Defecate Occurs II

Crews Letter #2004 26 Defecate Occurs II

In The Year of the Head, lightening does not strike twice… Defecate does.

Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen:

After Jo Lynne and Conrad left us in Split, we set sail for Gouvia on Corfu in Greece. It was there that we planned to set Perception on the hard and leave her for the winter. Their cruise was the culmination of a very fine cruising season in Croatia , Slovenia and Italy. All things considered it had been great. But as they say, all good things must end and now was the time to put up and head back to Texas.

Jo Lynne’s Journal is a good way to experience Perception from a Different Perspective. Check it out at Crews Letter #2004 18

A short sail southeast put us in Luka on Brač for the night. The next day we started out for Korčula and spent the next three nights back in Luka. It didn’t take long to discover that 35 to 40 knot winds on the nose in a narrow channel was not a good idea. It got better three days later and the trip to Korcula was uneventful.

The next morning we checked out of Croatia and set sail for Brindisi. For a while there was a good breeze off the starboard quarter, then no wind at all. The engine worked well for a while and then there was a lot of wobble, strange noise and less than an acceptable amount of propulsion. We limped into Brindisi the next morning and took a berth at the marina there.

After a nap, Fred noticed that the brown stuff was coming out the salon head holding tank vent. Not good. This can only mean one thing, the tank is full. Twice before this year, full tank means broken exhaust seacock. Bad news.

Turning the handle of the cock feels like it is operating correctly. Maybe the stoppage is between the cock and the tank or in the tank.

One way to find out. Fred goes for a swim. Good news: the plumber’s snake gets past the cock by about two feet. But it doesn’t get by the clog. Using a hose from the dock and a rag, he forces the clog loose. First indicator: the brown stuff starts squirting out the vent. Fred is in the water and the vent is overhead. Remove the hose and check to see what comes out the exhaust first. It’s the calcium scale. Same stuff that clogged the input side of the tank the previous week had stopped up the output side this week.

Snorkel and mask are essential equipment for inline plumbing. Several showers later, Fred went back in the water to check the prop. It had picked up a bag on one blade. In olden days, we would have called it a burlap bag. In today’s world, it was woven poly-something-elene. Little wonder that there was wobble. The big surprise is that the the engine pushed the boat at all. The bag was easily removed.

The overnight passage from Brindisi to Gouvia was almost uneventful. Phyl, who is really not a people person, discovered that she is really not a ‘not people person’ either. During her first night watch she got lonely. She had had a touch of this on the night passage from Korčula to Brindisi. She doesn’t normally whine, but when Fred came up to relieve her, she was whining, “I’m lonely.” She started and ended her second watch that night with the same complaint. “I am lonely.”

The weather for the put up preparation was perfect. Everything was done on or ahead of schedule. The lift out was routine. We left her in good shape for her fourth winter.

The ferry from Corfu to Venezia took 24 hours with cruise ship quality amenities. Another day of sightseeing in Venezia and then the long day flight back to Texas.

To put year’s cruise in perspective the wake of Perception, 2004, is projected onto a US map keeping latitude and distance constant:

Steady, as she goes,

Phyl & Fred

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