Thursday, May 23, 2019

We are getting old!

Sold !
The Katie Lee is for sale!

http://katielee.tcls.com/

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Miyakojima Visit

It was a short visit in miyMiyakoj. We really only stopped because of the weather. And the only picture I took is not that much, no view.
Me returning with the laundry

We did have a good time. We met a very helpful Mr. Tomari who is chairman of the miyako Yacht Club. He helped us tie up, let me use his washing machine to catch up and laundry and gave us a ride to town. He even threw a BBQ on hisbohis for us. Trinda has had the flu the whole time here so didn't go. Salad, grilled steak, chicken legs and onions. Very nice.

 The yacht club dock is over 2 miles from town with no transportation except taxis.  We tried to get a taxi to the store but a cruise ship came in and reserved all the taxis for the whole day.

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Sailed to Ishigaki

After only 2 years we left Taiwan for Japan. We planned to leave at 7am, but ....

I had started the engine the day before and let it run for 30 minutes to be sure all was ok. But this morning I got no cooling water out of the back! Back to the dock. I thought it might be the impeller in the raw water pump so I took it out to check. About 30 minutes and equivalent bloody scratches and cuts! No problem found. Ok must be the intake hose or through hull valve.

I took off the hose and blew through it. Yes, I was rewarded with a face of cold salt water. I put the hose back to the sea strainer and we took off. Made it to the next dock before it over heated again. Down to look in the engine room. More water in my face. I had not tightened the radiator hose enough. It had slipped off. Easy fix, just put it back and refill the radiator.

Off to catch up with Heinz who had been sailing in circles waiting for us.

Sailing was great the first 8 hours or so. 7.5 to 8 knots by the GPS. We had found the north bound current and a nice breeze on the beam.

But then the wind shifted, the waves got bigger and the current changed. Very slow, uncomfortable trip, hand steering cause the autopilot didn't like the wind angle and bouncing off the walls from the waves.

The engine kept over heating at much above an idle but we made it.

Side tied to Heinz in Ishigaki

I had missed a little when I was putting the engine back together in Taiwan. I used a silicone liquid gasket for the heat exchanger/exhaust manifold and didn't get it on one side enough. It leaked exhaust gas pressure into the radiator. Be so an easy enough fix. I pulled off the flange, cleaned it and re-did it again. Works fine again.