Paris, Toronto, Greece and Maintenance

We left the boat at the end of November to fly back to Canada…..but we decided to do a 3 day stopover in Paris. Naturally the wheel on my luggage was broken. My rolling luggage became dragging luggage. Dragging 50 pounds over uneven pavement. The 2 km walk from the train station to the hotel was brutal. In my youth I mocked rolling luggage when it first came out…….the system operator never forgets.

Victoria really wanted to visit Disney Paris. I enjoyed the rides, and admired the power of the Disney brand. Victoria is scared of rollercoasters….but she loves Star Wars, so I was able to coax her onto a Star Wars themed rollercoaster which she really enjoyed. We also had dinner at a Michelin 1-star restaurant named ASPIC which was wonderful. The restaurant was maybe 15 tables and the chef was a young guy who moved between watching all the tables and the kitchen all night. They serve a tasting menu. We took the wine pairing and I think I drank about half of Victoria’s wine as well as my own.

We also ate at Au Pied du Cochon…and Bouillon Julien. The food in France is so amazing. We also visited the Eiffel Tower. I had never been because I considered it too touristy……but wow! 330m tall, completed in 1889(!!!) and the tallest human structure made for 41 years! I am still surprised people were able to make something so massive out of steel over 100 years ago.

After Paris we spent 6 weeks in Toronto. Victoria visited her dad for a few days in the US. I overindulged in the foods I had been missing: proper chewy bagels and pizza. I gained 10 pounds in the 6 weeks I was home. Plus Victoria was cooking every night for my dad. Plus we don’t walk as much in Canada as back in Crete. It was great to see my kids and friends and family again. But I definitely got fat.

We spent 10 days in Volos at Victoria’s mom’s place, where….surprise surprise, I’m fed at every opportunity. At least I could get out every day to take a walk by the ocean.

I went back to the boat, and Victoria stayed in Athens for a month with her daughter. I was worried that something could have happened to the boat while I am away. Of course the other people at the marina will keep an eye on major things (like the boat staying tied to the dock…and staying above water), but if say there was a small leak from a hatch, or something similar, it could be a mess when you get back. When I arrived back it was very windy, and the docks and the boats were all pitching around…..but inside the boat was dry as toast.

After a few days the sump pump decided to not pump any longer. I have ‘re-built’ this pump with new parts twice….I’m still amazed at the simplicity of the design (two 1-way rubber valves pointing in the appropriate opposite direction, and a big rubber bladder that goes in and out creating pressure and then suction..and not much can stop it from working. I opened it up and it looked fine inside. I shook the intake hose to make sure that nothing was stuck at the bottom. Still nothing. The ‘pit’ where the water goes gets all the soapy water from the bathrooms and the kitchen sink…..and gets a LOT of soap-scum buildup……so I decided to really give it a good clean.

Out came the bilge hoses (the main bilge pump hose and then the manual bilge pump hose). Up came the housing for the bilge-float and the switch. There was lots of gunk. I took everything to the dock and scrubbed it off. Big yuck. Honestly too gross to take a picture!

Then I used a special tool I had made (a broom-stick with a bent metal strainer tied to the end) to pull up all the crap at the bottom into a bucket. I had cleaned this before…..but never with both hoses pulled and LOTS of crap came out. I dug out as much as I could, and then put everything back together.

Still the pump didn’t work, but I was too tired to do any more today. When I describe the above you have to imagine doing all this bent over in a small space where you can only move inches in each direction. On a boat this is considered a lot of room.

The next day I took the pump off the wall of the engine-room so I could look at it more closely (removing 4 screws and 2 hose attachments). I could see very small pieces of hard gunk had stuck in both the inlet and outlet valves…..so the unit couldn’t create suction. I cleaned them both, re-installed it and YES IT WORKED AGAIN! Very very happy that I fixed this even though it turned out to be something so simple.

I also decided to finally make covers for the boat bumpers. I got a ton of material for cheap from the local market and wanted to use it. We have a sewing machine, and last year I made a practice outboard engine cover that we are still using (I’m going to replace it soon with a proper one made with super-expensive outside fabric that is so expensive I’m scared to cut it!). I purchased some expensive German UV-resistant thread…..and the machine hated this thread. I spent HOURS sewing a bit, having the thread break, re-threading…..etc. Probably I had the thread tension wrong. I switched to some regular thread and it worked. Here is one of the bumpers.

That was a successful project, and I also made a simple iPhone app after watching hours of YouTube videos. (The card game WAR….you vs. the computer…draw cards and highest card wins. ) The iPhone environment is very complex…..it was much simpler when you wrote your own operating system 😉 I’m still learning how to read and write data on the phone….it is much harder than you might expect. I would like to discuss this with the designers.

Yesterday here was 21 and absolutely perfect weather. Summer will be here soon, and it is only the beginning of March! I have about 6 weeks until Easter, then we visit Volos again, and after that we will be off! I need to re-build our bow-thruster. Gears are certainly stripped. I’m sure that will warrant some writing.