Weathering the Weather

Whether you like it or not…..NOT.

Oh, really,…Capt Pete is gonna whine about the weather again? Sure, it’s easy but a lot of peoples lives have be terribly affected. Last week Spain got slammed and I’ve been following a system spiraling south of Italy. Looks like a big “C”

and I was going to name it appropriately but I was late and they already called it Daniel….pfff. Long story short… it slammed Greece and it was nasty. My heart goes out to the victims. The heavy rainfall has gone by and now we’ve got a Force 7 blow for the next five days!

I’m tellingya…. ol’ Zoot’s location always has a turd over it and it’s getting old.

So. the last post I was whining about the heatwaves…. they passed at last and we, the buddy boat and I, sailed off to our favorite spot across the South Evoian sea. Wonderful sailing conditions and I just used the motor for 1/2 an hour averaging 4knots under full sail. It’s fun trying to be a purest sailor!

right in the middle

And I’ll just throw up a bunch of pics

And yes, we caught some fish!! They were everywhere in the beautiful waters. Who would have thought!

But naturally the weather (see title) was gonna have fun with us. We were going to run north or south from it but it didn’t look good so we sailed back to our safe moorings….boring. But the sail back was a blast. Note to myself….when you’re sailing south of the “big” Island and you see white caps ahead…..REEF now!…oppps…too late….great fun!

Yeah so…what to do?

I hopped in by car and drove down to the Nafplio farm house and spend some time with family.

So poor ol’ Zoot Allures is all alone swaying on a mooring in the grey weather before the blow.

a lovely summer day

May the Universe protect Zoot Allures. And to be sure we got a new member for the Zoot Shrine.

So the summer didn’t pan out the way I thought. But all is good.

Actually I have been having fun sailing around the bay when the weather is nice…yes, I said nice.

So have a nice time and

Weather the Weather

Stay nice (please)

Capt Pete

ps….I have a few bluetooth apps on my phone which are vital for Zoot’s electric motor operation ( which I hope to post about soon). Yes there is a backup phone. So as a rule I don’t break it our for taking pictures. And when I do…you be the judge.

pss…. the “small summer” is around the corner!

Just for the Record….

….that hull polish job I did the previous post came out pretty damn good. Look how nicely the water reflects off the hull!

Water?????

Oh yeah…..Zoot Allures has been launched once again.!!

Lots of prep work, annoyingly taking off 500watts of solar panels because the mast gets laid above for the move. But the last day after painting the antifoul is always sweet.

And like every other time, the crane lifting is just horrible!!

dav

And following it down the street isn’t any better

So everything went smoothly…. meaning there were no catastrophes.

Then it was time to put ol’ Zoot back together again… which is getting old and boring, I’m getting older and weary and as usual there is no help. I took my time. Sails, boom, pv panels, windvane….it hurts.

It took me 2 weeks but that included going back to Athens and Piraeus for elections, shackles and various do-dads which have no end. Plus a week to relax…please.

I’m on a mooring on the harbor side. The waters aren’t as clear as my other stomping grounds but there is company. The story is I have a buddy boat this year. We’re theoretically heading north with no pressuring dates of return….. not having to work anymore is the way to go !!!!!!

But…. we got hit with a heat wave so I went home for the A.C. . I’m now on the mooring swinging and rolling in 20+ knot winds. They are expected to die down in a couple of days and another freekin’ heat wave will pass through so we ain’t heading anywhere soon. Plus there really is no pressure to do so.

God, I hate heat waves!

So stay cool and

Stay tuned,

Capt Pete.

ps…..One of them doo dads was a battery powered light and fan.

I got it hanging over my head. The light is 100 lumens and useful to hang from the boom as a cockpit light. The fan ain’t worth shit!!!!!!

pss…..43 degrees Celsius. Ew ew ew!! That really knocks me out. Plus I was helping with the launching and re-masting of 7 or 8 other boats since I had so much more free time. The next chance I get I’ll have my brain checked!!

Deja Vu!

Hey Y’all!!

Remember this? The rub rail caulking replace 11 years ago….

Numb Finger

Well….I did it again. It was all failing so time to dig up all the old caulking, clean out the grove, tape and re-caulk. 10 meter boat, huh? So that’s 20 meters of cleaning, caulking….40 meters of tape-ing….pretty much a 5 day job on your hands and knees. No prob. This time I went with another product. Bostic Deck Caulk…sausage size!

Aaaand I ran out of sausage for about 50cm and had to go buy a smaller cartridge….naturally. But it came out pretty good. I was worried about making a horrible mess with black caulk but it is true that “repetition is the mother of skill”.

WordPress formating is so useless!!! It cant just be me!

Zoot Allures top sides have never received any love. The oxidation of the gel coat was terribly sad and if you you gave her a pat, your palm was white. Time to boogie. Firstly wet sand with a block and 1000grit paper. There was also a waterline slim trail and the only thing that worked was hydrochloric acid….eww! Already looking better. But when I get down to luvin’….look out!!!!

Shopping time…. A Bulle rotary polisher w/adj speed control. 3M Heavy Cut with a white wood pad (dbl sided). 3M Light Cut with Wax and a yellow wool pad (dbl sided). So that comes to 40 meters of polishing. Veeeery mesmerizing!!! I did a lot of youtube research and here’s a clip on how that goes. It takes about 3 hours a pass so that’s about 12 hours of rotary fun.

And here are some results. I think it came out pa mal for the first time. Ol’ Zoot’s lookin’ a lot better!

Hmmmm….what else? Oh yeah, I designed and printed out a new throttle knob.

So yeah…..almost time to splash. I just have to find the oomph to do it. Lots of other stuff going on (fire hydrants, dinghy painting etc etc.) Last weekend I took off aaaaall the PV panels for the launch.

My body (is) weary!

Stay tuned,

Capt Pete.

ps… a coupla selfies….

sad and tired?

pss…goodnight from the boat yard!….and dinner at Nic’s