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4th Thursday on the hard

by steve, on April 14th, 2011 (Kalida, Lilith, New Zealand, Scream, Tahina)

I hope this is our last full day ‘status’ report of life on the hard. There’s an expression : “Life is hard in the yard.” It’s true.

Wrote a launch checklist. Having played around with the underwater bits I want to be sure we catch any leaks as early as possible.
Tied on new jib sheet protector. This is a line tied from a couple of meters up the mast down to the deck to keep the jib sheets away from the mast and being damaged.
Installed new clamshell scoops.
Visited the Town Basin Marina to confirm our intended Friday (that’s today !!!!) arrival and discuss location. Bumped into Darusha/Steve from Scream and Christa from Lileth.
Tested the freezer. Not exactly a hard task. I simply turned it on.
Put sea anchor away. Even though it needs another wash we’ve properly packed it in the bag and stowed it ready for unhoped for use.
Cleaned deck/dive locker.
Connected other end of exhaust hose (ie, the end not ultimately attached to the new through hull)
Helped install the new anchor guard
Tested the starboard motor. In doing this we had one of those “Oh No” moments. The zinc on the end of the prop was wobbling and so was the end of the on which it sat. Was the nut (the one we’d had pinned onto the shaft) on wrong? Was the shaft bent? I took two and a half expert oppinions and the general sense was the prop was running withing a hairbreadth of true and we had no problem. Phew.
Attached and raised anchor
Collected the new sails. In doing this I discussed options with the sail makers for the fitting. End result is they’re coming to the boat in the yard at 7:30am this morning. I took the sails as there was a possibility the boat may already be raised by then making it more awkward to get them aboard.

In the afternoon both Helen and I were both awash with fatigue. Perhaps it was coming down from the adrenalin of the wobbly nut. After three weeks of dust and dirt and being a day from launch, the possibility of being delayed was not a pleasant one. But we kept on and energy did eventually renew.

One other event which could have been a lot nastier than it ended up occurred when I was taking a hard drive over to Tahina. I took a short cut under the some boats and was just about to jump a ditch when the firm footing for my take off turned out not to be firm at all. I plunged into the ditch arresting my fall with my shin on some rocks. There were scratches and numbness down my leg but no extra joints. The hard drive and my bones were intact so all else was secondary and a relief. Karen and Frank tended to my condition by preparing soapy swabs to clean the dirt out of the wounds and giving me a big band aid (which later took off a lot of hair) for the main bash. I refrained from taking any further short cuts for the rest of the day.

The external work is now more or less complete. The anchor guard is now in place and the anchor chute epoxied. We’ve had bigger screws put into the mast based and have had propspeed applied to the props and shafts. Bar one small section on the starboard side the sides of the boat have been polished.

The main entertainment for the day came from the launch of a multi million dollar power cat which didn’t go as smoothly as it could. The truck bringing it to the yard fractured in a few places and they had one big mistep (it appeared) when they placed it on the ramp above high tide. While it was interesting to watch from time to time our main interest in seeing it launch was to know there was no bloody great boat stuck in the ramp we’re due to exit on Friday (today !!!!!).

Towards the end of the day I dropped of a case of beer for the workers as a thank you. Turned out to be very welcome as Peter is taking them down the river this evening for a ‘booze cruise’ and this will add to the party.

We finished the evening by sharing grilled sausages and veg with Dennis and Allison from Kalida. We had a good time together and the evening ended off with their sharing some of the Fiji experiences and our taking notes on places to go.

Soon.

Today, if you hadn’t guessed, is launch day. The sails will go on. The polishing complete. The dinghy raised. The boat raised and rudders fitted. This afternoon we’ll be off.

Oh. How can I forget. I uploaded pictures of the concert/wetlands walk from last Sunday (you’ll need to go back). And I’ve uploaded some pictures of the boat work. Here.

I have a few more pictures to add and take so I’ll republish this album when it’s complete.

3rd Wednesday on the hard

by steve, on April 13th, 2011 (New Zealand, Tahina)

Sooner or later we’ll run out of things to do. But not this day. We ended up on a bit of a roll :

