9th March
This has been a crazy, wonderful week! So much has happened I am not sure where to begin. Cyclone Irina made landfall just north of us bringing torrential rain and huge winds…I was relatively calm throughout the storm and managed to sleep without panic, I am obviously getting better at this. 3 days of rain and wind made life on board a little boring…there is not much you can really do in that sort of weather.
During this terrible weather we spotted a huge amount of water inside the boat, in the kitchen cupboards and under the saloon seating. We traced the problem and found a rather serious bit of wood rot just behind the mast step. We have cut it out and left it open to dry out at the moment…we got an expert opinion from Dylan and have decided we will effect this repair on the water. Yip on the water!
So we cleared out under the boat, packed up the last of our workshop and had them place the trailer under us and lift her into the air…we are flying 2 hulls at the moment…so we could complete the work under the keels.
Yesterday we managed to epoxy that as well as sand, we are prepped for antifouling. Today we do the last bits of the antifoul, under the keels, on the props and saildrives and inside the underwater skin fittings. We will be back in the water after major repair and construction tonight! Yip, finally back on the water and getting closer to the goal of sailing. Not that the work is complete, we have a list of things that need to be done before we cast off but we are definitely heading in the right direction.
I simply can’t wait to lulled to sleep on the never still water on a floating Yrumoar…
Things never seem to work out as planned…our precious Yrumoar was injured on her passage across the land towards the water and we had to effect repairs to her starboard rudder before we could actually launch her on Saturday. We spend Friday night sleeping on a friend’s boat because she was standing in the slipway with a wet epoxied rudder at a 45 degree slope making it impossible to lie down on the beds.
Anyway by Saturday afternoon we had completed the repair and launched her into the water, we would finally sleep on our own boat in the water!
Both Barry and I have not been feeling too well and decided that once in the water we would go and see a doctor. As we only launched on Saturday we waited for Monday, doing little in the way of work. On Monday morning we hailed a taxi and headed to town to visit a doctor as well as an upholsterer.
The doctor prescribed an antibiotic for me and some steroids and REST for Barry and gave us a large list of medicines that need prescription for Yrumoar, our medicine chest is complete with general purpose antibiotics and all!
We dropped off the helm chair we had manufactured while still on land, chose the material to cover it and left it with them. Did a few grocery items and headed back to the boat.
On Tuesday we collected the trampolines we purchased from the yacht club…they do not fit Yrumoar but as they are not sewn we can cut the battons shorter and adjust them size and we will have fantastic trampolines! Wednesday saw us doing one of the two.
Ryun’s yacht Seashoes was launched early Wednesday morning and we joined them aboard for some champagne. Then headed off to make our trampolines but only managed to finish one before return to Seashoes for evening cocktails.
Yesterday saw Barry actually taking the doctor’s advice and resting. He will be doing that again today as his arms seem to be showing signs of improvement. We will probably start working again either on the weekend or Monday…then it is full steam ahead as we have just over 2 weeks to get Yrumoar ready for the Inhaca race, our official sea trial and the largest racing event from this yacht club. We will be at sea for both Barry’s and Kyle’s birthdays…and the greatest thing about entering the race is that we receive jackets with our yacht name embroidered on the front!
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
Nothing EVER goes according to plan!
3 February
Friday once again. Reading the list for the week we have managed to complete most of the tasks with success. The port dolphin nose is in its final stage. Barry with sand the fine fairing compound this morning and we will begin the painting. I have laid all the scuppers to completion, Barry will grind the last four this morning and we will begin painting them today.
The fire extinguishers are back from service and I have paid for the hull inspection. I will give Mike a call today to arrange time and date.
We also had a successful week on the home schooling side with Rauen completing and English assessment as well as a Maths Assessment and Kyle completing his Term 1 final assessment. Rauen is currently busy with Physics while Kyle continues to get through the syllabus at a steam train speed.
