Boat work

Had a great weekend on the boat, even if we only poked our nose out of the marina once before heading back in.


Last week I started amassing some of the required items on our boat list. This list gets longer and longer even though we check off items all the time. Every time we visit the boat we find more things to add, but we are learning about maintenance and repairs and we have a sense of achievement every time we manage to get something fixed.

On Wednesday we met Axel and Peta at Villa Funchal, we normally meet on a Thursday but it was Axel’s birthday so we switched the days. It turned out we switched all our other regular Wednesday things to Thursday and did all the Thursday things on Wednesday. This led to much confusion with a mixed up week. Friday did seem to come quicker though, so no complaints!


Axel brought a new air filter for our inboard motor with him, seems Brendon had managed to find one after much searching. So thank you Brendon!

We visited Pick ‘n Pay and bought 4 blue pool noodles. We planned on putting these over the edges of the dinghy so that it would not damage the boat when pulled up along side. This worked out better than expected and we have to get 1 more to complete the task on our next visit. I will post pics then!

We headed to the boat on Friday, Barry was feeling under the weather, but we reasoned he could lie in bed there just as easily as at home. The weather was beautiful when we arrived but with the clouds building on the horizon we were in for a rolling and windy night.

We unloaded all our goodies and on boarding Bluefin found that Greg had finally left the other mooring cushion on board. Another task to be done. We unpacked and hooked up the computer for the kids to play games. We went for a walk and had an early night as Barry was not feeling any better.


On Saturday morning we took a drive to Deneysville. We went to “Star Marine” to get some spares for Bluefin. Some things are only available at the chandlery. We walked around looking through the treasure trove of goodies. We eventually bought only what we came for and headed back. On the way, Barry spotted a sign saying: ”History of Motorcycles Museum”….

We turned around, stopped at the newly set up museum and paid our entrance fee (at R20 per person we found it a little pricey). There were however, plenty of bikes, a few rarities all with comments on the history and ownership. We read up about a ship found near the Suez Canal, sunk in WWII, with 100 motorcycles on board. A great dive site today!

We headed outside and watched, much to Kyle’s excitement, a helicopter take off. There was a learner pilot on board, so it was interesting and not just a little nerve wrecking as he almost hit the windsock. “Hope he misses the masts on the yachts” Barry commented as he headed towards the water and we headed back to the museum to complete our tour.

We stopped at “Stoppies” a new restaurant/coffee shop in Vaal Marina and had burgers and toasted sandwiches for lunch. We looked at the Iguana’s, bearded dragons and Macaw parrots in the nursery outside before returning to Bluefin to begin our boat work.


By the time we got back it had started to rain. Barry and I headed up to the garages and stuck the pool noodles around the dinghy, opting to work indoors during the downpour. We returned to the boat and started our in depth wire tracing for our non-functional depth finder. We checked wires and connections, cleaned the transducer and played with the buttons until it seemed that it had started to show true depth rather than display in simulator mode.

Sunday morning had us up early, hoping to test the depth finder. We motored out and into the small bay at Sunset Cove. We headed close to shore and watched anxiously as the depth decreased on the screen. It started decreasing slowly then suddenly fell from 5m to 0.5m. We turned sharply to avoid running aground, but the depth did not increase. We headed deeper into the water, still nothing. I switched the system off and on…nothing. Off and on again, finally back to 5m. It stayed there for 60 seconds before returning to simulator mode. Guess it is still not working properly. I made a note to find the manual on the Internet and have a look at what the problem could be.

Upon re-entering the marina, Barry asked me to take the tiller and “park”. Rauen got ready to jump, Barry went to the bow and I docked the boat. We packed up our toys and returned home to do our chores and prepare the wrenched workweek ahead.

Hey, Tuesday is my Birthday – so it can’t be all that bad!