So it goes. Yesterday I dropped my sunglasses, the stop lever for the engine broke off. Things are getting a little stressful. Today after 6th sense, or smell from below, we realized the engine was in trouble. Much of the coolant seemed to have burned off and smoke was coming from the “engine room.” Tear off the black tape that covers the indicator lights and sure enough, the coolant alert light was lit. I had a hunch that the ignition switch may have slipped back a notch and the coolant pumped turned off, so we gave it a few minutes to cool, added a little oil just in case, and then carried on towards Svenner, not the best place for a maintenance stop. We had little wind, so used the engine sparingly through a nice easy approach. After anchoring up Scandinavian style, and not looking a bit like our former selves, I got to work. I had another Volvo panel NOS from Ebay, so after trying to get it in place, settled for replacing the alarm and the indicator window. Done.
We had a quick walk around an unreal little island, and after realizing the wind was up to 7 m/s, got our nerve up to head to Stavern. On the way out of the harbor we got a nice “Hi Hi” from a couple on an older boat than ours- I assume now it was because they thought we wouldn’t make it. It’s an extremely narrow channel, rocks in the water, BIG rocks on both sides, wind and waves head on, and a whooping 9 horse-power behind us. One of our backrests went overboard, not the time to worry about anything but our lives.
We made a clean exit, but our nerves were more than tweaked.
The sail after that was uneventful once a reef was set, and Stavern is a lovely harbor, though not so sheltered. We’re rocking quite a bit, and have about 1m of tide to contend with on the mooring lines. We seem to be doing better than most though, everyone is rocking and rolling here.
The people here are nicer than nice. A barefoot man who helped us tie up was dancing with two lines in hand and still happy to help. We got lots of advice on places to visit at Verdens Ende, and even changed money since we stupidly had no Norwegian Kroner on hand. Lars got lots of love, “skibs kat” was heard all over, and he also got a nice hike around the rocks. Lars has also decided that rather than soil our bed, since it’s off limits, it’s much easier to climb into the stern locker over some bulkheads, and poop on or near our lines, the reserve oil, the fenders, what have you. Quite considerate.
The harbor master came by around 10, it was dusk, maybe. A stern but fair fellow, all I can say (“You must pay!”). We’ll check the weather in the morning, but the plan is to head southerly against the southerly winds towards Goteborg, then stage a crossing to Skagen at some point. The coolant leak we’ve had on the Volvo seems to still be manageable, though not inspiring confidence.
I’m posting this at 11, it’s still dusk.
-ben
