Beautiful sunrise!

Obelix and I leaving Æbelø at 5:00AM. What a beautiful morning!

Day #2 of my 2014 summer cruise

Tour of Obelix

Please excuse my english. I hardly ever get a chance to use it and as a result it's ..erhm... "not that great".

Nasa battery monitor BM-1: http://www.nasamarine.com/proddetail.php?prod=BMN-1_Battery

Standard Horizon GX2000
http://www.standardhorizon.com/indexVS.cfm?cmd=DisplayProducts&DivisionID=3&ProdCatID=83&ProdID=1559

Fusion RA-50:
http://www.fusionelectronics.com/marine/products/head-units-50-series/ms-ra50

Digital yacht AIT2000:
https://digitalyacht.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=11686

LED Lenser m7r:
http://www.ledlenser.com/uk/flashlights/m7r/

Back in the water

First short trip of 2014

Sorry, Iv'e been neglecting the blog lately. First things first; Obelix is back in the water! Now the race is on to get ready for the big summer cruise of 2014. The plan is to head north to Norway. More on both the preparations and the destination later. The last couple of weeks Iv'e been very busy installing the new headsail furler (Alado A2), redoing the wiring, installing the new VHF (Standard Horizon gx2100) and AIS transponder (Digital Yacht AIT2000) and a lot of other projects. I still have a lot on the todo list and only one month to complete them all.

During the six week long summer cruise I'll have access to the internet. Net 1 utilizes the old CDMA network to provide great coverage although at somewhat slow speeds (up to 6 Mbit). This should enable me to do all the posts I haven't had time to.

A quick "before and after"

Why?

The reason why is quite simple. Due to wear and tear the interior of Obelix was in bad shape. Much of the plywood had separated between the plys and in several places the outer veneer of the plywood had ben worn thru. There was no way I could save the old plywood. The only opinion in my eyes was to replace all the plywood that had been damaged. I did consider staining and varnishing the new plywood exactly as Peter did on his Ballad (http://www.mostlyaboutboats.ca/). Due to the fact that I had no experience varnishing and was unable to find a stain that produced a color I liked I ended up choosing to paint all the plywood.

I will be sure to post more "before and after" pictures once I'm 100% done with the interior.

Before and after photos

I think the change is for the better although I'm sure some people will disagree. I like the bright white color as opposed to the dark plywood and faded almost yellow fiberglass.

Before

After

Before (outer veneer worn thru)

Before (outer veneer worn thru + plys seperating)

Before (outer veneer worn thru) 

Before (outer veneer worn thru) 

Before (outer veneer worn thru)

Very close to being done!

It's been a while since my last post but I have a good excuse. I've been busy working on the interior. For now I will simply post couple of pictures and a video. I will go into further detail later :) My goal is to have Obelix back in the water within two or three weeks.

The video is about two weeks old. It was shot using a GoPro mounted on a kitchen timer. The Pictures show the current state as of last night (4th of may 2014).

A closer look at the engine (Volvo Penta MD6A)

1970's Volvo Penta MD6A (saltwater cooled) 

My neighbor helped me take a closer look at the engine (he's a mechanic). I now have a basic understanding of how my engine works, what parts may fail, common problems and what to make sure I service on a yearly basis. It is extremely comforting.

While looking at the engine it turn out that there was a leak from the exhaust elbow (see below image, just above the exhaust hose). Next day I called Volvo to enquire about a new exhaust elbow and was told it would be impossible to find a replacement. Luckily it turns out it's not impossible to find spare parts for my old MD6A - infact it is easy. By coincidence I stopped by Nordjysk Marine later that day.  I was there to exchange some Dubarry Ultima boots. When I mentioned my broken exhaust elbow it turned out they were able to order a replacement for me. In fact I was even given a choice between a cast iron or stainless version. As the price (roughly USD 200) was identical I chose to go with the stainless version. I also ordered a new thermostat and some gasket. I'm really looking forward to putting it all back together again.


All in all a very comforting experience. I have no illusions; my engine is old and will break down at some point and it will be too expensive to fix (vs buying a new or used engine). But for now I should have a reliable engine.

Manifold and exhaust elbow