Sunday, May 30, 2010

Leaving Malta 5-31-10




We should be leaving Malta tomorrow. The wind are suppose to be strong, above 25 knots, but we will see.




We have to meet Rik and Dinksa in Croatia on the 10th. so we need to get moving. Should be about 580 NM, so we have a few days of sailing and not much time to fool around.




The stay at Malta has been very good. The people are so nice and the prices for services are fair and thats all you ask.


Ther is so much history here for all to see. I would recommend this for people to visit.




The engine is fixed. Everthing above the block has been rebuilt or replaced and I only had one diesel leak when it started back up. There was a small crack in the injector return line that i hd to get brazed by a local man you took 20 seconds to complete. He wa so good at what he does, it was perfect. Had been doing that type of work since he was 14 years old.




Would like to thank the crew and the captain from the Marlena for all of the nice meals we had together and the time we had to exchange ideas and concepts from all the different cultures. It is like a real family and I welcome any to sail in the future if they have time. Especially to my new sons Rod and Taylor. All of the food was fantastic by Leonna and she taught me how to fix calamari. It wa so good. We probably won't see Laura due to her engagement and will be in France in her free time, I know I would be, sipping wine and smelling the flowers. Make sure to take time and do that.




Next post should be from Croatia. We will put the Spot on once we depart. It will be nice to get moving again. Hopefully the weather will stay warm now.


Brad and Ian


Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Malta Still Here







We are still in Malta. There are much worse places than here, but here weare.



We took the boat out for the shakedown and evergthing worked well except the engine overheating.






We got back in fine but the engine has positive pressure after 1 mnute of running and when the RPM's go up the temp. follows.






we now have the engine completly apart and the head has 2 very small spots where the cylinder pressure is leaking to the coolant water.



This happened in Flordia when we had water in the oil. The salt water scored the gasket and time has taken its toll.






The bus drivers going to downtown now call me by name when I get on the bus, so there are some good things about staying around for a while.






The head should be fixed tomorrow and we will put it back together. Freddie is taking care of the grinding of the head andgetting the parts for me. This is the best place for this to happen. We know people that know people.






We will probably leave on Monday because the 100 year old yacht Mir is having aparty on Sunday and we don't want to miss that.






Vicky was here for a week for her birthday. We had a nice time and met a lot of new poeple while she was here. She skould of spent more time but not this trip.






We have to meet Rik and Dinska in Croatia on the 10th of June so the presure is on to move. We have a lot of good places to go in Croatia because we met people who have been ther for 4 years and have special spots. They think we are going to have a great time.



As JM would say " we just pissed away another day and we didn't do anything".






This is a great spot for people crusing and we have had just a great time and the people here are just freindly and helpful.




We also inflated are liferaft taht was quite interesting to see what was inside. It has a lot of stuff inside to last for 10 days if you have to use it. we don't ever want to see it other than in the shop.






Brad and Ian