Friday 19 October: Day 3 in Herrington Harbor Yard – Gori propeller gets cleaned, stern gland tightened, new gas bottles connected, and gel coat repair on the bow.
Frost on the windscreen this morning, and 3degC. Bbrrr, that is chilly! As soon as we get in the boat, heating goes on.
Glen starts on the Gori propeller right away. The WD40 worked its usual magic, and the prop comes off its hub relatively easy. Then we get stuck. At the end of the shaft, we need a 36mm thin walled socket to remove the hub from the shaft. Which we do not have. We borrow the inch equivalent from the mechanical shops here in the yard, but it won’t go into the recess. Quick drive to the hardware store, they don’t have it either. Last resource, internet order. Two orders in fact, at least one out of two sockets would be the right match.
We also call Gori Propeller company, to inquire on other technical aspects and spare parts order. During disassembling, we noticed the 3 screws that hold the propeller onto the cone were missing (meaning the guys in Lanzarote yard didn’t put those back in). And how to adjust the tightness of the gearing. It is several good hours of scraping, fizzing, sanding and scrubbing of the propeller blades and the rest of the parts before we have it all clean and shiny again. It looks like new again, almost a pity to put it back in the water.
Mike (Osprey) comes back with the new quote for the hull sanding and antifouling. Double the original quote, which is now almost equal to the yard rate. And on the promise that all sanding will be finished over the weekend, we give him the job. I have my doubts about the timeline on this one… He also agreed to apply the Ceramic Pro after polishing. And on this note we cancel the order for the vinyl (which we haven’t heard from in the last few days anyway).
On the fridge keel coolers front, we are stuck. The guy whom we have been trying to contact over the last 4 days is impossible to reach. No swadgelocks and no man for the job. So we ask again for help at Shiver Me Timbers here in the yard, maybe they will have mercy on us. Sure enough, couple of hours later Tony comes by to have a look. He suggests another technique for joining the pipes together. And by the sounds of it, he could be up for the job. Fingers crossed.
In the meantime, Ellis (Osprey) continues with the glass fiber repair on the bow. Which he says it will look “invisible” once he finishes with it. Color matching is quite quick, and he seems to be pleased with how it goes. He applied a polymer to gelcoat to help it set off. Just buffing and polishing to do now.
When it’s too dark and too cold to work outside, Glen moves into the engine room where he tackles the stern gland. The stern gland stops water to get in from the propeller shaft, and it needs adjusting by pushing the bellows up the shaft a bit. This can only be done when out of the water.
As for me, when I wasn’t helping Glen, I went on a shopping spree for flip flops. I’m gonna live in flip flops for several years, and want to make sure I have enough. As in enough colors! Maybe I should’ve made sure that I have enough space to store them too… Glen makes jokes comparing me to Imelda Marcos and her 4000 pairs of shoes! I’m a looooong way to go yet.
Into the evening, with the flip-flop search keeping me amused, Glen finds another job, changing over to the new gas bottles. First the BBQ – which works great. Then the main boat gas. That too works OK. So it’s out with the old Swedish gas cylinder and in with the 2 new shiny composite ones from US. They fit perfectly, almost to the mm. Now, how to dispose of the gas in the Swedish one. Hmmm. It’s quite windy and no one around, so with the gas bottle below the boat Glen opens the valve and it gently hisses away. Oh, this will take too long. When he opens the valve more, the hissing is too loud. So he tries the bottle upside down …. now it’s liquid escaping not gas. What a great effect. And after 2-3 minutes of praying nothing will ignite the gas, the bottle is empty. Now we can dispose safely. Haha, safely eh? Emptying it was not exactly safe!
Back at our accommodation by 11pm we shower and fall into bed exhausted. Sleep was surely earned today.