This week was also the week of dealing with the authorities and I have begun completing the paper work and gathering all the correct documents and information related to registering the yacht for international travel. This is a slightly long process but with the correct assistance and documentation it can be processed in a couple of weeks so we are well on our way.
It is slightly overcast this morning which means that when Barry heads off in a few moments to go sand he will not be in the burning hot sun…perfect day for our list of tasks.
We have not had a car for almost 2 weeks now and some friends of ours were kind enough to take me to the Spar yesterday afternoon. Not that it was urgent but the thought of running out of cigarettes got me into their car and heading off to Spar in no time. I bought a couple of cartons of smokes, a few loaves of bread and some Coca Cola, all my vices in life, and returned with a few treats for the family.
We are planning a big expedition into town on Tuesday for the last things we need. Tuesday because the boys want to watch a movie and we have “half price movies” every Tuesday. I have begun making a list of the final boat parts and grocery items and we have even been discussing the take away food we are wanting…it is still up in the air haha.
Being Friday, we should get to see our friend Dylan today, he is coming with a hoard of small item parts we ordered in Durban as well as our now serviced liferaft.
Our newly ordered 12 volt 130litre fridge should arrive on Monday and our shopping trip on Tuesday will see us obtaining the motor servicing parts…yip we really seem to closing in on completion…closer to the water and the great adventure we had expected to be having already!
5th February
Yesterday we managed to put the scuppers up, the steering wheel back on at the helm and the decals on the front of the boat. She really is starting to look good.
I am really upset about my camera. I had a load of photos from when the kids were here including Christmas and that period and the camera decided that the memory cards it was all stored on should go corrupt and need reformatting. There goes all my pictures…I am really not impressed. Why when I had a whole 10 weeks photos on it and not when they were downloaded?
It rained last night, and doesn’t look much clearer this morning…so we will see how work goes.
We did get our liferaft back yesterday but the other parts Dylan must bring are yet to arrive, they had better arrive soon as we ever so close to completion.
Speaking of completion, on Friday while relaunching another catamaran that has done some big modifications in the last few months they dropped the yacht from the trailer, flat onto the concrete. I was up on deck, we are right opposite the slip where they yachts are launched, when they dropped her the whole earth to shook. I turned aghast to see the yacht lying flat on the concrete. I had a distinct feeling of Dejevu as I recalled our last experience and the damage and trauma it caused.
We have to trust these same people when they launch our boat into the water in a few days time and quite honestly I’m scared out of my wits. Be that as it may, we have no real alternatives with regards to launching apart from this system and service so we will have to hope, pray and keep our fingers crossed that all goes well and Yrumoar is lifted and placed gently back into the water and I somehow manage not to have a heart attack with all the stress.
9th February
It is Thursday and we are nowhere near ready to launch tomorrow…luckily I have not booked it so we can wait a few more days.
This week has just flown by! On Monday we stripped the seacocks, see Barry’s blog for the ridiculous joke, and drilled the holes for the wind charger followed by a hull inspection. Tuesday saw our fridge arriving, we headed to town via taxi with a list a mile long of engine spares and groceries. Yesterday saw us removing the huge old fridge and building a fibreglass cupboard to fit the new fridge. Let me elaborate…
The hull inspection went well, Mike the inspector stated “You did a fantastic job on these rudders”. I was still feeling proud when he came upstairs to check the fibreglass work in the bilges where he said “You have done a great job here, my boat is coming out in April if you are looking work” Compliments were definitely the order of the day and since he sees almost every boat before launch I was elated at the compliments. Needless to say we passed inspection and were given permission to antifoul, which we will do this weekend.
On Tuesday morning armed with a long list we phoned for a taxi. The taxi took us from the yachtclub to the police station where we had a commissioner of oaths sign our SAMSA documents, we took a walk from there to the FNB to sort out my bank cards and a further walk to the mall, bought an ice-cream to start the day and went to the video game store for the boys, Musica for a couple of new DVD’s and next few stops saw us buying a few clothing items for both Rauen and Kyle, collecting a refund at Game stores and buying Barry a new razor and a few stationary items. We then decided to go all the way back to the other side of the mall for a Fish Aways lunch.
