Moving is the theme for this week, and more next week all of which is a VERY good thing! Albeit eXtremely short trips, literally a couple of hundred yards each, they still represent movement both progress wise and boat wise so it is all good. When I left you last week we had just moved onto one of the many brand new concrete docks not far from the infamous “end wall” dock inside the Free Zone Harbour where we have tied up several times in the past few months since we splashed on Feb. 20th but they had another big cargo ship coming into the port here so all of us tied up on the end wall needed to move to other locations so the Big Guys could come and go. I’ll show you more of that in a moment.
The other even more eXciting moves, yes plural, are hopefullly happening this coming week. On Tuesday we will be moving Möbius out of the Free Zone harbour for the last time and taking her around the corner to Setur Marina where she will officially begin her life as XPM78-01 Möbius. Not sure how long we will be there, basically as long as it takes for Christine and I to get her fully seaworthy and ready to cut the dock lines and head out to sea. I will chronicle all of that here in future weekly Progress Updates so you will get to see what all is involved as it happens.
But WAIT! There’s MORE!!! What could possibly top having Möbius start her own life with us? Easy, because the other big “move” which I am even more eXcited about is that my Beautiful Bride, aka Captain Christine flies back into my arms on Thursday night! She’s been away in Florida having a whirlwind of a time with all her family and friends back there in the Fort Lauderdale area and especially enjoying her much needed Gramma time with our grandson Liam. So it’s been great for her to get away from this non-stop boat work, and even more so jettison out of “Wayne’s World” for two weeks but I miss her terribly and can’t wait to meet her coming out the exit doors at AYT, Antalya Intnl Airport on Thursday.
And as you can see, I’m not the only one who has been missing the Captain.
So it is easy to see why “moving” is the theme this week and next and now let’s move on to Showing & Telling you more about all the moves and other progress here on the Good Ship Möbius during the week that was April 19-23, 2021.
Commissioning Continues
Not too eXciting to watch quite frankly but eXtremely important to do and get everything right, working and tested. Sometimes we do this virtually, with the technician from the manufacturer coming aboard via the internet and truly eXciting scenes like this one!
Together we are able to run and test all the Victron equipment such as the 5 MultiPlus Inverter/Chargers, Isolation Transformer, MPPT controllers and so on. Took us about 5 hours but we were able to get everything configured and they are now all good to go.
Mr. Gee gits ‘er dun!
This was Mr. Gee’s oil pressure at start-up, right around 30 PSI, which for a Gardner is not much below the 38 PSI he normally runs at, however as the oil warms up it drops down to around 20 PSI so there is definately something very wrong that I need to get to the bottom of as soon as we are over in Setur Marina and I can make the time to start digging into the source of the problem.
Unfortunately I am relatively certain that I know what the problem is and it is not good news nor a quick fix. But I will leave all that until I have time to find out for sure what’s going on which means a significant dismantling I’m sure. Stay tuned for more on all that starting next week.
New Neighbors and Neighborhood
Last week were at position #1 on the End Dock Wall and this week we are now back over at position #2 where we were about a month ago.
Next week’s move has us going from #2 over to #3 in Setur although we don’t know just where we will be in Setur just yet.
For a quick comparison, Veronika’s basic measurements first followed by those of Möbius:
- Displacement: 165 metric tons vs Möbius’ 45
- Beam: 7.3m/24 ft vs 5.0m/16.4 ft
- Cruise Speed: 8 kts vs 10-11 kts
- Range: 4000nm vs 8000
- Accommodation: 6cabins, 6heads + up to 4crew vs Möbius 2cabins, 2 heads and no crew thanks very much.
You can find the whole set of specs on the Bering 77 HERE if you’d like to learn more and see more photos.
And that’s a wrap for this past week folks. Lots of activity, just not much visual results to show you but hope you continue to enjoy coming along on this ride with us and that you will be back again for more next week.
In the meantime, please do leave any and all questions and comments in the “Join the Discussion” box below. While I am atrociously behind in responding to your most recent comments, they add a HUGE value to this blog and for Christine and myself and I am eXtremely appreciative of each one so thanks for that!
-Wayne
Interesting as always!! 🙂
So sorry to hear about the oil pressure problem. Will you have to remove the engine to get to the oil pump?
Not sure if it is the oil pump or not Bill but in any case the answer is still yes, I’ll need to lift Mr. Gee up out of his home all nestled into the hull along his engine beds and mounts in order to remove even the oil pan and other components as necessary. Fortunately I have planned for such work at some point, though not quite THIS soon in the design and layout of the engine mounts and the overall engine room so it won’t be too difficult to lift him up to a height where I can work on him easily or even remove him from the boat if needed. That’s why the overhead engine hatch is large enough to allow me to lift both the engine and CPP servo gearbox out as one unit.
Stay tuned for more as I dig into all this next week.
Wayne
Congratulations on your continued progress Wayne.
Sorry to hear of the troubles with Mr Gee… hopefully, you will find the oil pressure issue to be an easier fix; but ion any case, we will all be cheering you on from here.
You’re almost there… hang in there!
– evan
Thanks Evan, great to have you along for this ride. As per my notes to others, I’ll be diving into Mr. Gee’s innards next week and keep you all posted as to what I find and what all the repair involves. Unfortunately I think it is going to be extensive, but we’ll soon see.
Wayne