You'll have gathered from my last post that we travelled back to England to visit our parents at the end of June. You can see from the pictures below how delighted they were to see us:
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| Beryl and Keith - Jo's parents (caught off guard!) |
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| Margaret - Rob's mum... |
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| ... who went off Rob when he scored 185 with "crescent"! |
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| A better picture of Jo's parents - Lee on the Solent... |
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| ... and better still! |
A French National Strike delayed our return flight from Gatwick by two days. There's not a lot to do in a Gatwick hotel. It's not as if you can even go for a walk anywhere.
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| Rob "enjoying" the Hilton, Gatwick |
Still, with this being June 24th 2016, there was plenty of breaking news on the TV:
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| EU referendum results. Interesting times... |
Joking aside, it was great to see our parents and they were delighted to see us too. Despite the disastrous travel arrangements, we're very glad that we went.
My suspicions that the Volvo engineer had not yet visited Cyclone were confirmed when we finally got back to Port Louis. We didn't want to hang around until they were able to fit us in and so decided to limp on with the engine as it was - i.e. getting too hot if we ran at anything over 1700(ish) rpm.
More from a feeling that I had to try something to resolve the problem than anything else, I decided to isolate the calorifier (hot water tank) from the freshwater cooling system - just in case this was responsible for an airlock or was somehow impairing circulation. This was pretty straightforward but, as it meant draining the coolant before disconnecting the relevant hoses, it took a bit of time. Job done, I ran the engine up to 2000 rpm in forward gear whilst alongside the pontoon and, sure enough, after about 30 minutes the overheat alarm sounded. So disconnecting the calorifier was a waste of time...
But this time I was ready for it! I'd bought an infra-red thermometer from Screwfix before leaving home and carried it back in my hand luggage. These are amazing bits of kit. You just point them at something, squeeze the trigger and, behold, a digital read out of its temperature! So, with the alarm squealing its heart out, I fired my "gun" at different parts of the engine. Nowhere did I record a temperature of much over 70 degrees centigrade and, given that the engine is supposed to run at 74 degrees centigrade, I could only conclude that the engine wasn't overheating at all.
Just in case this was wishful thinking, I fired a query off to the Practical Boat Owner forum on ybw.com. Within a few hours I had several helpful answers, including some readings taken in the same way from an identical engine by a forum member. These were slightly higher than those I was getting, so I was able to conclude that all my "overheating" woes were actually down to a faulty sender unit!
Anyway, time for a little bit about Port Louis. Formerly called Blavet, Port Louis was renamed by Louis XIII in the early 1600s when the fortress was rebuilt. In 1666 the French Company of East Indies was founded in the Port Louis harbour and the city became home to aristocrats and naval officers.
Unsurprisingly, the citadel was controlled by the Germans from 1940 to 1945, when it was used for the defence of the harbour. It now houses two museums; one relating to the establishment of France's lifeboat service and the other to the East India Company.
Enough waffle, time for some pictures:
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| Port Louis cove with the citadel in the distance |
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| Port Louis Citadel |
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| Port Louis' main beach |
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| More pictures of the citadel.... |
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| ... and more... |
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| ... and more |
Our next destination was to be Piriac-sur-Mer. The offending engine coolant temperature sender unit was disconnected prior to our "sail" there - a "sail" that included 7 hours of motoring/motor sailing until there was sufficient wind to make progress under sail alone.
Every half hour I checked the engine temperatures with my new gadget and all was well. Admittedly we weren't pushing it at just under 5 knots through the water, but this was definitely good news! Perhaps I'll try running the engine a bit faster next time and see what effect, if any, this has on its temperature.
Before setting off for Piriac-sur-Mer, a distance of about 45 miles, I'd sent Camilla and Sam a text to let them know of our plans. Coincidentally, and fortuitously, they were also heading for Piriac-sur-Mer that very same day!
Camilla and Sam are people for whom I have enormous respect. Sam had a stroke a few years back which left him pretty much paralysed down his right side.
We'd first met them when they'd visited Cyclone at my invitation to see if we could work out ways to get Sam on and off the boat with his restricted mobility. Their identical boat was in Denmark at the time - they'd intended to continue their Baltic cruise before Sam's stroke dealt its blow - so Cyclone was a more convenient test bed for ideas.
Since that day, Camilla and Sam have sailed extensively together - always, I believe, with the help of an additional crew member (Robin, someone Sam's known from his schooldays, is with them at the moment) - including a return passage across the North Sea to the Netherlands and their current cruise from Roscoff to Ile de Yeu. How many other people would have done this in their circumstances? How many would have just given up? Respect!
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| En route to Piriac-sur-Mer: Not a lot of wind then! |
Piriac-sur-Mer is a very pretty town with plenty of beaches and coastal walking.
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| Piriac-sur-Mer... |
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| ... and again... |
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| ...and again... |
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| ... and again... |
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| ... and again... |
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| ... and again... |
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| ... and again |
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| A Piriac-sur-Mer market stall. Look closely and you'll see a Yorkshire Terrier in one of the baskets! |
On our second day in Piriac-sur-Mer, we decided to do the 10km walk marked on the map provided by the tourist information centre. Camilla agreed to join us, which was great. When you spend so much time with only the two of you, it's always nice to have someone else to talk to!
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| The walk was a bit of this.... |
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| ... but mainly this. |
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| Cute port, but we're not going to attempt it! |
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| Camilla with Jo, taking a well earned rest |
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| Er, rocks! |
We're now in L'Herbaudiere after a 5 hour sail - yes sail!!! - yesterday. It was a bit bumpy, but great to be making fast progress with only the sound of the wind and waves. Sam, Camilla and Robin are here too and we hope to spend a bit of time with them later.
Thanks for reading.
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