Yes…definitely don’t ever want to find ourselves 50m in front of a moving ship! Kate is a very capable of sailing the boat and doing everything except maybe docking but I’ve yet to convince her of how capable she is. Might be a “Captain Kate” episode in the coming season 😊⛵️
Lol ... welcome to the Med, either too much wind or not enough wind! .. I did over 2,000nm in the Med 3 years ago and most of it seemed to be under engine power. Beautiful sailing when it happened, but frustrating a lot of the time having to put the donkey on.
We’ve definitely experienced that in the Med last year but were happy to just get a calm spell to escape! Don’t mind the engine too much (ex motor boater!) but it’s the fuel bill that stings! 😬😂
Hi Greg, thank you, I’m glad you enjoy what we do. 😊 We don’t actually leave the throttle in forward gear…that is our neutral position and astern is when the lever is vertical. I think it was set up that way otherwise full astern would interfere with the steering wheel. What you should do with you throttle whilst sailing depends on your engine, gearbox and propellor. With fixed props some gearboxes recommend leaving the prop to spin and that putting it in gear can cause damage, others recommend putting it in gear, some say ahead and some say astern, to stop it from spinning to prevent wear. It’s important to know what your gearbox manufacturer recommends. When we had a fixed prop yanmar recommended letting it spin which was annoying with the low but continuos noise of the prop spinning. Early on though we fitted a Darglow feathering prop so what we now do is switch off the engine, shift to astern to stop it spinning and encourage the prop to feather itself and then bring the throttle back to neutral to make sure we don’t accidentally start in astern when we put the engine back on! Because the prop is feathered, the blades flat to the water flow, it won’t spin even with the gear in neutral. I think it was our second episode I explain the feathering prop if you’re interested. A bit of a waffle there but hopefully explains what we actually do with our throttle/gear 😊
Thank you for reply 😊 we have a feathering prop as well so I’m going to try reverse then neutral (it still makes a sound previously in neutral so perhaps it’s not feathering as well as it should). Great videos keep up the good work 👍
Cool. With a feathering prop you could almost certainly leave it in gear if it helps stop it spinning, we only take it out again so we don’t start up in gear! There should be a system to prevent starting in gear but not all boats seem to have it. Do you have a feathering or folding prop? Feathering and folding props are slightly different but with either type going astern when the engine is off should encourage it to do what it’s meant to do and with either type leaving the boat in gear shouldn’t be a problem either 👍🏻
A very good call to go astern of that ship! 😂 And great to see Kate set and trim the sails while the captain slept 👍
Yes…definitely don’t ever want to find ourselves 50m in front of a moving ship! Kate is a very capable of sailing the boat and doing everything except maybe docking but I’ve yet to convince her of how capable she is. Might be a “Captain Kate” episode in the coming season 😊⛵️
Wonderful moment
Thank you 😊⛵️
Visited the Temple of Poseidon from Athens last year - stunning place to watch the sunset!
We would have loved to have visited and watched the sunset…I bet it is very special there 😊
Lol ... welcome to the Med, either too much wind or not enough wind! .. I did over 2,000nm in the Med 3 years ago and most of it seemed to be under engine power. Beautiful sailing when it happened, but frustrating a lot of the time having to put the donkey on.
We’ve definitely experienced that in the Med last year but were happy to just get a calm spell to escape! Don’t mind the engine too much (ex motor boater!) but it’s the fuel bill that stings! 😬😂
As a relative newbie really like your explanations - note you leave throttle in forward gear? Is that to stop propeller wear and tare ?
Hi Greg, thank you, I’m glad you enjoy what we do. 😊 We don’t actually leave the throttle in forward gear…that is our neutral position and astern is when the lever is vertical. I think it was set up that way otherwise full astern would interfere with the steering wheel. What you should do with you throttle whilst sailing depends on your engine, gearbox and propellor. With fixed props some gearboxes recommend leaving the prop to spin and that putting it in gear can cause damage, others recommend putting it in gear, some say ahead and some say astern, to stop it from spinning to prevent wear. It’s important to know what your gearbox manufacturer recommends. When we had a fixed prop yanmar recommended letting it spin which was annoying with the low but continuos noise of the prop spinning. Early on though we fitted a Darglow feathering prop so what we now do is switch off the engine, shift to astern to stop it spinning and encourage the prop to feather itself and then bring the throttle back to neutral to make sure we don’t accidentally start in astern when we put the engine back on! Because the prop is feathered, the blades flat to the water flow, it won’t spin even with the gear in neutral. I think it was our second episode I explain the feathering prop if you’re interested. A bit of a waffle there but hopefully explains what we actually do with our throttle/gear 😊
Thank you for reply 😊 we have a feathering prop as well so I’m going to try reverse then neutral (it still makes a sound previously in neutral so perhaps it’s not feathering as well as it should). Great videos keep up the good work 👍
Cool. With a feathering prop you could almost certainly leave it in gear if it helps stop it spinning, we only take it out again so we don’t start up in gear! There should be a system to prevent starting in gear but not all boats seem to have it. Do you have a feathering or folding prop? Feathering and folding props are slightly different but with either type going astern when the engine is off should encourage it to do what it’s meant to do and with either type leaving the boat in gear shouldn’t be a problem either 👍🏻