Hung up the sea anchor again to try and remove more of the dampness. After another full day up the mast we came to the conclusion that it really needs a scrub. The best place, we reckon, is in the sea either in NZ or Fiji. I think we’ll repack it as is and clean it in Fijian waters.
Discussed remaining cleaning work with Peter.
Removed and cleaned clamshell scoop (and hull underneath) on nacelle.
Called dive shop to arrange pick up of serviced regulators next Monday.
Made arrangements for sail fitting.
Remove grease from serviced winches. I came to the conclusion that I’d put too much grease on the 3 winches serviced so far. Helen got the job of cleaning off the excess.
Wound up the financial side of our old Llc for the boat.
Completed the dinghy Inflation and tied on the cover.
As a result of the tech finishing the work on our prop shafts I was able to :
- Completed the SSB ground plane on the port side
- Replaced proper battery configuration on the starboard side (bar the last two batteries so we can inspect the shaft seal after we launch)
- Installed all the new shaft zincs.
- Tested port motor (starboard motor shaft was covered in polythene sheet at the time)
As a result of the painting being complete I was able to :
- Installed new ground zinc
- Glue the sea cock onto the new through hull fitting the exhaust hose in position so the glue sets with the valve orientated correctly.
Our chain chute was returned with an extra curve in it. I performed the reinstallation.
Reorganized a lot of the boat interior returning many things to their proper places.
One run to the chandlers for a few bits and pieces.
One run to the supermarket for provisioning.
Spent a while on Alison’s / Dennis’ boat (can’t remember name) fixing their navigation software.

From the above you can see two of our paid for projects have been completed. The shaft alignment / shaft seal work was completed allowing me to complete the work dependent on that. The bottom painting was also completed and all the plastic wrap removed from the boat. The bottom looks nice. The windows even better now that we can see them properly. We really are pleased with the results of that project. The chain chute and our anchor guard came back from the stainless steel folks. The guard should go on today.

It’s all looking good. We have time for the remaining work to be finished before we launch and the weather gods continue to cooperate at least until the weekend. Then it looks like we’re going to have a few poor days which may delay our final sail fitting. Very soon, though, we’ll have the unpleasant task of paying for all of the work we’ve had done.

We were quite exhausted by the end of the day but we still had enough energy to visit Karen and Frank on Tahina for the evening. We shared some wine and played a couple of words games. Helen and I had to peel off as we were getting somewhat sleepy.

It’s beginning to look like we’ll have four sets of visitors to the boat during the five to six months we’ll have in Fiji. While this will take a bit of coordination we’re very excited about this. One of the benefits of a catamaran is the ability to have guests aboard and not feel on top of each other – one of the reasons we went for a whole boat rather than half of one. Not long now.

3rd Tuesday on the hard

by steve, on April 12th, 2011 (Callisto, Emily Grace, Leu Cat, New Zealand, Tyee)

With the work list dwindling you’d think we’d be having less to do. It doesn’t seem to be working out that way :

I remove temporary batteries I hooked up sitting over the starboard shaft access ready for the techs planned visit.
I made my (hopefully) last trip up the mast to file down the epoxy I’d applied to the oversized countersunk holes.
The engine tech arrived and told us the second shaft seal was now not expected to arrive from overseas until late May and suggested we try and order one from the US. I nearly tore his head off. We then came up with the idea of using the new one and the best of the old ones which is still pretty good.
I cleaned and sanded the prop shafts one more time.
The engine tech ran into a new problem as the newly machined couplings had been machined in error and needed some more work. Despite all this, all is expected to be complete on this front by Wednesday.
Replaced a bent clip on the dinghy hauling lines.
Inventoried genset oil to determine how much more to buy in.
Stored around 14 boxes of wine away from the world.
Laid out storm anchor. This is one of those jobs we should have done a long time ago. We’ve had a second hand para anchor and a brand new set of bridles/lines for nearly two years and we’ve never taken them out of the bags to inspect them, let alone test them at sea. We removed both sets of lines from the bags and worked out how we would set them from the boat at sea. We removed the parachute from it’s bag and found it intact but covered in mould. We hoisted it up the mast for a couple of hours in the afternoon to dry out. It will have to go up there again today. Also spent ages trying to untangle the lines to the parachute. It’s better but not complete.
Collected our finished windows. I took them round to Leu Cat who are considering doing the same project. They were quite impressed. There I picked up our two clamshell scoops which had arrived from the US. Back at the boat Helen was delighted. We put them into the window frames and checked them out through the plastic still wrapping the boat. They looked good but we really need to see them with the plastic off.
Bottom painting progressed. Second primer followed by first coat of anti-foul went on.

During the day it was nice to meet John and Lucy from Tyee who’ve just returned from Canada. Their boat has been in the yard while they’ve been home. With envy we saw Emily Grace splash/launch.

In the evening it was a pleasure to eat out with Mike and Anne from Callisto at our preferred curry house in Whangarei. Like us, they like their curries hot so we were able to share five dishes amongst the four of us. Delicious.

The weather forecast for the rest of the week remains good and all signs point towards a Friday afternoon launch for us. Today the second layer of anti-foul goes on as will a third application on all our leading edges. The engine tech should have our prop shafts reconnected and we may even have the hull clean started. A lot to do yet but it all looks doable.

