket lives happily under the sea where its friends the shrimps play in and around it all day. The children bought a new bucket which soon became great friends with the spade who told it maqny tales of the strange and unreasonabkle behaviour of its predecessor.

With the heads repaired, we set off Monday and motor sailed for a large part of the day. After we passed Port Stephens we managed to sail for the occasional thee-hour stretch, but we still motored for 18 hours out of the first 24. I was very grateful for the new soundproofing I had recently installed as it made a vast difference to comfort aboard.

The crew were coping remarkably well with the offshore conditions. Only Pascale had done any real offshore sailing before and, at the other end of the scale, Melissa had never been on a sailboat before. Melissa struggled a bit with seasickness initially, but boy she recovered quickly after vomiting, always returning with a big smile and infectious enthusiasm.

The watch system was easy on everyone, with a 6 hours off, 3 hours on schedule giving everyone adequate rest. I took Melissa on my watch, being the least experienced sailor, and Helen and Pascale, who were by far the two better helmsmen and had more experience than the others, led the other two watches. The crew kept log and wrote short stories in a notebook, some of which (like Melissa’s “Dolfie the Dolphin” story) had us in fits.

By the time we reached Coffs Harbour early on Wednesday 27 May, everyone had settled in and their was much relief at being able to go for a hot shower. The delays with the departure and slow progress meant that Thomas decided to

The story of Dolphy the Dolphin, written by Melissa 2xOeufs et Bacon while on nightwatch between Sydney and Coffs Harbour, 26 May 2009.

By: the French-Canadian who has a grade 6 grammar in English and has a hard time with all the weird accents around her She can put it up with it.

Dolphy the dolphin was living somewhere in Australia at 28°04.339′S/153°32.214′E. One day, he decided to be adventurous and see the world. During his voyage, he arived at an Island where a sail boat was ankored and a man was swimming. He decided to have fun with him because he felt lonely like the bucket.

The man said: “wait here, I will go pick up a ball so we can have fun.”.

Poor Dolphy, the dolphin… He didn’t know that the skipper was a bad man.

Instead of a ball, he came back with is golf club and decided to knockrd Dolphy like Canadian cub seals.

While Dolphy was unconcious, THE BAD SKIPPER decided to drug him and attached him to his boat.

During the time he was under drugs the skipper conviced him that they were best friends and theywill stay like this happily forever.

Dolphy, the dolphin woke up in this state of mind. He was happy he could help out his best friend, the Skipper.

The Skiper will used the doplhin to increase his speed by 3,274 knots which is good if you are on a calm ocean like today. Also, like Mongolian with their horses, the Skipper will cut Dolphy when he’s hungry to have a little steak on the barbecue. He would also darn Dolphy so he could swim again and pushed the boat. Usually he would marinated the steak for about 24 hours with garlic, honey, Dijon mustard, soya sauce and a little bit of Peri Peri. Hmmm Delicious!!!

They lived like this happily forever.

Moral of the story

DON’T DO DRUGS
give it to a dolphin, it will increase your boat speed without being financially demanding and is environmentally friendly. It is also a great source of protein and omega 3 for a healthy life style.

THE
END