Friday 29 Oct, re-launch 2021, HHN day 30: Disturbed night due to weather, finish mirrors project, decide Empirbus back-up plan, and wash boat in the rain.
It was a wild night outside. Howling wind and rain. Something, somewhere above our berth, is making an awful banging noise, like a halyard against the mast. But it cannot be heard in the mid cabin. And it’s simply too wet and wild to venture outside in my PJs to see what is the cause. Later in the day, in daylight, I see that it is the main halyard banging at the mast top and obviously transmitting its noise down the backstay directly to our bed!
The rain continues on and off all day, so looks like indoor jobs only. First is the mirror project. After painting the new mirror edges with epoxy paint 2 nights ago, it’s now time for clean up and re-installation. When the new mirrored doors are all back in place it’s quite a relief. It seems like this has been an on-going project in one way or another, ever since we bought the boat 6 years ago. And now, finally, we have new mirrors and a solution (fingers crossed) to keep them looking new for many years. Oana, who is always keen on details and especially the aesthetics of things like this, is very happy with the result. Me too. It makes the bathroom look like new again. Well, apart from the Corian doors which each seem to be yellowing at a different rate!
Next is to sort out our Empirbus back-up strategy. This morning we have an email from Christian, in Sweden (Garmin Empirbus), confirming that it was indeed lightning that fried all 7 of our Empirbus CLC units. 5 were an easy fix, but 2 (both of which were situated in the bow area) have their motherboards totally fried. He wants to know if we are OK to have just 5 backup units or if he should add new motherboards to the badly damaged ones, to get us back to a full back up of 7 units.
Normally, we would have been totally happy to have 5 spare units. But after this experience of a nearby lightning strike, it doesn’t take us long to decide. We want all 7 units as back up. That way, if the situation repeats itself, we can recover relatively easy. This makes the repair cost pretty high (euros 1,500) but we think well worth it.
In the afternoon I prepare a stud and nuts in readiness to add a small anode next to the rudder. The intent being to connect the rudder post and the bearing to it, hoping to stop the present galvanic action on these items, which I had observed as corrosion when replacing the lower rudder seals. Next dry moment, I will install the anode.
Tomorrow, we have someone (from ElSalvador) coming to sand and paint the hulls. He arrives at 7am and I want to have the waterline clean and ready to put on masking tape. So despite the fact that it is still raining, I head off outside to wash down the boat. This is because I cannot washdown tomorrow while he is sanding. And actually, washing the boat is always best done in damp or rainy conditions. That way it doesn’t dry on you as fast as you wash it. I normally do it like this in the Caribbean – but of course in just swimwear, not full water proofs. I end up finishing 2 hours later, in the dark, and coming back into the cabin soaking wet from head to toe. But the boat it clean! Ready for sanding and painting action tomorrow.
Talking of which, 7am is an early start. We’d better get off to bed now!
