We have been cruising this year for athree weeks only and when we made her fast in the Peterhead marina there are already 533 nautical miles in Suwena’s log. There are very few natural safehavens on the east coast of England and Scotland. The harbours are mostly man-made and dry during the low water or are accessible only a few hours during the high water. Despite of this we cannot enter many of them due to our 1.85 metre draft.
Our plan was to stop at the few anchorages on the way to north, however the wind has always been blowing in a way that the swell would enter the anchorages and the anchoring would have been impossible.
From Arbroath we had a 67 mile sail to Peterhead. The wind was blowing from the south-east at 8 knots and we wanted to put the genny out after leaving the harbour. The furlex did not move at all when we tried to open the sail. All electric devices were turned on and we heard that the furlex motor was humming normally. Despite of all this the sail remained nicely furled around the forestay. Until now we have had no problems with electric furling on genoa and mainsail, I guess it was about a time.
It took some time remembering where I had hid the manual handle of the genoa furlex. For the mainsail and mizzen there are strong metallic emergency handles which were nicely neaby in a cockpit. They are not suitable to the genoa because they are not fitting between the furlex and the railing. For the genoa there is its own handle made from a pulley and an endless line.
The opening of the genoa took about 15 minutes when Andrus was pulling the line and I was keeping the sheet tight. By pulling the line one time hand-over-hand the genoa opened about two centimetres so Andrus had his daily doze of exercise done at the same time.
After arrival in Peterhead, Andrus opened the furlex motor and his suspicions were confirmed. The salt seawater had entered the casing despite of the seals. There were some signs of rusting on the drive belt and it was broken. Now we are waiting for a parcel from Selden’s factory in Sweden for getting a new belt and belt wheels.
Andrus remembered reading from somewhere about the similar situation where the battery powered drill was used to rotate the furlex engine. We tried to search from the hardware store the half inch drive adapter for drill but there were none. Andrus got help from the crew of S/Y Skoling when they offered a ride to the local specialized tool shop. Warm thanks for your help and favourable winds to you on your summer sail in Norway!
In Finland the palms represent the warm and tropical climate. Therefore it was surprising to find the palm tree at such a high latitude. Due to Golf stream the palms can grow also here in Scotland and thus we started a quest for searching the northernmost palm. Here is the small and brave palm in the Peterhead marina at latitude 57 degrees 29.8 minutes north.
