Saturday 14 Nov, HHN, boat winterizing day 45:
Alarm at 6:45, but when I poke my head out from the cover it’s bloody FREEZING. Mr. Conscientious night security guard is back on duty. In the middle of the night this one guard takes his duties seriously. On his rounds, he removes all and any electricity plug, wherever he can find one plugged in. Officially, by the rules, we are not allowed to stay on board in the yard, and also unattended boats are not allowed to be plugged into electrical power (due to fire risk, I believe). So the bottom line is: I cannot complain to the marina. All I can do is seek revenge on the security guard …. but lucky for him, I’m not that type of person! Once I do finally venture from my nest, the saloon thermometer confirms my shivering: it’s only 9 DegC. First job is to dress quickly and get plugged back in.
Although a cold start, it’s otherwise a beautiful day. So with some determination I set about cleaning up all the spreader parts that I dismantled yesterday. 16 stainless steel end castings and 8 lengths of aluminum extrusion; meaning 16 ends of corrosion. Between scraping and wire brushing the corrosion and buffing the stainless fittings, the whole task takes me all day through to sunset. But it’s very pleasant working in the sun, again on my makeshift workbench that is actually the wooden box with the anchor chain inside.
In the evening, after dinner, I continue on the same theme inside. I cut out the plastic isolation pieces that will fit between the extrusion and their stainless end fittings.
On the subject of dinner, I have a really good one. I found one last Frey Bentos pie left from our 2017 provisioning in Gibraltar. Delicious, and very much reminded me of student days, where a Frey Bentos was a pretty good replacement for Mum’s home cooking, not to mention idiot proof: open tin, stick in oven for 30 minutes, eat (with HP sauce), throw tin away, wash fork.
2 comments
I’m still playing catch-up with most of your site Glen but I have to say this winterising is fascinating and in particular seeing the effect of dis-similar metals even on a yacht so young as CloudyBay. I have my own refit to start next spring and I will be paying close attention to many things.
I also admire and love your attention to detail and your fastidious approach to every being clean and tidy.
The name Schlumberger ……. now that rang bells from my days in the Pacific back in the 70’s. We invariably always had cargo marked with that name, particularly for PNG if I remember correctly.
Looking forward to you sailing again – Antigua to Chesapeake was an awesome piece of video!
Hi Martin, Thanks for the encouraging comment. Yes, I am also surprised at the amount of corrosion. May it has something to the fact she had always been in the water in warm climates (Lanzarote for first 8 years then 25,000 miles all over the place with us). There is an HR53 double the age of Cloudy next to us with mast down and I dont see nearly as much evidence of corrosion. That yacht is also sailed extensively.
Yes, that would have been Schlumberger, operating in Papa (PNG). It is a global oilfield service company. I lived and work in 11 countries during my career. Quite exciting times. But the industry is dying now. Good luck with your refit.
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