Friday 2 Oct, boat winterizing day 2: Spinnaker pole down, disconnected all the hydraulic hoses and soaked all standing rigging threads in WD40.
It rained all night, giving me a good opportunity to wash the outside of the boat this morning, while it’s all wet. Although there is no real point to get it spotlessly clean, I am quite thorough because when taking the mast down I’ll be all over the deck and it’s pretty filthy. It always amazes me that once in “civilization” the blackness adheres itself to the boat from the polluted atmosphere, especially on anything white. I also remove the windscreen sun cover. It’s really falling apart now. This will be the next sewing project, to replace it. And by the same token, the cheap tarp I’d put over the dinghy is already ruined by the sun, so that comes off and thrown away too. And, hiding under both of these covers are families of stink beetles. Yes, it’s that time of year again. And in today’s warm sun, they seem to be everywhere. Last year it took us until February to rid the boat of the last die-hard beetles!
By midday Cloudy is looking reasonable again. Next job is to get a bike out, plus trailer. With no hire car now, I need transport to the toilet and shower block! As usual, I get quite a few looks and comments as I cycle the yard with my mini-trailer in tow. I think I’ll be getting quite fit and healthy in these coming weeks.
All afternoon I work on getting the mast ready. Before it can come down, I need to unfurl the mainsail and remove it. Never a simple job and a bit risky while the boat is chocked on land. I’ll need a perfectly calm day (no wind) and also some luck that the vertical battens will come out without a fight. The mainsail was last down in 2018 and then many of the battens came out in bits and pieces. These long battens (the longest is over 70ft!) are made up of jointed sections each 4m long. The joints are the weak point and often break when you attempt to pull the battens out. The new sails, which arrive in 2 weeks’ time, will have continuous vertical battens, so we won’t have this same issue going forward.
As I struggle to get the spinnaker pole off I’m missing Oana already. I really needed an extra pair of hands. It’s not until it’s down on the deck that I realize just how big the spinnaker pole is. But at least it’s relatively light. Not so the boom. That will be a whole different challenge. Ray will have to help me with that one. And some brain power will be needed if we are not to damage anything.
Disconnecting all the hydraulic hoses is very simple this time around. My new technique for covering the quick-connect fittings with heat shrink seems to have paid off. There has been zero ingress of sea water. Once the heat-shrink is removed, not only are they not rusty, but they are still covered in grease. However, the boom outhaul hoses outer casing is severely perished. Bit odd, they were fine a year ago. Time for some new ones.
I then go around all the turn buckles on each piece of standing rigging, and soak the threads in WD40. I’ll do this for a day or two and hopefully they will nicely unscrew and not gaul the threads. As I re-rig the halyards it starts to get dark.
As soon as the sun goes down there is a chill in the air. It’s going to be a cold one tonight. Maybe even time to put the heaters on. I don’t dare tell Oana that I put the heating on before she did! Talking of the Admiral, we’ve had lots of banter on whatapps and calls throughout the day. I guess we are both missing each other. This is our first time apart for over a year now.