After a month back in the UK, we returned to Pirramimma in Lemmer mid September. The first few days were a mixture of sunshine and heavy showers which gave me the opportunity to fit new SpeedSeal covers on the impeller housings of both engines and, in passing, check the generator impeller that I had replaced the previous month. Bit of a surprise here…
This impeller has had 22.5 hours use and has been installed in the engine for 63 days! So out it came and in went my last spare.
I posted this photo on Facebook and my good friend Diederick thought that it could have been damaged from too much water pressure caused by bits from the previously destroyed impellers still being in the heat exchanger (causing a partial blockage) and that it might be possible to use a powerful wet & dry vacuum cleaner to suck the bits backwards out of the pipework. I couldn't look into this issue until we were back in Elburg at the end of September, but Diederick was right:
I was happy to have that little issue solved…
Anyway, at about 11.00 on 18th September and having brimmed our water tank, we slipped our mooring at Lemmer and headed for a little island in the NE part of the Sneekermeer where we had met some friends earlier in the season.
With the engine fully warmed up, we upped the revs to a nice sedate 1400rpm which gave us 5 knots with the gentle (6 knot) breeze behind us - just enough to push the diesel fumes ahead.
As we approached the Sneekermeer the wind was steadily increasing; more than forecast in fact. By the time we had arrived at our mooring we estimated that it was a steady 20 knots, probably 25 in the stronger bits, from the SW. Decided to take a mooring on the NE side of the little island to gain some shelter and avoid mashing the fenders against the pontoon. This meant a faster than normal approach and an attempt to lasso the bollards before the wind blew us off again. We actually managed this without too much of a problem … except that we were dangling from our mooring lines about a metre off the pontoon. On a sailing boat this is not an issue as you can just run the lines to a winch and wind the boat upwind to the pontoon. Different matter on a 20+ ton motor boat.
After some minutes of sweat (felt like a couple of hours) we were happy with our mooring efforts so turned the engine off and relaxed. We had the little island to ourselves.
The island is called 'Adam'. There is a newly built island 15 or so metres away (shown in the photo below with another cruiser alongside) and is called - you guessed - Eve.
On the chart this place appears to be called 'Sâltpoel' so maybe 'Adam & Eve' are local names. Apparently the previous 'Eve' was blown away, or sunk in a storm, or something, hence the newly built island. I don't know if anything from Adam was used in the construction.
The next day (Saturday) the wind continued to blow and the Meer filled up with vessels of all types. There were at least three separate dinghy races happening, a couple of the large Skûtsjes out training as well as the usual motor and sailing cruisers, and a couple of these:
Each to his own.
Friends from Papillon, Paul and Sheila, had arrived on Sunday afternoon for drinks and dinner and we had a great time catching up with their news.
Monday morning it was still cold and windy, but this time the wind was in our favour as it just blew us off the pontoon as we cast off the lines. We drifted gently downwind as we brought the fenders and warps inboard and then circled back towards Papillion to wave goodbye.
A five mile trip into the middle of Sneek where we arrived at lunchtime. Moored right in the town centre for three nights at a cost of €19.50 per night all in (WiFi, electricity, water if required and tourist tax) which we thought a very reasonable price. One of the benefits of being in the middle of this town was complete shelter from the wind; a very welcome change.
/Rich
No comments:
Post a Comment