GOZO

I know it has been a long time since the last blog, but I was under the misapprehension that folk would not be interested in our non-sailing time. Much nagging by family and friends, including the plaintive cry from one of the boys that he was not sure where his mother was, has prompted a restart of life on board Spirit of Salcombe.

Today is sunny and warm, a good 22 degrees, and a bit too lumpy for me to paint the bilge, so an excellent time to let Dave get on with his bits up on deck and escape to get writing. We are still in Gozo, in Mgarr harbor on the south of the island. For those not quite so sure of their geography here is a little map to show the relationship of Gozo to Malta. We have been very happy here, having returned after our time down in Manoel Island on Malta for the lift out and re-fit. In fact we have been here so long we will be sad to leave, having made many friends here.
A brief resume of the last few months goes like this. Arrive Gozo for a week beginning of last November, then go down to Malta. Tie up in the marina at Manoel Island and go to visit offspring in the UK. Return, put boat into boatyard and travel to Brisbane for a month to sort out Dave’s visa and visit daughter Kate. Return and put boat into water and come back to Gozo where we can buy a month alongside for less than a week at Malta. Keep fixing boat and delay setting off again, and again! Still all good things must eventually come to an end, and another door open, so it will now not be long before the next setting off.
It will be impossible to recount everything in order, so each day there will be little snippets of past and present. Today’s present is to wash the deck yet again after another deposit of Saharan sand with the last night southerlies. I do not think there can be much sand left in the desert, it is all here. It came with a magnificent thunder and lightning storm right overhead about 8 o’clock last night. The sky went the oddest greeny yellowy grey and then the thunder did not stop rolling for minute after minute and the lightening streaked down overhead. Then the rain came and then the wind blew and then the mud made its presence felt. Brown sand gets everywhere, inside the boat through any tiny chink. It is a moot point whether to dust it off or leave it knowing it will be back again soon. So Dave is up on deck wiping off the bits he wants to paint, hoping it will dry before the wind starts up again this afternoon.

JEN’S FAVOURITE HOLES

Why am I not painting due to the lop? Well here is a picture of my current favourite hole.
It is in the galley and the hole you can see with all the black stuff is one of the bilges which had got itself rusty. This is my fourth galley bilge over the last weeks. It has been a horrid job chipping all the rust off, especially as the space continues under the floor all the way around, so it is lying down with arms disappearing up the bilge trying to hammer and chip. Fingers get banged, arms get scraped, knees give in and back aches, but it is all in a good cause as the floor of the bilge is the bottom of the boat which we do not want to disintegrate. Not that it is likely to as it is very sturdy, but it does not stop Dave from worrying about my efforts with the lump hammer and chisel. After 2 days of chipping comes the rust treatment, the black stuff, and then the undercoat of red lead which also means upside down and curled in funny shapes to get into all the nooks and crannies. Then there will be 2 coats of bilge paint. So when the boat is lopping about, being upside down with your head in a hole and the paint fumes getting up your nose is not a very unhappy situation. Best wait till things calm down tomorrow – my altruism goes only so far. Bilges are my job as I can fit. Here are 2 of my other holes.

This one is the windlass locker up the front. A particularly awkward place as the windlass stand won’t come out and it is all metal. Took me 5 weeks to finish it, but it is rust free and beautiful – for now!

This is one of the cockpit lockers, all of them needed doing. And all the cockpit locker fronts had to be sanded down to bare wood to let them dry out after their time in the Hebrides when they were always wet. Then there is the sanding, rust treatment, primer, undercoat, top coats, all nasty smelly epoxy paints. Again, I fitted, so Dave was left to get on with the deck. But they too look beautiful again, and a re-organization has also made things easier to access for doing jobs along the way. The plan is not to have to do so much all in one go, but keep at it as we are at anchor along the way.
Everything is so much nicer to do in the sunshine, and we are having loads of fun in the process. Sometimes it is just so easy to sit down for a minute and watch the world go by, chat to passers by and forget about the paint brush slowly drying.
More tomorrow, but now work calls from above – my beloved has lost something, so woman search required.