Sat 15 May, HHN day 32: Thorough preparations to lower the rudder. Making rudder tip protection, devising ways to hold the weight of the rudder, and digging the pit for it to lower into.
As I write, it feels like I’ve been in the ring with the world heavy weight boxing champ. I ache literally everywhere, but especially my poor old back.
It all started with me crouched in the bilge below the aft berth. Removing the helm steering quadrant, taking the rudder weight from above and gently feeling the rudder stock unscrewing. Once I’m happy that I can actually unscrew the rudder stock from the upper JP3 bearing, I head outside.
First job is to build a rough wooden box to put over the lower end of the rudder. Its purpose is to protect the rudder tip, and also have a guide for ratchet straps that will take the rudder weight from the aft deck cleats. I don’t want these straps slipping off once they have the rudder’s weight.
It doesn’t take long to cycle around the various business dumpsters and find the right bits of wood for the job. So for holding the weight, I will have belt-and-braces technique: holding it from both inside the boat and outside. I have no clue how much it weighs, but I’m certain it’s going to be much heavier than I can handle, or even 2 people to handle, if the situation gets away from me.
Then it’s time to start digging the hole in the yard, for the rudder to lower into. As previously mentioned, normally we would use the travel lift to raise the boat, take the rudder out, then lower the boat back on the stands. But currently our mast won’t allow the travel lift where it would need to be, and I don’t want to move the mast. At least, not until we get the crane to put it back up again. So a hole is the solution. I know the yard won’t be happy with me doing this, but it’s one of those things I will ask forgiveness rather than permission.
Ray has brought me his shovel and assured me it would just be soft clay and easy to dig. I quickly remove the gravel from the area then attempt to start digging. But each strike with the shovel only produces sparks! Under the gravel the ground is like concrete! Big stones and hardcore bonded in hardened clay.
Another cycle trip around the yard finds me a sturdy aluminum bar, which I sharpen to a point with my grinder. So at first I hammer-and-chiseling my way down, VERY slowly. After 2 hours I’m completely knackered and the hole is still only 5cm (2 inches) deep.
I start to feel this is an impossible task with the tools I have. What I need is a frinkin’ jack hammer! I continue hard at it until 3pm, when it’s time to call Oana. I’m pretty convinced by now that this hole is not happening. At least, not to the depth I need, 50-70cm.
Over a cup of tea, Oana finds my situation rather amusing. Well it is, I guess. Certainly a big change from the usual technical challenges I am confronted with. I joke with her that I’ve cut the tips of my pockets off and I am pocketing the dirt that I dug and distributing it over the yard so the marina guards won’t know I’m digging a hole! But I don’t think she has seen “The Great Escape” film!
Other jokes revolve around me never having a career as a grave digger, and no wonder I swapped from Mining Geology to Petroleum Geology midway through university – mining clearly was never my thing! A few others, who walk passed the boat also find it funny. Especially when I look up and say to them “they told me there would be gold under the rudder… or was it rainbow they said?”
After my break I reluctantly head back down, half hoping the progress will continue the same, and I can give up gracefully. But my refreshed energy coincides with breaking through the rubble into a sticky blue clay layer. Still not easy to dig, but at least I can now tackle it with the shovel.
By 6pm I’m finally at 70cm down (2ft 4 inches). This is what I estimate it will take for the rudder stock to totally exit the hull. It’s only taken me 7 hours!
Now that I have my hole, I am very tempted to go ahead and lower the rudder out of the boat. But frankly I’m also quite scared about it. Realistically, I am totally exhausted and I really need to be fresh for the rudder drop. Plus me, and everything around me, are covered in clay and I now have blisters on my palms. So it’s a big cleanup, a shower, food and a rest… and by then the sun is going down.
It’s been hot today and I put a thermometer in the cockpit. At 3pm is was 41 degC (105DegF). Whereas inside the boat is was a pleasant 26 degC. Going down below from the cockpit was like going into air conditioning. But by mid-evening, it’s hot inside the boat and in the tent.
So I decide to take a beach chair onto the swim platform to eat my Thai curry dinner there. It must have looked pretty silly, 10ft up in the air, but it was a pleasant temperature, a cooling breeze and I could see the sunset. I might even start having my breakfasts there too!
Previously I’d said: I never want to see another rivet, or I’m totally done with plumbing. Well, I can tell you, digging a silly hole ALL day, takes the biscuit prize. Plumbing and riveting any day for me, over digging a deep hole through concrete! If I don’t sleeplike a baby tonight, I’ll be very surprised.