Let the journey begin!

[Stelios_Rjk]

At last! I am away from the balcony and some Gulls will meet the sea.

Preparations...


On board


The islet that protects the village where I am going from the weather.


Still on the road



Now time to take all these things out from the car and form an inflatable boat

[david doyle]

Hey it looks like that vacation you promised the Girl Friend was a better idea then that upstart blue gull after all! Hope you brought some plastic sheets to repack those engines. Looking forward to seeing more pics. 12 degrees and cloud here

[Collector Inspector]

Yeh DD

I let stelios know that local vacationing Greek Island paradise....you know, see food and local beers stuff is a LONG way from wet, windy and cold Perth Au right now? We are frozen......well compared to what we are used to anyway.

Lucky sod!

B

[david doyle]

Stelios, climb off and get that dinghy on the water we want to see some pics.

[Stelios_Rjk]

I am sorry for the delay but water is not beneficial for mobiles cameras etc. In a couple of days I will have an underwater camera in my hands so be prepared!

In the meantime the dingy is on the water, once with the Silver Century and now with the other engine that I usually use. The SJM is too short for this dingy. I didn't feel sorry about that as she will avoid the salt from the water jacket. The s century run hot, maybe it has a jet for 4% oil and I used 10% oil mixture. I will sort that out when the weather gets too windy to go out of the gulf.

[Collector Inspector]

"I will have an underwater camera in my hands so be prepared!"

Not retrieving a Gull obviously!

Probably an Occy (octopus) or many.

They still catch them in pots there Mate?

B

[Stelios_Rjk]

Hi guys,

Octopus are usually being catched with a fishing line with 4 hooks and a white rag or a fake fish. You pull it, that attracts them and..
With a speargun is another way. Some may use the method with the pots but it is mostly abandoned as a method.
I have seen dropping tires for octopus, but in any hole on the sea bed they can make a "nest".

[Stelios_Rjk]

Weather gets windy so I took care of the original bitsa Silver Century I have here with me .
It has an MK3 magneto, amal twin jet carb, standard shaft, 3.5:1 direct drive gearbox with the correct 5 blade hydrofan type prop.
Wrong mixture was responsible for the overheating. I changed the carb body as I have some spare bodies with me. I don't have the tool to change jets here and I have more than a full tank fuel with 10% oil so that was the easier way to fix it.

After the test bin we ought to go for a real test
I know, my brother is not the best cameraman. This is 5-6bf inside the gulf. Outside of it sea isn't that calm.
The boat belongs to the guy onboard. Small funny boat, as if it was build for a Seagull!
I am also quite happy to be on a boat propelled by a Seagull, the noise, the smell.. it was magnificent
I did a test run with the other carb body (overheating) with my dingy but it's not that easy removing the suzuki (15hp) every now and then as it weights around 36kg.
At this ride I could touch the crankcase as much as I wanted without getting burned so everything is OK.

[Horsley-Anarak]

And not a balcony in sight, well done Stelios, looks a bit windy, must be beer o'clock.

H-A

[david doyle]

Great to see all that blue and warmth! I sure cringed when you ran over the end of that boat launch though.

[skyetoyman]

I sure cringed when you ran over the end of that boat launch though

I think we all did.

[david doyle]

Really though I think it is optical illusion because Stelios's love of gulls would not let him endanger his prop/gear box. We trust you Stelios.

[Stelios_Rjk]

I saw the video again twice to check me passing over the end of the launch. I also remember me taking into account the depth while doing turns. The water here is clear so you can see the launch so good with the depth under the boat over the launch being around 4-5ft. It's a standard shaft engine and I have helped in many boat launching there, swimming also there.. on the left of the cameraman is a beach.

Imagine that you can see details on the seabed with swimming goggles from the sea level to a depth of around 17-20meters (55-65ft)

[Stelios_Rjk]

The underwater camera is here so we use it a little. It is an old one so the resolution of video is not good.. it may be artistic.. as if it came straight from the 80s
Pictures are better. I hope you 'll enjoy it.








And some pictures.

Me with the Seagull and my dingy.













Did you notice the cup of coffee holding on the first video? Could you imagine that it would save the trip? I didn't!
What has happened.. The wind was strong enough to lift the sand and through it everywhere, not a pleasant feeling as it hearts a little bit.
After some swimming and some sand blasting we decided to leave.
With the sand flying everywhere and the choke removed as the flap was loose (was closing the inlet while using the engine), I found the inlet and the slide full of sand
What could I do? Placed the engine inclined. Took the straw from the cup of coffee, fill it with fuel and poor it in the carb inlet (amal twin jet) to wash out the sand. Repeat that until I couldn't find any grain of sand. Pull the throttle to check behind the slide. Everything seemed OK. Pulled the cord hoping not to listen to anything unusual. And luckily the Seagull and the boat took us back

[Stelios_Rjk]

One detail. I didn't stop the engine hitting the prop on the sand . As usual the last minute I stop it, pull it outside the water and let the boat stop smoothly on the sand