16 July 2017

Maiden Voyage for the "Rubber Johnny"!

The route


Making the mooring
It should have been a quick zoom from Saikung down to Clearwater Bay, across to Shek O and then around Lamma to get to Mui Wo.   After some test drives around Hebe Haven and a few long hard looks at the rain bands and thunderstorms that were showing on the observatory's radar and of course a large lunch of beef in black been sauce on deep fried noodles, we set off.  

We filled up with fuel, 75 litres.....   25 litres for each engine and a spare 25 litres.
We saw the drip from the steering hydraulics but it was only a drip!!!!We knew the trim tilt hydraulics were shot and we would have to trim the engines by their revs only.The steering hydraulics was empty by the time we reached Shek O headland so we had no choice but to stop and find somewhere to refill them as to be without steerage in one of the worlds busiest shipping lanes would not be a good idea.

Hydraulics refilled we headed for Lantau but first one engine ran out of fuel so we switched it to the spare tank but then the other conked out too so we had to limp across the shipping lane, running on one engine and timing our crossing to make sure we did not get in the way of the very speedy Macau ferries!    But then the engine conked out again.    Thankfully it was just a matter of venting the fuel tank and we were on our way agin. Once back at Mui Wo we had to next sort out a mooring and contend with some nasty rain squalls that timed their arrival perfectly.       Safely tied up we headed home and slept and slept and slept.   The next morning it was back to check the boat and  make a more permanent, running mooring.   A fun time indeed.
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All done



03 July 2017

The new toy.

Oh yes indeed.   What you are looking at here is the new addition to the Man Kok Tsui empire.    100 horses of power attached to an 18 foot rigid inflatable boat.    It's at the boat yard right now having its bum cleaned.   The engines have been given a once over and while there are always things that can be sorted out on a boat, basically it is good to go.