Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure
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theres no ocean in Austria so he'll be aight.
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Today's project was to start making the travelling mooring lines. We have made fixed dock lines for our home pontoon, but as they stay on the pontoon, we obviously need some to come with us when we go away from home. This is the first, it's a 5 meter stern line made out of a beautifully supple 22 mm double polyester braid, at the main wear-point I have spliced in some 48 strand spectra (that's 96 individual buries, and it is exceeding fucking boring). A few more to make, but I ain't going to be rushing......The yellow whipping at the bitter end is code for "stern", the other lines will have different colour whippings, then all we have to do is remember which colour means what
This was not particularly difficult, but it did take a long time, I have another project on the go which is actually bloody hard......
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That looks super cool and an awesome splice job!
Hmmm, maybe motorcycles also deserve mooring lines? -
@Giles, looks like the orcas have set up a training program!
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Paula and I are on our way home after a magical trip to Jersey and Écréhous (if you ever get the chance, go there, it is other-worldly). Currently we are just west of Jersey heading for Big Russel, the channel running between Herm on the west, Brecqhou, and Sark on the east. I reckon we have about 12 hours to go until we get to Gosport. It's fairly lumpy, but I think it will get better once we get out of the islands and into the channel proper.
A few (rubbish pics)....
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damn the camera resolution is pretty decent!
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And if you want to know what the Ecrohous look like....The Thompson family hut, which is where we went is in the top middle of the pic(stock photo).....
And a photo from it at mid-tide.....
And low tide (stock photo)...
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On the way to the island for lunch with @Madame-Buttonfly ....
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Looks pretty blissful
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We knew that we would need cleats on the swim platform of SAKURA. In the Med, they are not really needed because most mooring is done stern-to. But in northern Europe where we have actual tides, stern-to is not common, and we will normally moor side-to a floating pontoon. So to get access to the boat without tripping over mooring warps, we need them. I had spec'd them to be added on during the build, but for some unfathomable reason, I deleted them.
So we had to get some made, and boy are they things of beauty.They are going to take ages to fit because we have to add access panels and that creates a series of further complications. Anyway, today, I got the big bolts that will fix the cleats onto the swim-platform deck. They are 316 (or A4) stainless steel and came unpolished, so I have spent an "enjoyable" (actually, sad to say, I do quite enjoy it) hour or two polishing the bit that can be seen (was going to say head, but thought better of it)....
Backing plate I had made out of 316 plate by a local engineering firm.
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@Giles said in Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure:
They are 316 (or A4) stainless steel and came unpolished, so I have spent an "enjoyable" (actually, sad to say, I do quite enjoy it) hour or two polishing the bit that can be seen (was going to say head, but thought better of it)....
Any fingers that got hurt in the process?
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Your gorgeous splice-jobs will look their utmost best on those mirror-finish cleats!!
