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and it won't take several hours to scroll down to the bottom of the page.

May 28, 2008

Again, nothing new to report. The rain stopped so we went sightseeing.

Click here for the pictures.

May 26, 2008

Nothing new to report with the exception that WIFI is at best, non-existant. When we are startled by a connection it is usually only for a few minutes, if that, then vanishes.

We are located in an interesting area and wanted to share with you a look around our neighborhood.

Click here for pictures of the neighborhood

May 24, 2008 (pictures added below)

Well our worst fears have been realized. Boutonniere's engine has seized and has to be replaced. After several bus trips (I won't even go into the problems we've had getting the dingy to run) between Andraxt and Palma John found the Perkins diesel representative in Palma. He has arranged to have the engine replaced when/if we can find a place in Andratx or Palma to berth. There were none in Andratx or so we were told. Now we need to get the boat to Palma and the Perkins engineer even got us a tow into the harbor "if" we can get there. It has been a nightmare trying to find someone to tow us to Palma. We were finally boarded by the Majorican Aduanas (customs) and checked for proper passports & vessel papers and to verify that we were not pirates or smugglers. We explained (they did not speak English) our plight to them and were given an ample helping of sympathy. I asked if they would consider towing us out to the mouth of the harbor so we could try to sail to Palma. They were adamant about the fact that they did not do those sorts of things. I asked again a little later and got a less adamant response so tried again after a few minutes and they agreed to pull us. There was, as always, a misunderstanding. They towed us out into the middle of the channel and suddenly cut us free. Luckily the wind was blowing in the correct direction and we were able to get out of the harbor. We spent the night tacking to get near Palma and finally the following morning John got ahold of STP, the facility that managed to find a place for us and tow us into port. They met us about 2.5 miles out of the harbor as luckily the wrong direction and/or non-existant wind was not going to allow us to get there. They towed us in and squeezed us between two other sailboats in an area where huge motor yachts were being pulled out of the water and others put back in. One of the guys towing us in pointed to a "huge" blue and white yacht and said it belonged to Bill Gates, whoever he is. He said the boat had been refueled a week ago to the tune of 600,000 "euros" or about $900,000 dollars and would only last a whopping 4 months. My mind is still reeling. Two days ago we were pulled again to a dock that had a place beside it for a truck with a crane to pull up. The engine was succesfully lifted out without any damage being done. We then sat there for several hours while the fellows who towed us donned their scuba gear and dove beneath a huge yacht to connect the giant strapping used to lift it out of the water. These are men of many talents and probably lots of income. Finally we were returned to our place between the sailboats to wait approximately one week for the new engine to arrive. We will then be towed back to the same place (an assumption) to have the new engine installed. So here we sit enjoying the pouring rain. We are determined to have fun regardless. Evidence will be posted soon. :-)

A couple of pictures. I don't understand why these things always happen to the "Good Guys"

May 11, 2008 (pictures added below)

Things are looking a little gloomy at this point for our beautiful ship Boutonniere. We were unable to start the engine. After checking the batteries, inspecting and cleaning all contacts it just would not turn over. We are contemplating ways to try and turn the crankshaft by hand to possibly dislodge it as sometimes this will free it up enough to allow a restart if a light seizure occurred. The all too sad irony of this saga is that John had the engine rebuilt less than a year ago and the rebuilders replaced everything but these two hoses. Alas, they are far away in Turkey.

To add insult to injury the weather here has been horrible. We have been enveloped in a huge low that is sending high waves right into the bay we're anchored in. This causes severe pitching of the boat and makes life during the infrequent lulls, miserable. If you let go with both hands you are living on the edge. Most of the boats that were anchored around us pulled up and went somewhere else. We are persistent and refuse to move. Ha, ha. It has rained and at times felt like the ocean was being dumped right on Boutonniere. Yesterday there was lightening all around us for some new entertainment.

We did get the dingy running and will be going into Andratx today to try and get on the internet. If you are reading this the trip was successful. (It was not. This is being added much later.) We will probably have to contact the Perkins diesel representative over in Palma to get more suggestions, if any, on how we might go about starting the engine. The alternative is not acceptable. Please keep your fingers crossed and we would be most grateful for any suggestions or ideas that any of you might be able to come up with and so "thanks in advance". We will keep you updated.

Greg

Click here for some pictures of the port at Andratx

May 09, 2008 (pictures added at bottom)

There's a very old British Navy superstition that says you should "never" depart on a voyage on a Friday. We did not believe this superstition so we left on a Friday.

The sailing gods have failed to smile on us since. This is an accounting as best I can recollect. With my untimely illness the days have kind of blurred together.

The departure from Tarragona was uneventful. We were heading for Mahon on Menorca with the wind almost directly on our nose so couldn't sail and consequently had to motor. The first evening out the regulator failed which left us with no RPM gauge as the reading is taken off of the alternator. This was not a major catastrophy but was annoying as we had to guess at the engine RPM. Of course this was "my" annoyance as John, with his vast experience sailing, could probably set the throttle within a couple of rev's of dead on the money. The other problem this caused was having to run the generator (more fuel) to charge the batteries since the alternator was out of the loop.

Later that same evening while I was on the midnight to 4am watch an alarm went off. I quickly found that it was the low oil alarm so immediately shut down the engine. John came running up to see what was going on and as he opened the door to inspect the engine room/shop found that a high pressure oil hose had burst and had sprayed oil on just about everything in the shop area and had covered the floor & walls. This WAS a catastrophy as we couldn't sail into the wind and now had no engine. We decided to try for a port on the big island of Majorca instead as we would sort of be sailing just off of the wind. Of course since the sailing gods were "still" not smiling, within a couple of hours of changing course the winds essentially died. Now we are dead in the water. We can't sail and we can't motor and I am admiring enormous solid 1000 foot high rock cliffs on the north side of Majorca and hoping I don't get a closer inspection. We degrade even further. Now I have flu symptoms and am getting sicker as the day goes by. We spent most of the next day and night trying to get enough wind to get to a port John found on the northwest corner called Andratx. Early the next morning we find a "sniff" of wind and try tacking around the corner but to no avail. Finally John takes us much farther away from land and we find a little more air and continue to tack until we think we can make a beeline for Andratx. Our first success. We sail into the harbor with no brakes (engine) but master John picks a spot, makes a fast u-turn into it and yells "drop the anchor" . I do. We are finally safe in the harbor.

The pain will continue. Over the next few days I am in & out of my bunk trying to help but spending much time in the head (bathroom). The first day Captain John takes the hose off and removes a second one that is nearly identical to the first to preempt it's possible failure. He then hops into the dingy to head for town. The dingy will not start. We are a little over a quarter of a mile from the town. He starts paddling. This is a dingy without oars. He has to lean out over the bow and with a single paddle somehow gets it all the way to town. He will be doing the same thing coming back. The pain in this tale is that John did this a total of 3 times over 3 days and all of them were coming back against the wind. On two occasions he was spotted struggling by another person in a dingy and was given a tow the last 100 or so yards. This man has more stamina than I ever had or hope to have. Fighting with differences between metric & American standard threads the insanity finally ended on the fourth day. The engine started on the dingy and ran the entire way to shore and back and John finally was able to get the parts people to understand exactly what was needed. Part of the problem with these trips was that once you got to shore you had to catch a bus from Andratx to the capital, Palma to get to the dealer for Perkins Diesel. This trip would average an hour and a half each way. The hoses are back on the engine and we will test everything in the morning. We found a disconnected wire in the regulator and we're hoping that will resolve that problem.

Oh great sailing gods, please give us a break. Results to follow.

Greg

Click here for some pictures of our departure from the marina in Tarragona