Well now, it is a not so good day and Dave has all the tools I need for my jobs, so it is a good excuse to get down to a bit of blog writing. As you know, we are in the boatyard, still, as it always takes longer to do things than planned. I have to let you kniw that having the boat lifted is very stressful. First you have to get into the small dock and have the travel hoist come along with its straps to go under the hull and make sure they are in the right place, then it it is off the boat and watch it slowly rise up out of the water. The whole thing trundles along up to the parking place with us walking behind, looking forlornly up at our house and home swaying in the breeze. Then the props are put in and chocked up, the straps taken off and the boat let settle onto the sticks. Travel hoist away, we gaze at the undersides and see the coral worm infestation and the stuff still wound around the propeller. Ages later the man comes with the pressure washer, Dave sets to with a scraper and we gaze on the sorry sight of the undersides. The all singing anti-fouling is not all singing after all. Sigh. Big decisions to be made, but that’s for later.
Spirit on the hard, with the mast out lying beside her.
Glossary:
Mouse: string tied to a rope or cable that is being removed to be replaced. The cable is pulled out, the string follows and leaves and end to tie the new one onto to thread it down the same track. If the string comes off the cable half way along it is a nightmare as it is impossible to thread a new mouse. High stress situation!
Bilge: These are the spaces under the cabin floor wher the engine sits, pipes and wires run and wher we stow things. They are the real bottom of the boat and as it is a steel boat we have to watch for rusty bits.
Now where are we up to.
I think we are progressing, the new autopilot is almost in, the hull is almost half done, and the repaired guard rails are half done as are the bilges inside the boat. So I am hoping the second half of the half done goes a tad faster than the first half! The good news is that the mast work is done. We have changed the lights to LED ones as the old ones were so old they hardly glowed through the crazed glass and chomped power. So the mast has been re-wired, loved and cherished, inspected and cleaned and a problem or two sorted. And we did not loose a mouse!! Quite a feat when pulling over 60 feet of cable through a tight channel several times over.
The mast was taken out when we were up on the hard. A ginormous crane was brought in as the mast is 60 feet high and has to be lifted out of the boat, up in the air and over the guard rails before being lowered onto trestles. A game soul went up the mast to put on the strop from the crane, the last of the supports was undone and away it went. This sounds easy, but it took a full days preparation to get it eready so we did not hold folk up. So there is was dangling in the breeze and going down onto the trestles. Then a moment of consternation – it looked as though there was not enough room for it, and the crane could not move backwards. Much pacing out and then a holding of breath as it just cleared the wall. The photo does not show the aerials on the end of the mast very well and that there is just enough room to squeeze around the top end.
2 views if the mast. The blue and white boat is not us - it is behind us.
So here we are up on the props. It was a bit disconcerting at night at first, especially in the gales we had last week, as the boat was shaking a bit. But we have not fallen down, and gradually we are not noticing the movement as much. It is so much better being on board than going off to a flat in the evening as we did last time. We have fixed up the drainage into jerry cans, so life goes on much as normal. However, there are two drawbacks– the ladder and the loo.
There are times when one has to get off the boat, and the only way is by the ladder. So after climbing up the companionway steps into the cockpit there is a moment of meditation to think of all the things needed before going down – finding out the essential item is upstairs means another trip up and down. The old knees are really taking a hammering, even Dave is finding aches where there once were none.
Then there is the loo. Again we are parked just about as far away as you can be, so calls of nature are a camel hike there and back, and another camel hike for the shower. Thankfully our disinfectant system for liquid waste copes with most of nature’s needs, a trip out on a dark and stormy night is not to be undertaken except in extremis!
In the picture the loo is the small white building in the far distance in the middle of the picture.
Story
The intrepid duo have just finished a lovely meal created by Dave, a bit later than usual as work got in the way. Jen gets up to do the washing up.
‘Daaaaavvveeee?’
‘Yes, jen’
‘We have run out of water’
‘Run out of water? Now?’
‘’Fraid so’
Big sigh as this means down the ladder, get the hose from the water supply, drag it back and up onto the boat, then wait ages for the tanks to fill. Then down again to turn it all off. But washing up needs doing, bodies need washing, and the bottle supply is rather precious. So the job is done.
Jen returns to the galley to do the washing up. Fills the kettle for the hot water for the sink.
‘Dave’
‘Yes Jen’
‘We are out of gas.’
‘You sure?’
‘Yup. What bottle is next?’
Big groan. ’I can’t remember. I’ll go’
So Dave gets up and into the cockpit to try to work out where he is in his new idea of gas rotation. At least it is not a ladder job.
At last, gas, water and hot water. The washing up done, the duo decide it is time for early bed as the fellow with the grinder may be arriving at 7.30am – so an early start.
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