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Diana Naindenel
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Apr 10 2021
Going EPROPULSION
Guess what! Since this week we own a brand new electric outboard engine for our dinghy! Awesome!
The choice was between a Torqueedo and Eprolusion. Both well known brands with good results!
But in the end the Epropulsion Spirit 1.0 Plus persuaded us more.
- The noise. It’s much more quiet than the Torqueedo
- The battery is floatable (not that we plan to throw it overboard, but shit happens, right?!)
- Battery range (+50%)
- Battery capacity is 40% higher
- Shorter charging time
- Price
Patrik made a “dry test ride” (in the guest room) after the battery was charged and it’s indeed very surprising how gentle it sounds.
No more fumes, no more stinky fuel canisters, no more noise – fantastic!
We just need to order a few spare parts, like a propeller, anodes and a protection when the battery isn’t sitting in its place.
I also want to know if they sell a protective cover for the propeller. We don’t want to harm the fishies.
Hopefully they do or they know who sells them. Otherwise Patrik has to prove his engineering skills 😉
It was an exciting week which makes us even more longing for Luna Azzurra…
We wish you all a wonderful weekend, so long!
Mar 27 2021
A Matter of Conscience
Recently, I saw a documentary about alternative energies. It was very interesting, although a lot of it wasn’t totally new to me.
I mean we all know, that oil, gas and coal won’t be available forever. And nuclear power isn’t a satisfying solution either, since we still don’t know what to do with the highly toxic waste.
Therefore, alternative sources are needed. Many things are found, or so we believe, like e-cars, solar panels, wind and water energy.
It dawned on me already a while ago that – like everything else – these alternatives have another side of the coin too. And what I learned now, it’s much worse than I thought!
Of course, I was aware that by using electrical cars, we still have the problem with the batteries. Or by using the wind, these huge wind parks kill countless birds. The back side of water energy are the turbines, who kill millions of fish each year. Especially eel and salmon, who need to return to their place of birth , in order to spawn.
But I had no idea, what exact resources are needed to satisfy this new growing, “clean” industry. The most sought-after raw materials are the so called “rare-earth metals”. Apparently, China has worldwide most occurrence of these precious materials.
Sadly, as so often, the environment pays the high price for humans endless greed.
The pictures where shocking! Huge mines are destroying the nature. Water is needed in unimaginable quantities, which gets contaminated and generates toxic lakes. The air around is loaded with poisonous particles. Not only does it kill the workers in these mines and factories, but it turns hundreds of square kilometres around it into a hostile dead area.
It doesn’t look better than coal mines or oil rigs. In order to salve one’s conscience, we want clean energy by using solar panels and by buying lithium batteries. Of course to the best of one’s knowledge, don’t get me wrong!
Patrik and I wanted the same! We constantly search for ways to keep our ecological impact on this planet as little as possible. A few years ago we threw out our 20+ old oil-heating in our house and replaced it by an air heat pump. Now we are customizing our yacht and bought 5 solar panels in order to produce our own power. We want to buy an electric motor, and sell the Mercury we have now for the dinghy. In the future we also want to replace the existing board batteries by lithium batteries. Installing LED lights throughout the boat is also our aim…. and so on.
So, the million dollar question is, do we harm our environment more by buying these new, “green” things? Are we just soothing our remorse?
It looks like we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place!
Mar 20 2021
Red Flag
Well, in two weeks Easter is just around the corner and, therefore, we’ll enjoy a long weekend!
Which is lovely of course. Patrik I were planning to spend those days in Loano, working on Luna Azzura. We even wanted to take off the 01st of April to have one extra day.
It looks like it won’t be more than a plan. Because Italy announced to change the whole country into a red zone, which means the highest risk zone. The purpose of this is to prevent local people from travelling, visiting friends and family.
This also means that it will be almost impossible for us to travel to the Mediterranean coast. Since the 08th of March the Ligurian Coast is listed in Switzerland as a high risk region, which means 10 days quarantine after returning home. But in Italy it was still yellow. The Lombardy and Piedmont – regions we have to drive through – were even white.
But the whole country becoming a red zone during the Easter weekend changes the situation.
We are, to put it mildly, quite pissed off with these perspective! Since we would drive directly to Loano and stay on board Luna Azzurra, the risk of infecting someone – or getting infected – with the Corona virus is equal zero.
But of course, it’s Patrik and I who know that. How should we be able to proof that to the public authorities?
Let’s face it, without a miracle we’ll stay at home. Reduced to the joy of watching our yacht through the webcam. Fantastic! ☹
Well, the windows and our winter garden needs to be cleaned. Our short trip simply wasn’t meant to be!
Or finish up the helmsman seat for Luna Azzurra with glassfiber.
Cheers everyone – be good!
Jan 30 2021
Decisions Made
And further it goes, our building site at home.
Meanwhile, the hoses have been removed, which means the floor and its inside had dryed up. The holes have partly been filled with cement.
Last Saturday Patrik and I drove to a big retailer with a show room, in order to choose a new floor. Of course it had to be within the price range, our insurance gave to us. In the end we selected four samples, which we were allowed to take home.
Luckily surprisingly, it didn’t take us too long to decide which one we liked best. , with a greyish-blueish sort of touch. It looks very lifely and the best of it, it’s pure wood, no “plastic”.
A friend of us, who is a floorer and owns his own company, has been approved from our insurance, so he’ll do the work.
