The threatened variable weather varied from the forecast by staying steadily pleasant all day long. We got back into full swing :
- I removed more of the batteries from under the starboard aft bunk to allow access to the shaft.
- With the area now fully accessible and with Helen’s help we fished through the wire that will control the wind gen cut off relay.
- Russ, the chap replacing our shaft seals/couplings arrived to work on starboard shaft.
- I went into town to drop off the plexiglass panels to be overlayed with perforated and printed vinyl. While out I picked up an extra couple of items for ditch bag.
- Helen spent most of the day carefully masking off the four windows and applying 2 coats of paint. One more coat required.
- Once Russ had left I reinstalled three batteries bringing us up to 8 6V batteries (rather than our normal 12). Allows us to run power tools, etc. with ease off the batteries and avoid excessive electrolysis due to solar charging.
- Installed new bridle
- Reattached straightened starboard bow rail, reattached and tightened safety lines. All look much neater now.
- Installed new fuse holder/fuse
- Removed (again) port davit pulleys and filed down stainless steel to allow free turning. Lost another spacer/washer down davit. Could not fine spare.
- Completed running the control wire for the wind gen cut off. Found it 1 meter to short. Cursed myself for cutting 1 meter off it for something else last week (I thought I had more than enough).
- Went to chandlers to buy replacement washer for davit and extra wire.
- Fixed missing meter of control wire, connected to previously installed switch and tested – it all worked. Yay. No more climbing out onto the back of the boat mid-ocean before and after using the sideband radio.
- Organized pickup of dinghy in order to have new handle and rollock glued on.
- Replaced some bent cotter rings.
- Removed both prop shafts scraping crud off previously inaccessible sections.
- Thoroughly cleaned both shafts and prop nuts with hydrochloric acid.
- Prepared some mail for the US.
Other progress has been made by our various workers. The build up and strengthening around the anchor roller is now close to completion. The gooseneck is fixed and has been returned. Gelcoat work is now fully finished. We were shown how to sand the remaining pieces down which we’ll do when we please. The preliminary work on our rudder bearings is complete. Work progresses on the improvements to our chain locker.
There’s a definite sense that we’re over the top of the hill on the boat work and that it is more downhill from here. Talk has begun of our hull clean and bottom painting happening early next week after which we’ll splash. Exciting stuff. The big unknown right now is the timing for our replacement shaft seals.
We used the BBQ last night and met up with a few of the others here. This included Petr and Kiki on Endless who shouldn’t have been there. They’d splashed that day but had to be hauled back out due to problems controlling the engines. Turns out a control cable had been damaged during work to their boat. It’s sorted out now and hopefully they’ll be off today. It reminds me how important the pre splash checks will be to make sure all is in order before and after the splash. We’ll be going into the water with all the floors and beds apart so I can inspect all the through hulls and shaft seals to ensure none of the work we’ve done has led to any issues.
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