We relaxed and ate lunch, took a smoke break and planned our afternoon. We started by walking to the top end of town to the wholesale Cigarette shop, back down the main road, stopping at the China shop, the bathroom shop, Dickenson Marketing, the signwriter, the Auto spares shop, the Bolt Centre and then proceeding to lug our now full load back to the mall. Once there we hijacked a trolley and took a stroll through the mall to the Pick n Pay and collected all the grocery items on the list headed out of the mall to call a new taxi to get home.
The boys were fantastic, not complaining once about the long distances and the only bad part of the day was as I was loading our purchases into the taxi I slipped and sprained my ankle, it still hurts and I am glad it happened on the way home.
Yesterday saw Rauen writing a Physics assessment, all the while Barry is cutting out wood and grinding in the saloon, right next to him. We cut the boards for the fridge cupboard and epoxied them together, but we will need to add a layer to them this morning. We also started laying up a mould for a new wind charger cover and moved heavy furniture around, meaning Lola emptied the fridge and freezer carefully finding a way to pack it all into our now limited freezer space a couple of cooler boxes, then the 3 of us, Barry, Rauen and myself manoeuvring the fridge out of the galley.
This sounds like it would only take a few minutes but in reality we had to remove the handrails in the port passage to find the space to get the fridge out of it’s predetermined spot, lift the fridge over the galley counter into the saloon, note that there is no extra headroom in a yacht and that it entails turning the fridge onto its side and sliding while twisting to fit in the confined space. From the saloon over the step into the cockpit, simple enough, then over the cockpit seats between the winch, jammers, U-bolts and ropes onto our new dive platform, once again a twisting sliding manoeuvre while climbing knee high steps with a bulky object and finally lowering the fridge down nearly 1 storey to the ground…now reverse with a new one!
12th February
We are into the 3rd day of rain now and the end is not in sight…once again we wait for weather. But it has not been an entire waste of time, we have anti fouled the boat and completed the fridge’s cupboard. No the fridge is still not in as we have to paint and add some wiring but we are almost there now.
We are both silently glad it has been raining as we were both out of energy, lethargic and not really in the mood to complete this project and now we are having a well deserved break and can finish the job as soon as the rain goes away. We only have a couple of things to do and we will be back on the water. It is tempting to just put her in but we will loose our make-shift workshop the second we leave the ground and then any work will have to be done in the cockpit…rather inconvenient so we will be patient and complete the last few tasks so that once on the water we can just do some test sails and head on our way!
Today we were supposed to service the motors but in this type of weather I just don’t see it happening…we will see if clears up a little later.
15th February
We have had 2 days of no rain and once again the sky has opened and we are sitting unable to do much in windy, rainy conditions! It seems the weather is against us getting back in the water.
The fridge is finally operational but not yet completed. We had to run a cable right around the boat and I have painted the sides and new cupboard. Yesterday I covered the extra insulation we are installing in epoxy resin to stop it crumbling and Barry is grinding the high spots off as I type.
The wind charger is almost complete, we have installed the bracket onto the rear of the bimini, completed and painted the new cover and I have to paint the other side the charger before erection but it seems that can’t happen today…
The port side sugar scoops have been painted and I have put the decal on the back…todays planned painting of the starboard side sugar scoops has been put on hold until the weather passes. The progress seems painfully slow even though we have been working until dark which is at about 7:20 in the evening at the moment.
Yesterday we sent in the watermaker to be put together and set up for installation…we will have it installed when we reach Durban as it will cost us substantially less. Yes, we are still hoping to leave shortly even though we are sitting on the hard! But there are only a few smaller jobs left and we can take the plunge and head for Durban where the final work will be carried out.
