Tuesday 8 May: Public holiday here today, but it’s no holiday on CB.
First things first, some humble pie to eat. There was in fact nothing wrong with the vang service, as we’d thought yesterday. The issue was the boom attachment which had come out of its bolts holes and slid (graunched) its way outboard.
This is why the vang seemed too short. It would have taken a lot of force to move that slider! 4 new bolts later it is back to its correct position and locked tight. Then the vang lower end is fitted.
We bleed the hydraulic oil which initially comes out with lots of black bits – likely the remains of the degraded seals. Once bled down and hydraulic line attached, Oana pumps it down to the point where the top fitting can be attached.
When the pressure is released the boom rises. Amazing the weight this vang can lift! And brilliant to have it back on, working correctly. We’ll be able to sail properly again.
Mid-morning Patrice comes by to check the fridge. All working as expected. He does tell us that because the insulation is saturated in condensation, it will take a while to cool the fridge.
He also tells us that once wet, it’s virtually impossible to dry the insulation out again. So we have to live with it. It seems most boat fridges end up with soggy insulation, and most owners don’t even know it.
While on the subject of fridges, we also discovered why we are getting condensation on the corian worktop over a defined area. With Glen’s head inside the fridge (something he hasn’t done till now), he discovers that the fridge unit actually has a 2nd hatch, but it’s covered with the corian worktop.
The insulation in this other dormant hatch is 3cm thinner. As a quick fix, we cut out a swimming float and jam it in the void, inside the fridge. And, so far, no more condensation. What a silly design flaw!
At mid-day we go to pick up the dive tanks. But only one is full, the other has an o-ring leak. 2 new o-rings later, both tanks are full and back in the aft locker.
Glen is always a bit nervous when we don’t have a full dive tank ready to go. Most diving so far has been hull cleaning or untangling ropes from around the prop.
Back on Cloudy Bay we get set up for the technician who will refit the AIS antenna on the top spreader.
While set up, Glen nips up the mast to change one of the bulbs on the lower spreader deck lights. Ooph, its more like a car head lamp, no wonder they are so bright.
We wait and wait for the AIS guy, but he doesn’t show up. We had a feeling he wouldn’t.
So we go to the engine room to continue on that project. Oana has bought some rust remover. After her success with descaling the generator heat exchanger, she loves strong chemicals that fizz!
Soon she has coveralls, rubber gloves and safety goggles and has squeezed herself through the tiny hatch in the the galley sink, and is applying the nasty stuff to the very rusty engine mounts. A lot of fizzing and several applications later, they come up like new! Magic stuff indeed.
With the rust off, we set about fixing the raw water leak which has caused all this rust. It’s a hose clamp that is virtually impossible to get to. But with our 4 hands and a lot of swearing the rusty clamp is off and a new one put on, tight this time. Fingers crossed that was the issue.
While the raw water is drained, we also put in new engine anodes and check the impeller.
Then the water hose comes into the engine room and it’s given a thorough clean, like it’s never had before. Horrible job, but after 3 hours the engine and sump are all gleaming like new again.
But all that crud, debris and greasy water is now in the bilge. It’s already 8pm but while we are in the mood we decide to clean the bildge too.
So up come the floor boards and in goes the hose and a washing-up brush taped to the end of a pole. OMG it’s filthy. But with bilge cleaner it comes clean pretty quickly with lots of water and a lot of bildge pumping. Probably a good job it’s dark outside because all this mess is going into the sea!
By 11pm we are very proud of our work today. We clean up, including ourselves! And fall into bed by midnight.
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