Dienstag, 18. April 2017

On my way home

Sitting at the airport in Manila right now. I got message that JOJO safely arrived at its destination port in Puerto Galera. As always when heading home I am looking forward to see my people, my cats and find the comfort of my home again but on the other hand an urge to leave for the next destination rises not even sitting on the plane.
What a crazy trip that was, was it a pain at times? Yes. Would I do it again? Absolutely.
The little time I had wasn't enough to discover the full beauty of this country as the primary task was to get the boat to its destination so I most probably I'll have to come back.
But for now I have about 22 hours in front of me to get home. Fly Emirates again ;)

Thanks to David, Analyn for being my hosts, to Linda and Sarah for watching after my home and my cats, to Linda and Fabian to get me to and from the airport and to all of you who followed this little adventure from close and far.

I will update the blog with videos and pictures once I am back on a stable Internet connection.

Let's see where my feet take me next.

Samstag, 15. April 2017

Subic

So we landed in Subic after anchoring in the dark at a little island a bit outside called Capones Island.
After trying to do immigration, customs and quarantine procedures we realize it's good Friday. So all the offices are closed till Monday.
That means we are stuck for now, that changes plans a little as I couldn't reschedule my flight I will have to leave the JOJO here. On top they announced a taifun incoming for Monday so that means that JOJO is actually staying a week more here in Subic as David as well has to get back to work.
It's a bit sad to leave the adventure so short before the end but that also gives me the chance to enjoy the beach, the food and the people for a few days.
Anyways that's what adventures are made of, the unpredictable incidents that force you to adapt and take decision that weren't planned.

A hitchhikers guide to the South China sea

We got a new visitor this evening, as he decided to stay a while we gave him a name.
Please welcome Philip, our newest crew member hitchhiking through the South China Sea.
We are on our last night to the Philippines, we should see land tomorrow morning.
While the JOJO slides through the water the sea calms down even more.
I don't think that I've ever seen an ocean this smooth. The boat cuts almost loudless through the water now and while a miraculous mist lays down some more dolphins join the ride in the middle of the night. The water is so clear that we can spot them with only our deck light and the moon illuminating our surroundings.
This must be the most magical moment yet.
David takes over the boat while I'll take some hours to rest before we run into the harbour of Bolinao in a few hours.

Land in sight

After 4 days of blue water all around we finally can see the coastline of Bolinao at the horizon. We actually did it, after a skipper that skipped, an engine that broke, a leaking dinghy, water inside the boat, failing instruments and failing electricity we crossed the south China Sea.
From here we have 210 more miles to do along the shore down to Puerto Galera where the JOJO will stay for good.
But first we'll land for a Refuel at the little Harbour of Bolinao where the locals are already curious about the catamaran with the german flag and the two foreigners it washed up their shore.
After getting fresh beer, coke, ice for the fridge and fuel we take of to anchor not far in the next Bay to finally get a good night's sleep.
On our way the radio calls "SV JOJO, SV JOJO this is Philippina navy"
They just want to now where we came from and where we're heading to.
Seems to be standard procedure.
Arriving at the bay we didn't managed to drop the anchor yet as a fisherman approaches to sell some fish. Sadly our cooker is empty but that's no problem here, he quickly drives his banka home to return with the fish from the BBQ just for us in less than half an hour. Beat that Deliveroo.
After taking a refreshing bath, some cold beer and of course the meal we are off to rest as tomorrow we will start early to Subic.

Midway

Half of the way is done, so far we have seen glowing plankton, dolphins, an Albatros couple, little fishing birds and flying fish. All that miles and miles away from any land. Amazing that these birds can obviously fly 400 and more kilometers with ease and all of them seem to enjoy our little sailing boat in the middle of nowhere.

OTW

Nothing left but water all around.
The weather is fine and the waves not too high.
Sadly we have no wind at all so we are off on engine.
Did 65nm on the first 25L of gasoline.
When we switched to the second engine it overheated after barely 10 minutes.
We are back to the first engine, hopefully it can take the hit of running constantly.
Second tank is empty, with a bit more waves we only did 50nm on this one.
On the second day the sky went completely clear and the water turned deep blue. We even put up sails and catched some wind.
While we are gliding over wave after wave some dolphins turned up to say hello and swim along for a while.
Except for some occasional freight ship the ocean is ours now.
After the third tank is gone we decided to give the engine a break and stay on sails for a while. Still doing 4kn without engine.
We definitely enjoy the calm only being pushed by the wind.
Sun going down at the horizon, it feels amazing and free.

Freitag, 7. April 2017

Gone

Ok, now it's getting serious. 
We are actually leaving. 
After being electrician, plumber, mechanic, IT engineer we are finally out for the real adventure. 
See you all on the other side. 