The kids are doing really well at the schooling and Kyle has improved in leaps and bounds with his concentration. Rauen is submitting assessment tests and completing the work like a raging bull. I have also been helping a few of the other kids in the boat yard with their schooling, if they get stuck they pop in and I lend a hand…when I have the time of course.
The weather is genuinely miserable today and I’m not sure we get much accomplished but hey our life is weather dictated and I guess we should just get used to that…at least it no longer completely depresses us to see a little rain.
Friday once again. Reading the list for the week we have managed to complete most of the tasks with success. The port dolphin nose is in its final stage. Barry with sand the fine fairing compound this morning and we will begin the painting. I have laid all the scuppers to completion, Barry will grind the last four this morning and we will begin painting them today.
The fire extinguishers are back from service and I have paid for the hull inspection. I will give Mike a call today to arrange time and date.
We also had a successful week on the home schooling side with Rauen completing and English assessment as well as a Maths Assessment and Kyle completing his Term 1 final assessment. Rauen is currently busy with Physics while Kyle continues to get through the syllabus at a steam train speed.
This week was also the week of dealing with the authorities and I have begun completing the paper work and gathering all the correct documents and information related to registering the yacht for international travel. This is a slightly long process but with the correct assistance and documentation it can be processed in a couple of weeks so we are well on our way.
It is slightly overcast this morning which means that when Barry heads off in a few moments to go sand he will not be in the burning hot sun…perfect day for our list of tasks.
We have not had a car for almost 2 weeks now and some friends of ours were kind enough to take me to the Spar yesterday afternoon. Not that it was urgent but the thought of running out of cigarettes got me into their car and heading off to Spar in no time. I bought a couple of cartons of smokes, a few loaves of bread and some Coca Cola, all my vices in life, and returned with a few treats for the family.
We are planning a big expedition into town on Tuesday for the last things we need. Tuesday because the boys want to watch a movie and we have “half price movies” every Tuesday. I have begun making a list of the final boat parts and grocery items and we have even been discussing the take away food we are wanting…it is still up in the air haha.
Being Friday, we should get to see our friend Dylan today, he is coming with a hoard of small item parts we ordered in Durban as well as our now serviced liferaft.
Our newly ordered 12 volt 130litre fridge should arrive on Monday and our shopping trip on Tuesday will see us obtaining the motor servicing parts…yip we really seem to closing in on completion…closer to the water and the great adventure we had expected to be having already!
5th February
Yesterday we managed to put the scuppers up, the steering wheel back on at the helm and the decals on the front of the boat. She really is starting to look good.
I am really upset about my camera. I had a load of photos from when the kids were here including Christmas and that period and the camera decided that the memory cards it was all stored on should go corrupt and need reformatting. There goes all my pictures…I am really not impressed. Why when I had a whole 10 weeks photos on it and not when they were downloaded?
It rained last night, and doesn’t look much clearer this morning…so we will see how work goes.
We did get our liferaft back yesterday but the other parts Dylan must bring are yet to arrive, they had better arrive soon as we ever so close to completion.
Speaking of completion, on Friday while relaunching another catamaran that has done some big modifications in the last few months they dropped the yacht from the trailer, flat onto the concrete. I was up on deck, we are right opposite the slip where they yachts are launched, when they dropped her the whole earth to shook. I turned aghast to see the yacht lying flat on the concrete. I had a distinct feeling of Dejevu as I recalled our last experience and the damage and trauma it caused.
We have to trust these same people when they launch our boat into the water in a few days time and quite honestly I’m scared out of my wits. Be that as it may, we have no real alternatives with regards to launching apart from this system and service so we will have to hope, pray and keep our fingers crossed that all goes well and Yrumoar is lifted and placed gently back into the water and I somehow manage not to have a heart attack with all the stress.