3rd Sunday on the hard

by steve, on April 10th, 2011 (Attitude, El Regalo, New Zealand)

Because we’d planned the afternoon off, the work accomplished list for Sunday was relatively short :

Lubricated all pulleys and sliders
More varnish onto shower sill
Replaced line cover over pulleys (involved spending 1/2 hour picking out a hole in tube of sealant)
Cleaned mess on cabin top (from gluing last weekend)
Created sail bag zip handle
Fixed nav station light which had been flickering
Found and sanded more gelcoat patches

Around midday we packed it in, tidied up and had a brief lunch before heading into town to watch the Tai Tokerau Haka Road Show. The show was an opportunity for three of the local (normally competitive) traditional singing/dancing groups to showcase their work along with a few other entertainers.

The show was to a packed hall and had a fundraising (for Christchurch) element to it. Curiously they had a Butlins style host who introduced each act. The opener was a great singing chap who the audience knew as a contestant on NZ Idol. Next was the first of the singing/dancing groups. If we thought we were treated last Friday, it just got better. With about 15 females and 15 males in traditional costume we were given several different performances all strung together seemlessly. The crowd would cheer when certain songs began presumably because they were familiar. All the male led performances for this group and those that followed seemed to be some variation on the haka.

Next came two sisters, a 14 year old on the cello and a 10 year old who played the violin so well it almost brought tears to the eyes. They played 2 songs to huge applause from the audience.

Next came the smallest of the three traditional groups about the same size as the group we had last Friday. Between them and the final group was a round of raffle winners. The last traditional group was the same group of performers as we had last Friday but beefed up in numbers. They exceeded their prior performance by a long shot. The larger audience brought out more enthusiasm and with more of them and bigger acoustics their performance sang out.

And there it could have finished except they decided to bring all three groups together on stage to sing and dance three traditional numbers which they all knew. Fantastic stuff.

It was no surprise that we ran into cruisers in the hall. We ended up sitting right at the front in front of Brian and JoDon from El Regallo. We bumped into Kathy from Attitude on the way out.

We didn’t stay too long as we had a little more to do. We drove to Bunnings to pick up a few bits and pieces for the boat. On the way back to the boat we stopped off and had a walk around the wetlands area we’d seen many times and vowed to visit. It was a quite pleasant and very easy walk allowing us to see a number of birds, etc. quite close to town.

Back on the boat it was now 4:30 and we lost the will to go back to work and cracked open a couple of beers instead.

Dinner was another couple of NZ steaks. I’m going to miss these. We’ve never really cooked steak too often but we’ve treated ourselves to nice filets just a little too often recently. Afterwards we settled down for a movie.

Perhaps to try and get into the spirit of the near future we watched the 50s movie ‘South Pacific’ which turned out to be too long and a struggle to get through. We soldiered on even though Helen ended up playing cards on the computer and I spent most of the time watching the live telemetry and commentary from the Malaysian Grand Prix. A quick check on IMDB revealed the usual con about movie locations. None of it was filmed in the South Pacific. The closest location was Hawaii (20 degrees north of the equator) and the rest in Ibiza (Spain), Malaysia and LA. All I can say is “Bloody Alonso”. Nothing to do with the movie or Ibiza – he drove into the back of Hamilton.

It’s now Monday morning. Real time blog readers can get the same weather forecast as us at metservice. We might just get a continued good run of weather ahead and be out of the yard by the end of the week.

3rd Saturday on the hard

by steve, on April 9th, 2011 (Callisto, Imagine, New Zealand, Sea Mist)

Just after spotting the pattern in the weather it changed again. Another fine day. Can’t complain. Guess what. More boat work :

Installed new sheave and ran line for outhaul / 3rd reef through boom
Serviced two more winches
Tested the new chain chute. Not as good as we’d hoped. Needs to be bent some more.
Applied more varnish to shower sill.
Cleaned dinghy and dinghy cover.
Taped cables going in and out of mast.
Taped damaged patches on starboard shroud cover.
Terminated data service renewals on mobile phone service.
Washed all pulleys in warm water.

During the mid-afternoon we both felt a little fatigued and had to take a rest for an hour. During this time we took a look at a new guide we have covering the area around north Fiji. We’ll be there soon.

On the way to food (and little more wine) shopping we briefly bumped into Stuart (Imagine) and Mike (Callisto) presumably paying a doctors call to John on Sea Mist who’s had a nasty cold for some time now. Hopefully he’ll be better soon.

In the evening we watched a movie then Helen read and I polished off three more Euler problems. I’m getting back into the swing of them.

The dancers we saw a couple of nights ago are participating in an event this afternoon. We need some R&R so we’ll probably go to that.

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