Donnerstag, 6. April 2017

Barefoot through Hong Kong

As we stretched our membership here at the Yacht Club already a bit we are setting over to Discovery Bay today. 
Friendly Andy gave us his place at Discovery Bay as his boat is in the boat yard for some days anyways.
Many thanks for his hospitality. 
From now on we have to leave the JOJO by Lambodinghy. 
Did we take all we need? Seems so. 
Aaaand we left without shoes. 
People's look at our bare feet are hilarious. 

Off we go

A happy Yachtsman

The skyline of Hong Kong Island

This is what we will be facing the first day of travel
This is were we stay the next nights

Dienstag, 4. April 2017

A sailor's patience

So what are we up to, didn't got the chance to write an update the last days. 
Our skipper is being late from another trip so our schedule is pushed back for several days. 
That's really annoying but that's how it is. 
We finished and tested the installation of the solar system. 
We get about 140W in plain sun, that's not perfect but quite ok for now. 
We went to do the paperwork to get the boat out of Hongkong. 
Cleaned up and redistributed all the stuff evenly amongst the hulls. 
Got charts for the South China Sea and the country flags required for the boat. 
Today we just layed in the sun and finally enjoyed our first day off since starting the project. 
Tomorrow morning we are moving the JOJO over to Discovery Bay. 
Dear Andy we met at the Boatyard here at the RHKYC has offered us his spot over there for a few days. 
That's a very welcome change after so many days with the same skyline. 

Safety gear is present and checked

Power plant is stowed under deck. The captain goes up in flames first as he is sleeping on top :D

We are right next to the Disney Resort, finally some calm

Just in case, we are somewhere between the top left and the lower right. 

Paperwork to leave the country. 

Did they copy our speculoos? 

The skyline of Causeway Bay

Samstag, 1. April 2017

Power plant

Welcome to our little self sustain green energy project for the JOJO.
This post is quite technical and probably only interesting for geeks and nerds.
Sorry for that :) 

Yesterday we collected the 4 LiFePo4 cells from the warehouse. 
We were supposed to get Winston cells but got Calb cells instead. 

So these are the 4 Calb cells and their connectors.
They are supposed to be as good as the Winston ones. 

Don't forget that we are on water now and everything that falls through the deck is lost. 

Preparing the connectors for the battery management system.
The BMS will monitor every single cell and cut the circuit if any cell is over or under expected voltage range. 

All the sensor wires are connected and to the left you can see the shunt that is used for the battery monitor. 
To find a box big enough to hold all of it dry we went to Ikea again. 

Ikea, storing diy electronics since 1978. 
To the right is our BMS, in the middle you can spot the Victron charger and to the left the main relais and a 400 amps fuse in his box.
Next to my right toe are two flip switches used for emergency stop and reload cycle start. 

Let's fix all of this nicely into out Ikea box. 
Include some firewood in case we strand on an deserted island. 

You can spot to additional relais, these are the over and under voltage security relais that are triggered by the BMS in case of problems. 

And here it is, almost finished. 
200Ah in a box. This should be enough to maintain all electricity onboard for about 4 days without charging. 

Donnerstag, 30. März 2017

Short circuit

Today I had a serious job, 
getting the onboard electrics back in shape. 
Tracing cables, soldering, reconnecting, replacing fuses and final testing. 

But first some sun bathing 

This little bastard  took us a he'll of a time in Italy to get out of the control board. 
This time I decided to not go through the hassle of squishing the plug through the tiny tube. 
I came armed with a solder iron this time, haha! 

The results of a day's work: GPS, speed, depth, wind, radio, lights, cigarette lighter and we're almost ready to go. 

Getting sold celebration equipment. 

Launching

We were looking for a slot to get the Jojo moved into water but we didn't expect that they suddenly rush in on us. And we were told that we couldn't have our masts up for launching which apparently is not true. So now we try to get as much done as we can in the 2 hours left. 

Getting the lift in place wasn't easy as the boat next to ours is blocking the path. 

They tried different approaches to get it lifted. 

Pulling it out a bit first? 

Naa that didn't work. 

Quickly doing some last fittings while the yard workers are out for lunch.

Before she floats, she learns to fly

To the surprise of everyone involved she actually really floats :D

We should probably clean up the place a littel bit.

As we did not have enough time on land to get the masts up, we are doing it on water.

What a beauty :)

Enjoying the view

That's why you actually call them skyscrapers. 

Feeding the birds feels almost like Hitchcocks movie first there were like 3 birds....


This will probably be our first trip to test the Jojo and our boating skills. 

Pretending to be one of them we sneaked into the high society of the Royal Yacht Club to enjoy the view.

After trespassing 5 signs I was able to take a shot of the RHKYC from the outside.