9th February
It is Thursday and we are nowhere near ready to launch tomorrow…luckily I have not booked it so we can wait a few more days.
This week has just flown by! On Monday we stripped the seacocks, see Barry’s blog for the ridiculous joke, and drilled the holes for the wind charger followed by a hull inspection. Tuesday saw our fridge arriving, we headed to town via taxi with a list a mile long of engine spares and groceries. Yesterday saw us removing the huge old fridge and building a fibreglass cupboard to fit the new fridge. Let me elaborate…
The hull inspection went well, Mike the inspector stated “You did a fantastic job on these rudders”. I was still feeling proud when he came upstairs to check the fibreglass work in the bilges where he said “You have done a great job here, my boat is coming out in April if you are looking work” Compliments were definitely the order of the day and since he sees almost every boat before launch I was elated at the compliments. Needless to say we passed inspection and were given permission to antifoul, which we will do this weekend.
On Tuesday morning armed with a long list we phoned for a taxi. The taxi took us from the yachtclub to the police station where we had a commissioner of oaths sign our SAMSA documents, we took a walk from there to the FNB to sort out my bank cards and a further walk to the mall, bought an ice-cream to start the day and went to the video game store for the boys, Musica for a couple of new DVD’s and next few stops saw us buying a few clothing items for both Rauen and Kyle, collecting a refund at Game stores and buying Barry a new razor and a few stationary items. We then decided to go all the way back to the other side of the mall for a Fish Aways lunch.
We relaxed and ate lunch, took a smoke break and planned our afternoon. We started by walking to the top end of town to the wholesale Cigarette shop, back down the main road, stopping at the China shop, the bathroom shop, Dickenson Marketing, the signwriter, the Auto spares shop, the Bolt Centre and then proceeding to lug our now full load back to the mall. Once there we hijacked a trolley and took a stroll through the mall to the Pick n Pay and collected all the grocery items on the list headed out of the mall to call a new taxi to get home.
The boys were fantastic, not complaining once about the long distances and the only bad part of the day was as I was loading our purchases into the taxi I slipped and sprained my ankle, it still hurts and I am glad it happened on the way home.
Yesterday saw Rauen writing a Physics assessment, all the while Barry is cutting out wood and grinding in the saloon, right next to him. We cut the boards for the fridge cupboard and epoxied them together, but we will need to add a layer to them this morning. We also started laying up a mould for a new wind charger cover and moved heavy furniture around, meaning Lola emptied the fridge and freezer carefully finding a way to pack it all into our now limited freezer space a couple of cooler boxes, then the 3 of us, Barry, Rauen and myself manoeuvring the fridge out of the galley.
This sounds like it would only take a few minutes but in reality we had to remove the handrails in the port passage to find the space to get the fridge out of it’s predetermined spot, lift the fridge over the galley counter into the saloon, note that there is no extra headroom in a yacht and that it entails turning the fridge onto its side and sliding while twisting to fit in the confined space. From the saloon over the step into the cockpit, simple enough, then over the cockpit seats between the winch, jammers, U-bolts and ropes onto our new dive platform, once again a twisting sliding manoeuvre while climbing knee high steps with a bulky object and finally lowering the fridge down nearly 1 storey to the ground…now reverse with a new one!
12th February
We are into the 3rd day of rain now and the end is not in sight…once again we wait for weather. But it has not been an entire waste of time, we have anti fouled the boat and completed the fridge’s cupboard. No the fridge is still not in as we have to paint and add some wiring but we are almost there now.
We are both silently glad it has been raining as we were both out of energy, lethargic and not really in the mood to complete this project and now we are having a well deserved break and can finish the job as soon as the rain goes away. We only have a couple of things to do and we will be back on the water. It is tempting to just put her in but we will loose our make-shift workshop the second we leave the ground and then any work will have to be done in the cockpit…rather inconvenient so we will be patient and complete the last few tasks so that once on the water we can just do some test sails and head on our way!
