Although most deck hands would disagree, there is no doubt
that the vast majority of tasks on our numerous, and interminable, ‘To Do’
lists (J swears by them, A rarely needs one...) fall within A’s areas of
expertise.
The Autopilot has given up the ghost, and although we tried
to find a fixer the kind gentleman who really knows his stuff could not help,
so we are going to make the next journeys without and see how we get on. Since
the rudder angle indicators were part of that system there has been a lot of
research and planning done by A before committing to the new system, ensuring
that it will be compatible with a future choice of pilot. Still, it has been so
much more rewarding for him to do that than sand the decks!
Other works completed:
Fly Bridge – painted where necessary with a new
dashboard at the helm station, where A has removed the ‘extras’, leaving it
clear and simple with a new rudder angle indicator, the engine rev counters and
a horn button. When time permits engine start/stop buttons and alarms will be
added. 
Inside the forehead locker drain holes and ventilation pipes
have been bonded in, as well as creation of a coffer dam to protect the Morse
control and cable run from up top to the main helm – a tried and tested source
of water leak fixed!
New deck furniture – garden quality, at garden (rather than
boat) prices – has been fully tested, we have even had to sleep on them a
couple of times it has been so hot! A installed them on raised feet, which are
sika’d down – no screw will be going through these decks after all the work we
have put in to fill the holes and stem the leaks!
J finally decided on the finish for our teak, and has found
a marine quality oil which looks gorgeous and will require so much less
maintenance than the varnish. Not all handrails are done on the fly bridge, but
will certainly be finished over the course of the coming winter.
The mast is showing signs of age, with some pretty serious
cracks now showing through the paint, so another job added to this winters work
list.
Mid-deck – supports for the gas bottles and life raft (bonded,
not screwed, bien sure!), as well as a storage platform made from the teak of
the passarelle, beautiful and useful. To make space for the life raft we
removed the sliding hatch runners and made it a simple lift up, and took the
opportunity to glass in the hatch to fix another leak. Painting, including the
window frames, since J stripped the varnish, only to find that she had left us
vulnerable to water leaks, and we’re really pleased with the Jotun
containership paint we chose, which needed plenty of thinners in this hot
climate but once we had our mix right it went on beautifully and dried in the
blink of an eye.
These handrails are sanded and oiled, so the only work
required to finish this area is to lay a Grand Banks style teak walkway. Mañana,
mañana!
On the main deck we had removed the teak from the aft deck
and forwards until we reached the doors, to discover that the superstructure
was not fibre glassed on (?!) so we did that, and have now painted with a grey
Jotun paint with a (slightly inadequate) non-skid additive – the final coat
when we have cleared and sealed the forward area will need to a be a bit more grippy.
To raise the teak we had to remove the water fill points,
which revealed that the connections to the water tanks were severely degraded,
so they were changed.
Fwd deck – another leaky hatch is glassed in, the teak
removed, and all holes sealed.
Lazarette - A has spent so much time in the laz this summer
it is practically his man-cave, and apart from installation of the replacement
sender for the new rudder angle indicators, which needed tweak after tweak
until it was just right, he also created supports to fix the lead weights, replaced
the earth bonding cables to the anodes & rudder stocks, modified &
painted the floorboards to create perfect storage, and insulated the bulkhead
to protect the main cabin wall from the chill (insulated camping mats were
cheap as chips, easily cut to shape and work a treat!).
We have a brand new laz hatch, and A rebuilt the sagging
support, epoxying in new drain pipes, which need almost daily clearing of dog
hair, but work well when clear!
A built a new passarelle, recycling the hinged pin deck
fitting and wheels from the old one. It is made from aluminium and garden
decking, making it super light to manipulate and store under the fly bridge
seating during transit.
The
swim platform has been stripped and oiled, and the step ladder moved with
additional reinforcements – this is more user friendly as you no longer need to
negotiate the davit once out of the water, and allows us to ‘park’ the
paddleboard across the transom. We displaced the name board onto the aft
railing, and it looks fab, and the paddleboard currently hides the transom
holes which we’ll fill, fare and paint this winter.
A also created a reinforced mount for the passarelle on the
swim platform, which with the addition of a couple of fenders creates a doggy
diving board, allowing Roxy in and out of the water without assistance – bonus!
She loves it, and would quite like to be able to get on the swim platform
without human intervention, but that would perhaps allow her liberties we are
not prepared to grant!
We ran the full length of our anchor chain – 80-odd meters
of it - out into the port, and it took a good half days work for us both to
unwind its twists and kinks in an attempt to solve the frequent jamming we usually
experience when raising the anchor. We have found ourselves severely
shorthanded when J is out manning the winch via it’s remote, while A is flaking
the chain in the forward cabin locker – err, who’s driving?! Not a problem in
port, and after hoovering out about 10kg of anchor chain rust, A flaked a
freshly rinsed chain back in beautifully – we’ll keep you posted on the
results!
We have not carried out any planned modifications on the
interior as yet, however, some unplanned works have been unavoidable – for
example the tap in the forward head was damaged and sprang a leak so we
renovated the folding tap from the aft heads and put that fwd, putting a new
tap aft.
And just when we thought we were ready, we noticed a fluid
leak from the steering pump at the main helm station, from a crack in the pump
housing. The crack refused to be fixed, with epoxy or self amalgamating tape,
so we had to replace it – except the old steering wheel didn’t fit the new
pump, so we had to replace that too. The fitting is completed but some work is
needed to make it all pretty again.
Phew!