This Thurday a caprenter came to us to replace a kitchen cupboard (fortunately only one was damaged by the flooding).
Next week the big work will start by removing the old parquet floor. We were told this will be quite noisy…. poor Odin… Hopefully after one week the job will be done and we are proud owners of a beautiful new oak floor!
This weekend, though, we’ll have to empty the sideboard, the showcase and another big cupboard in the kitchen. Then all the furnitures have to be removed. Some will go upstairs and some – the heavy pieces – will be in our winter garden.
The good thing is that today we are invited for dinner at my parents! That’s a lucky coincidence, since we wouldn’t have much time to cook. So THANKS, mum and dad ♥
We wish you all relaxing weekend!
Jan 23 2021
SWIBERIA
In the middle of week 02 it started to snow…..a lot!
So, after 24 hours Switzerland was engrossed in a massive, white blanket! That wouldn’t be THAT unusual in the mountains. But the masses of snow were down to 400m a.s.l. (or even lower), and that was extraordinary!
The public transportation nearly collapsed – Zurich City for example was apparently extremely bad! No busses or trams were available anymore.
Driving a car was possible, but without a 4×4 almost a lost cause. For the first time I was deeply grateful that we own a Volvo XC60 – with new winter tires!
One evening I even drove a work colleague home and picked her up again the next morning. She didn’t dare driving anymore.
However, it was a winter wonder land! Especially when the sun appeared. Patrik took some fantastic pics.
It actually looked like St. Moritz or Arosa…. well, one of these exclusive and famous places anyway. So, for once, I – who doesn’t ski – got a bit of a hunch about how it must feel like being in the alps!
Stay safe, folks! 😊
Jan 17 2021
An Arch for Luna Azzurra
Patrik and I always agreed that we cannot avoid the fact that sooner or later we’ll need an arch for Luna Azzurra.
It sits pretty high up on our “to do” list. Together with a water maker, inverter, lithium batteries, LED lamps, electric toilets, electric stove, new salon upholstery, ….… *whoops*
Particularly, we want to have a proper spot for the dinghy, which – so far – was lying on the deck and was more or less a nuisance. Not only does it take a lot of space, but it’s always such a hassle to get it into the water and haul it up on deck again. Therefore, we usually think twice, before using it.
A shame really, since we missed out a lot of times to explore a nice city or to visit a bar or restaurant at a beach, while anchoring.
The other reason for the arch is to get a stable platform for the solar panels. In our opinion a must when you’re living permanently on a boat. It makes life so much easier!
So, early last year we started to investigate about who is doing such kind of metal work. Not (only) the price was decisive, but mainly the quality. Frankly, you don’t want to end up with a wobbly, unstable rack, who wouldn’t survive the first storm!
Patrik found some manufactures in the USA, England and one in Sweden, which didn’t look too bad.
Even the price was acceptable. The main problem was the Swedish VAT (25%) and the transport costs, plus you had to install it by yourself. What, if it doesn’t fit? In that case we would have to find some workshop near Loano, let them do the fitting and pay an extra amount of money…. Who knows what the final price then would be?!
Then I detected a promising, Austrian company in Greece who does exactly the kind of work we were looking for. The pictures on their website look very promising. Unfortunately, it turned out that they do not ship their parts. One must be on site to have the fitting done. Blimey….! (Ok, there we would have faced the same problem, as the one from Sweden).
Well, in the end Patrik asked a friend from the marina in Loano, while he was there last December. And – ta-daaa – the solution was found.
There lies a yacht with exactly the kind of arch we want to have for Luna Azzurra. Luckily, the name of the company – who is situated in France – is clearly visible. Perfect!
So as soon as Patrik was back he showed me the photos and we discussed the details. It turned out that the workshop is located just a little bit further west of Marseille. How convenient!
It didn’t take long after my request to get an offer. Informing them about the boats brand, type and year was apparently enough for them. Undoubtedly, they had produced such arch’s for Bavaria 42 Cruiser’s before!
The offer included not only producing the part, but also travelling to Loano and do the mounting on the spot.
In order to save some money, Patrik and I considered that we could let them fabricate the arch and we then would sail there this summer, in order to get it mounted locally. I even found a suitable marina nearby, called Port De Ferrières, in Martigues. It would take them only about 20 minutes from the workshop to the marina. The daily berthing prices are absolutely affordable, plus on the way back to Italy, we could visit the lovely island Porquerolle one more time!
However, after reconsidering, we chose the first option: Let them come to Loano.
The reason was mainly that having the arch we still cannot hang up the dinghy. Some additional work still has to be done, such as mounting blocks and ropes. So, of course, it would be nice to have everything finished and ready, when going on our holidays this summer!
Patrik was planning to anyway drive to Loano end of February, so I asked the company how long the production time would be and explained about Patrik’s travelling plans.
Surprisingly, the answer came strait away: They would be able to do the fitting on the 25th February 2021! WOW, that’s quick, excellent!
That means that Patrik will be in Loano in week 08 and – fingers are crossed – everything will work out smoothly!
All provided that Covid-19 doesn’t throw a spanner in our plans…….
Meanwhile, the deposit has been done and nothing stands in the way to start the production.
Needless to mention, how excited we are and how much we look forward to this big improvement on Luna Azzurra!
LUNA AZZURRA To Do List: – Arch for dinghy & solar panels 😊 – Solar panels
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