Today we were supposed to service the motors but in this type of weather I just don’t see it happening…we will see if clears up a little later.
15th February
We have had 2 days of no rain and once again the sky has opened and we are sitting unable to do much in windy, rainy conditions! It seems the weather is against us getting back in the water.
The fridge is finally operational but not yet completed. We had to run a cable right around the boat and I have painted the sides and new cupboard. Yesterday I covered the extra insulation we are installing in epoxy resin to stop it crumbling and Barry is grinding the high spots off as I type.
The wind charger is almost complete, we have installed the bracket onto the rear of the bimini, completed and painted the new cover and I have to paint the other side the charger before erection but it seems that can’t happen today…
The port side sugar scoops have been painted and I have put the decal on the back…todays planned painting of the starboard side sugar scoops has been put on hold until the weather passes. The progress seems painfully slow even though we have been working until dark which is at about 7:20 in the evening at the moment.
Yesterday we sent in the watermaker to be put together and set up for installation…we will have it installed when we reach Durban as it will cost us substantially less. Yes, we are still hoping to leave shortly even though we are sitting on the hard! But there are only a few smaller jobs left and we can take the plunge and head for Durban where the final work will be carried out.
The kids are doing really well at the schooling and Kyle has improved in leaps and bounds with his concentration. Rauen is submitting assessment tests and completing the work like a raging bull. I have also been helping a few of the other kids in the boat yard with their schooling, if they get stuck they pop in and I lend a hand…when I have the time of course.
The weather is genuinely miserable today and I’m not sure we get much accomplished but hey our life is weather dictated and I guess we should just get used to that…at least it no longer completely depresses us to see a little rain.
Friday, December 23, 2011
26 November
It seems all I do everyday day is complain about the weather…but it is true…I have never seen so much rain and cloud in all my life. It is officially Summer in SA in about 3 days….that means spring is over in 3 days and I am still wearing a jersey or jacket almost all of the time…we had a heater on yesterday for crying out loud! Sun where have you gone to?
Despite the bad weather and Barry’s matching mood we have made steady progress…slow but steady. Kyle is sadly not back in his room, but it is painted! We are waiting for a good weather day to some fairing on the outside of Kyle’s room so we can re-attach the cleat and back stays, the we can hook up the ceiling and we are in business…yip…half a day of sunshine since the 17th is all we have had…expecting another half a day today so maybe we can get lucky!
So all my boys are back in town! Last night we spent the evening chatting and didn’t even realise the time so ended up in bed at just before 1am! OK so it was bit on the late side but Rauen’s plane was again delayed in Joburg and instead of landing at 6pm he arrived at 8pm…last week he was also delayed instead of an 8am flight he managed to catch a 12:30 flight….he is making a habit of being delayed at an airport...better put a quick stop to that unpleasant trick.
Other than that it is 5am, I am typing this wishing I had a bigger jersey on so I’ll go get one…looking up at grey skies and hoping they pass over to reveal a sunny day where we can actually do just a small amount of boat work!
It seems all I do everyday day is complain about the weather…but it is true…I have never seen so much rain and cloud in all my life. It is officially Summer in SA in about 3 days….that means spring is over in 3 days and I am still wearing a jersey or jacket almost all of the time…we had a heater on yesterday for crying out loud! Sun where have you gone to?
Despite the bad weather and Barry’s matching mood we have made steady progress…slow but steady. Kyle is sadly not back in his room, but it is painted! We are waiting for a good weather day to some fairing on the outside of Kyle’s room so we can re-attach the cleat and back stays, the we can hook up the ceiling and we are in business…yip…half a day of sunshine since the 17th is all we have had…expecting another half a day today so maybe we can get lucky!
