Episode 324 - European Road Trip... New Engine and New Boat!

Cross-Europe Road Transit to Southern Spain

Boarding a cross-Channel ferry from England to France, Chris, Nicky, and their son Bear began a long road transit across Europe to rejoin their 35-foot catamaran, Pickle. Operating under the banner of the Sailing Pickle Family, the crew faced practical logistical hurdles before even reaching the water. Bear traveled wearing a rigid back brace following a spinal fracture, making prolonged seating painful and requiring steady pacing, regular walking breaks, and evening hotel stops to stretch out. Accompanied by their Doberman, Buddy, in the pet lounge and family car, they navigated southern highways through France and Spain.

Driving through toll routes across the continent presented recurring stops. Approaching an automated barrier, Nicky paid 16.87 euros after pulling off into a payment lane, comparing slips with earlier motorway receipts of 44012, 26, and 2520 recorded during the long southward haul. As they transitioned past Madrid along the E5 A4 corridor toward Cordoba, dense traffic gave way to quiet stretches and detours through sun-baked towns while searching for connecting slip roads and service stations for fuel. The physical strain on Bear remained a constant consideration, with Chris and Nicky pacing the driving stages to manage his seated posture and discomfort until they finally reached the marina basin where Pickle was moored.

Rejoining Pickle and Dockside Maintenance

Reuniting with Pickle in southern Spain brought immediate maintenance chores. Having sat unattended during their travels, the decks were heavily coated with dirt and bird droppings, prompting Chris to begin rinsing down the topsides at 2:00 in the morning. Moving gear back aboard revealed tight interior quarters crammed with ongoing refit inventory, tools, unlaid cabin tiles, and electrical supplies. For Bear, entering his narrow starboard bunk proved physically demanding; the rigid torso brace prevented normal bending, forcing him to slide in knee-first along the bunk board while avoiding heavy contact on bruised hips.

Unloading gear took an unexpected turn on the pontoon when Bear dropped a handline into the marina water and hooked a surprisingly large, energetic fish. The thrashing catch landed directly on the dock, sending slime and fish blood across the deck, Nicky’s clothes, and Bear’s medical brace before they could unhook and return it to the water. The dockside chaos offered lighthearted relief before the crew turned their attention to the major technical priority of the week: commissioning a replacement outboard motor for their tender.

Commissioning the 15 HP Tender Outboard

Hauling the heavy box down from the vehicle to the marina dock required joint effort between Chris and Nicky. The new propulsion unit was a 15 horsepower outboard engine purchased to power their 3D Tender dinghy, replacing a smaller powerhead that struggled under family loads. Unpacking the motor revealed the factory toolkit, tilt pin, steering friction adjuster, and shallow-water drive mechanism. Rather than pushing the throttle wide open, Chris handled the factory break-in procedure step by step, explaining that he had to “read the manual to make sure it’s right cuz we only get one chance of running properly”.

The manufacturer guidelines dictated a strict multi-stage break-in schedule. For the initial running stage, Chris mixed fuel with two-stroke marine outboard oil at a concentrated 25 to 1 ratio, a much richer lubrication blend than the standard 50 to 1 operating mixture. The initial run required 10 minutes of steady dockside idling to allow cylinder temperatures to normalize and oil films to coat fresh bearings. Chris noted that “it’s a 10hour running process over different stages” before the engine could safely handle wide-open throttle or return to standard 50 to 1 fuel mixtures.

At 3:57 PM, Chris and Bear cast off from Pickle’s pontoon for a scheduled 50 minutes underway, keeping engine speeds strictly below half throttle and under 3,000 revs. While venturing beyond the outer harbor wall, steep coastal chop and wind gusts tossed spray over the bow, soaking both crew members and jarring Bear’s neck. Chris elected to turn back into the protected marina fairway to complete the break-in clock safely. Operating within the harbor basin drew an immediate warning from marina staff enforcing a strict 3 knots speed limit. After easing back to minimal headway, Bear took the tiller for a short turn, confirming that the hull planed effortlessly compared to their previous five horsepower motor.

Refit Organization and Provisioning

While Chris and Bear completed the tender break-in, Nicky remained aboard Pickle cleaning interior lockers, moving storage boxes out of Buddy’s walking paths, and organizing upcoming refit materials. The vessel’s upcoming workload included cockpit gel coating, extensive exterior varnishing, galley plumbing repairs on Chris’s side, and installing a comprehensive electrical upgrade comprising a new inverter, charge controller, and house battery bank.

To sustain the work week, the crew drove to a nearby commercial center for groceries and shop supplies. Nicky stocked up on staple food provisions, including pasta, tuna, fresh bread, and cakes, alongside six large 8 liter bottles of drinking water, wishing to avoid regional tap water while living aboard. They also secured fresh cans of gelcoat from the local supply store, preparing for fiberglass fairing on the cockpit sole and engine hatch covers.

Project SV Dubado: Beau’s 28-Foot Sloop

Meanwhile, back in England, Nicky and Chris’s daughter Beau was tackling her own independent maritime refit. Beau recently acquired SV Dubado, a classic 28-foot twin-keel cruising boat, situated on the hard in a boatyard. Conducting a thorough walk-around and interior walkthrough, Beau revealed the boat’s structural attributes: a shallow-draft twin-keel configuration, a tabernacle-style fold-down mast designed for transiting low inland canal bridges, solid fiberglass decks with zero core delamination, a Beta Marine diesel auxiliary engine, and heavy ground tackle including a 25 m chain paired with a 25 kg anchor.

Below decks, Dubado required extensive cleaning after prolonged outdoor storage. Tackling thick surface grime, Beau set to work with buckets of hot water, household bleach, and Fairy liquid to strip away mildew and biological growth from interior liners, stating, “I’m just going to get it down to its bare bones”.

A sudden downpour uncovered an urgent maintenance crisis: degraded window seals were letting rain pour down the cabin walls onto the salon sofa and into the bilge. Working as an employee at Adam’s Fish and Chips, Beau received emergency permission from her manager, Fiona, to rush down to the boatyard during lunch, quickly taping plastic rubbish sacks across the dripping window frame to protect interior cushions before returning to her shift.

The following morning, Beau teamed up with her grandmother, Nan, to craft permanent patterns for replacement window glazing. Lacking specialized drafting acrylic, they salvaged oversized corrugated cardboard boxes provided by coworker Zoe and local stores. Tracing the exterior coachroof contours with an old pen, Beau noted with astonishment, “I didn’t realize how bloody big the windows are”.

Using kitchen scissors, Beau and her grandmother cut out the large cardboard templates, checking alignments against the cabin trunk so new cast acrylic panes could be bedded in marine sealant and through-bolted rather than relying on failure-prone rubber compression seals. Working together in the open air, Beau expressed pride in mastering hands-on shipwright repairs, dismissing critics who questioned young women executing heavy DIY marine refits. Her long-range vision for SV Dubado includes completing her academic A-levels, living aboard during coastal cruising around the British Isle waters, and eventually navigating a crossing of the English Channel to France before hauling the vessel onto hard standing when the family embarks across the Atlantic.

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