Another busy day.
Before getting out of bed I updated our main website (www.aboarddignity.com) removing the references to hybrid as that we no longer are. Probably once we’re up in Fiji and we’ve had some time on the new engines I intend to write a retrospective on our experience on the hybrid system and a comparison to the new.
I spent some time reading the manuals for the new sail drives and motors. I now have a good idea of servicing requirements now. There will be oil changes every 250 hours with an extra one thrown in at 50. I will have to reread and check I have all the things I need to do these jobs.
The big event of the day was the installation of the diesel motors. The crane arrived on time and the motors were lifted into the lockers in turn. There were millimetres to spare as there were guided in by Bertrand with Joel down in the locker settling them onto their bed. To get the starboard engine in I had to move one of the wind gen supports. I tided this high up to the starboard bimini support. Once the engine was in we have to reverse the work. All went well.
Looking at the weather forecast for the weekend we see 50 km/h winds forecast for our launch on Saturday. That’s a no no. Shouldn’t set off with new motors in a gale. After some discussion with the yard they’re going to try and squeeze us in today. The techs say they’ll be ready. We have a busy day ahead.
We applied two coats of primer to the sail drives morning/afternoon. We’ll try and get two coats of anti-foul on today but it will go in wet. Probably going to have to do a lot of scraping down there over the next couple of years.
I inspected the SSB ground plane and found that the corrosion was largely superficial and decided to leave it in place. Later in the day the work was finished under our bunk. The spare parts from the hybrid system went under the bunk, drawers replaced and all the stuff from under our bunk went back – all creating a lot of space in the boat. Our nest in the cabin was dismantled and our bed moved downstairs to it’s rightful place.
Derek and Alison from Kalida have agreed to take our life raft down to Auckland where it will be serviced. So that was removed and taken to their boat. I made up and printed out a map for them to find the place.
Helen and I spent a while checking the forward port locker for leaks as we know water was getting in. We knew the bridle point was letting in water so we fixed that first. We confirmed that the hatch was letting in water where the support meets the hatch so that was also fixed.
In all this we found time for Helen to wash down the foredeck and me to fix her computer cable.
As implied above the techs made very good progress yesterday. By end of day we were clearing up the rubbish under the boat. The scrap metal guy came and took away our spare motor. We subsequently learned the second motor is not going to be sent to Oz so we need that picked up too.
We’ve been left with all the purchased tools and left over parts. I had thought of buying some spare hose clamps but now have loads of them as well as many assorted bolts, nuts, washers, cable ties, etc. that weren’t needed.
Busy and exciting day ahead of us today. It’s not certain we’ll go in but the yard will try their best. One large cat goes in early then they’re hauling a monohull which has a hole in it’s side. Then in we go. If all went well earlier and we have time. Fingers crossed. Otherwise it’s Sunday.
At the end of the day it was really nice getting into our own bunk. It felt like we’d finally arrived home.
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