So all my boys are back in town! Last night we spent the evening chatting and didn’t even realise the time so ended up in bed at just before 1am! OK so it was bit on the late side but Rauen’s plane was again delayed in Joburg and instead of landing at 6pm he arrived at 8pm…last week he was also delayed instead of an 8am flight he managed to catch a 12:30 flight….he is making a habit of being delayed at an airport...better put a quick stop to that unpleasant trick.
Other than that it is 5am, I am typing this wishing I had a bigger jersey on so I’ll go get one…looking up at grey skies and hoping they pass over to reveal a sunny day where we can actually do just a small amount of boat work!
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| How the boards are replaced |
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| Down come the old dive platform |
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| Nearing the end we take out the last 3 pieces at once |
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Ticking off the "To Do" list
13th February
We arrived home about an hour ago to a house that no longer has refrigeration and I am patiently waiting for the geyser to heat up so I can have a bath, shave and hair wash…aha it will be pure bliss!
We managed to get a whole load of things ticked off the” to do” list… we emptied our treasure chest and managed to swop a load of unwanted items for an outboard motor for our dinghy. This works out great for us as we now don’t have to find buyers for our spare boat parts and at the same time we acquired a much needed cruising accessory.
On Wednesday our Australian friend Lindsay came over from his boat Avelore mooring in Tuzi Gazi to help us with some electronic charts, pilot guides and weather information for which are thankful. We are now set with the charts and just need a few cables to link these to our GPS system and they with be fully functional. Great!
We also managed to see 2 riggers and get a load of advice together with a couple of quotes for changes we are interested in making. We had the sail guys there and we on Friday morning Barry and I took down both the main sail and the roller furler to go in for repairs, they should be back at the end of March or so. I say that like it was a 10 minute job but in actual fact it took us the whole morning and Barry had to climb the mast twice!
We had Janie out to quote on some stainless steel work on Saturday and loaded the boat with all the items from the “treasure chest” that should be on board.
We brought home a few projects…making the helmsman’s seat (we took the sizes), buying spares we can’t readily get in Richard’s Bay and ordering the engine maintenance books.
I feel as if we are finally managing to get somewhere with the boat projects! We also had a very successful school week, concentrating on English, we managed to complete 5 week’s worth of work so it will be back to mathematics tomorrow where have almost completed the 1st terms work!
We arrived home about an hour ago to a house that no longer has refrigeration and I am patiently waiting for the geyser to heat up so I can have a bath, shave and hair wash…aha it will be pure bliss!
We managed to get a whole load of things ticked off the” to do” list… we emptied our treasure chest and managed to swop a load of unwanted items for an outboard motor for our dinghy. This works out great for us as we now don’t have to find buyers for our spare boat parts and at the same time we acquired a much needed cruising accessory.
On Wednesday our Australian friend Lindsay came over from his boat Avelore mooring in Tuzi Gazi to help us with some electronic charts, pilot guides and weather information for which are thankful. We are now set with the charts and just need a few cables to link these to our GPS system and they with be fully functional. Great!
We also managed to see 2 riggers and get a load of advice together with a couple of quotes for changes we are interested in making. We had the sail guys there and we on Friday morning Barry and I took down both the main sail and the roller furler to go in for repairs, they should be back at the end of March or so. I say that like it was a 10 minute job but in actual fact it took us the whole morning and Barry had to climb the mast twice!
We had Janie out to quote on some stainless steel work on Saturday and loaded the boat with all the items from the “treasure chest” that should be on board.
We brought home a few projects…making the helmsman’s seat (we took the sizes), buying spares we can’t readily get in Richard’s Bay and ordering the engine maintenance books.
I feel as if we are finally managing to get somewhere with the boat projects! We also had a very successful school week, concentrating on English, we managed to complete 5 week’s worth of work so it will be back to mathematics tomorrow where have almost completed the 1st terms work!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Small tasks on board
5th February
We arrived at the boat on Thursday evening to a freezer full of off meat and maggots. Yes, maggots! Someone decided they needed our plug point more than us and promptly unplugged it and left us with no power for a prolonged period of time. Barry was irritated to say the least and I had the unappealing task of cleaning this mess.
