… and on with the new (outboards)!

Fitting a new motor with the crane
Fitting a new motor with the crane

The engine crane returns, to fit the 60hp Mercury motors to the back of Seahorse in another time lapse taken in our driveway at home. These smaller engines will significantly improve the boat’s fuel consumption, and adjust her profile in the water so she doesn’t sit so low at the back. This will improve her performance, which seems counter intuitive because you’d think that bigger engines would mean more speed…

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GybCsXVnOgE&w=540″]

… and out with the new (outboards)…

Boxed and ready to go
Boxed and ready to go

Here’s a time lapse to follow yesterday’s post, of unboxing a pair of Mercury 60hp four strokes, in our carport. The motors come boxed with a metal frame around them that stays attached right until they’re hanging from the engine crane. That’s the old motors to the left, resting on tyres, and Clare’s budding herb garden to the right of the image above!

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScvqgPsbNI4&w=540″]

Off with the old (outboards)…

Removing an outboard motor with the engine crane
Removing an outboard motor with the engine crane

We did some work on the boat recently, and I used the opportunity to experiment with a little time lapse movie, compiled from photos taken in our driveway. This is how you use an engine crane to remove outboard motors from a rubber duck. The motors I am removing are 90hp Mercury two strokes.

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xLT4reBRUI&w=540″]

Family business

Ready for action at the pool
Ready for action at the pool

Our pool is five by three metres, and just under two metres deep at the deep end. We’ve had a number of students that have come to do their confined water skills, but in December we had two firsts: four students at the same time, and all of them were related. The three Carstens children were doing a PADI Open Water course, and their old man was doing a Refresher.

Exam time!
Exam time!

Not only did all of us fit in the pool at the same time for the basic skills (with me towards the shallow end and the family in the deep end), but we had an awesome time of it. It’s been great having the pool on site. The pool we used to use sometimes had water clarity issues, and there certainly wasn’t the option of popping inside for a cup of coffee and some theory work.

Group photo after successful completion of confined water skills
Group photo after successful completion of confined water skills

Cape Town from space

Here’s another image of my favourite city, taken by Canadian astronaut and all round amazing chap, Colonel Chris Hadfield, while he was on the International Space Station.

Cape Town from space
Cape Town from space

I had to look at it for a while before I could figure out what part of the city I was looking at. On the left of the image is False Bay, and at the top left of the image you can just see the Strandfontein sewerage ponds that you pass when driving along Baden Powell drive, looking like shiny patches of mercury just inland from the beach. This is a popular bird watching location.

On the right is Table Bay, with the harbour visible at the top right of the image. It’s hard to be dogmatic about it, but from the wind pattern on Table Bay it seems the south easter was blowing when this picture was taken. The mountain protects the inshore sites on the Atlantic seaboard from the wind.

If you draw a line across the top of the image from the harbour to the sewerage ponds, you’re cutting right through the southern suburbs – basically the area between the M3 and M5. The bulk of the bottom of the image is the Cape flats.

If you rotate this map clockwise by 90 degrees, you’ll have a pretty good idea of the orientation of this picture. We’re more familiar with False Bay and Cape Town looking like this or like this!

View Larger Map

Newsletter: Dig a big hole

Hi divers

Our garden, before...
Our garden, before…

So, the week has been a bit hectic – hectic wind and and hectic rain, but today was mild, sunny and mostly dry so we dug a hole in the garden and filled it with a pool.

After... the pool comes through a gap in the fence
After… the pool comes through a gap in the fence

Last weekend

Last weekend we were lucky enough to have two days of excellent diving, both the Atlantic and False Bay were good. We had good viz and a calm, flat sea with almost no wind. We did three dives on Saturday and did some exploring on the outskirts of Maori Bay. In False Bay we dived the cowsharks and Photographer’s Reef. Monday was just as good and we did a double tank dive to cowsharks and the Pietermaritzburg.

Diving with the cowsharks last Sunday
Diving with the cowsharks last Sunday

Weekend diving

This weekend looks like more of the same stuff. Its a tough call on what side of the mountain to dive. Water temperature in the Atlantic today is 15 degrees, False Bay is 13 degrees. Warm Atlantic often means less than optimal visibility. There is some south east wind tomorrow so I think it will clean up. So the plan is, a few wreck dives and a visit to Atlantis!

Saturday

Hout Bay: the Katsu Maru and the BOS 400. Meeting in Hout bay at 8.00

Sunday

Atlantis and the Pietermaritzburg. Meet at False Bay Yacht Club at 8.30

Training

Currently I have Divemaster, Rescue, Advanced and Open Water on the go.

Travel

We’re doing the Red Sea liveaboard thing from 17-26 October.

We’ll be checking out Durban’s wrecks from 17-21 June!

Let me know if you want more details… The warm water beckons.

regards

Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog/

Diving is addictive!

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