On Friday morning we woke up early and managed to tick a few projects off our list, adding the hook just outside the sliding door to hook yourself on in heavy weather, cutting the wooden plank which is to be our new bookshelf once erected tomorrow (I have been painting it with wood sealant for 2 days now), and once again sorting out the toilet that won’t flush (this time it is the boy’s one).
This morning again we were up early completing more task, moving the chartplotter to outside, sealing the sink and painting the bookcase and boards for our “washing baskets”(yes we have 2 of them). Barry is currently busy checking and replacing light bulbs around the boat. He tried 8 different bulbs to no avail then suddenly it dawned on him, he particular light in question works on a different switch – haha – it was working perfectly all along!
If you look at the few things we managed to complete you would think we hardly did any work, but you are mistaken! It seems as if every project on the boat takes 10 times as long as expected and at 1 point this week we actually looked at each other and at the same time said “Camper?” then burst out laughing. But we quickly dismissed the idea and continued with the small projects. Couple this work with home schooling and normal cooking and cleaning and you have as full schedule day after day.
We are hoping the rigger can come out next week as he did not sound too enthused when we spoke to him, if he can’t make it we will phone a few others and ensure at least 1 of them sees us before Friday. At least then we can make progress on the sail issues as it is really starting to drive us crazy that nothing happens fast enough – even the small changes everyday don’t seem to make that much difference.
Tomorrow we plan to empty our “treasure chest” and bring down all the things that are supposed to be on the boat as well as make a complete inventory of everything in there. We can then decide what we want to sell, what we can dispose of and what we will need for our trip. We decided we would bring everything that should be on the boat onboard as we need to find homes for it all and perhaps make special attachments, some shelving and a couple of cupboard doors to have “a place for everything and everything in its place”.
We arrived at the boat on Thursday evening to a freezer full of off meat and maggots. Yes, maggots! Someone decided they needed our plug point more than us and promptly unplugged it and left us with no power for a prolonged period of time. Barry was irritated to say the least and I had the unappealing task of cleaning this mess.
On Friday morning we woke up early and managed to tick a few projects off our list, adding the hook just outside the sliding door to hook yourself on in heavy weather, cutting the wooden plank which is to be our new bookshelf once erected tomorrow (I have been painting it with wood sealant for 2 days now), and once again sorting out the toilet that won’t flush (this time it is the boy’s one).
This morning again we were up early completing more task, moving the chartplotter to outside, sealing the sink and painting the bookcase and boards for our “washing baskets”(yes we have 2 of them). Barry is currently busy checking and replacing light bulbs around the boat. He tried 8 different bulbs to no avail then suddenly it dawned on him, he particular light in question works on a different switch – haha – it was working perfectly all along!
If you look at the few things we managed to complete you would think we hardly did any work, but you are mistaken! It seems as if every project on the boat takes 10 times as long as expected and at 1 point this week we actually looked at each other and at the same time said “Camper?” then burst out laughing. But we quickly dismissed the idea and continued with the small projects. Couple this work with home schooling and normal cooking and cleaning and you have as full schedule day after day.
We are hoping the rigger can come out next week as he did not sound too enthused when we spoke to him, if he can’t make it we will phone a few others and ensure at least 1 of them sees us before Friday. At least then we can make progress on the sail issues as it is really starting to drive us crazy that nothing happens fast enough – even the small changes everyday don’t seem to make that much difference.
Tomorrow we plan to empty our “treasure chest” and bring down all the things that are supposed to be on the boat as well as make a complete inventory of everything in there. We can then decide what we want to sell, what we can dispose of and what we will need for our trip. We decided we would bring everything that should be on the boat onboard as we need to find homes for it all and perhaps make special attachments, some shelving and a couple of cupboard doors to have “a place for everything and everything in its place”.
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