Friday 19 Nov, re-launch 2021, HHN day 51: Refrigeration turned on. New turnbuckles fitted and rig tuned. Water sphere submits to pressure. Water maker and generator tested. All good-to-go.
Not the best nights sleep for the Captain and Commodore. Ripples of water were hitting the stern creating the usual loud “lap-lop-lap …. lap-slap-lop ….” noises under our bed. A noise that we will just have to get used to again now that we are afloat. It reminded me of our very first night sleeping aboard in Gibraltar. Within minutes of going to bed, Oana (her first ever night on a boat) had said “ …er, what’s that noise?”. “Its boat noise, Oana”. “I can’t sleep with that noise!!” And so started her affair with ear plugs, which is now a ritual, even when not on the boat.
On another note, it looks like my tortuous efforts of painting sound-deadening paint in the void under the stern were maybe worthless ☹
Today’s temperature is a huge contrast to the balmy spring-like weather of yesterday. Following the cold front passing last night, the temperature is a chilly 6 degC and the strong northerly wind makes if feel even lower. A wooly hat day for certain.
First job is inside. Turning on the boat’s 2 fridges and freezer. Over the years these beasts have given us so much grief, we are always braced when we turn them back on. And this is the longest time they have ever been off and idle. With great trepidation we flip the breakers. Each compressor immediately springs to life and the cold plates are each getting cool within minutes. And by half an hour each one is down to the right temperature without me even touching the thermostat! We hardly dare utter a word, in case we jinx them. But between us, we can tell you we are mightily relieved! Maybe now that we have put Cloudy Bay back in the water, where she is happiest, she is starting to be kinder to us!
Mid-morning Stephen, Danny and Noel of East Cost Marine rigging arrive. They are here to install the new turnbuckles (the expensive replacements for the ones FedEx lost), and then tune the rig. This final tuning can only be done with the boat afloat. Which, by the way, we are not! At low tide this morning we are on the bottom. Let us hope it is just soggy mud. All the same, it likely removed the new antifoul off the keel. But by 10am, when the EMCR team start the tuning, we are afloat again, just.
Before they fit the turnbuckles, I apply anti-seize grease to the threads then wind them in and out a few times, using my power drill with a home-made adapter. These stainless-on-stainless threads are terrible for galling. If I had my time again and knew the old ones would seize-up as soon as tension was re-applied, I would have bought new bronze turnbuckles instead. But now that the mast is up, we can only live with exact copies of the original ones.
When the old ones are removed, I can feel that one of them still seems to be OK (which I will now keep as a spare) while the other is totally seized up. As usual, Stephen was right, it was time for new ones.
For the tuning, Danny is up the mast adjusting the upper spreader angle and V2, V3 tensions while Stephen and Noel observe from below and adjust the lowers (DF1, DF2, DA1, DA2), main shrouds (V1s), forestay, cutter stay and back stay. All with the goal of perfect mast tuning.
When finished, the mast it perfectly straight with slight aft pre-bend. The mast foot is sitting nice and square on its base and… above all, all the doors in the cabin open and shut perfectly. Previously something had been seriously a-miss. The door next to the mast would not close properly, plus there were other signs of distortion in the saloon and mid cabin and the mast foot was not square in its base. Now it looks like a proper job. Just goes to show that for a complicated rig like this you need a very experienced rigger to get it right. And Stephen is all of that.
And talking of Stephen, we can see he is happy to finally complete this job, which has been on and off for him for over a year now. He confessed yesterday that he had found it far more stressful than usual, not because of the size and complexity, but because he had not done all the work A-to-Z. While he complimented us on all the excellent work we had done refurbishing the rig and hydraulics, he still felt overall responsibility for it. He’s a good guy! I would recommend East Coast Marine Rigging to anyone who asked.
Once they have left, I potter for the rest of the day. I move the boat forward, manually, to try to get the aft shielded from the wave-lapping. I rig the new mainsheet and track lines – the final act of repair after all the damage from that last accidental gybe (new clutches, new car balls, new track end, new sheet). I empty the dinghy ready to put the chaps on tomorrow and get it back on the davits. And lastly get all the very long vertical battens off the boat, where they have been strapped to the lifeline, and onto the jetty, ready to attach the ends to each of them in preparation for putting up the new sails on Sunday. Which will be the next calm day.
As the sun sets the temperature becomes just too cold to stay outside. Below it is warm and snug, where Oana has spend all day labeling, checking and stowing the provisions that we have purchased so far. I’m always amazed how we can bring 7-8 shopping trolly-loads of supermarket goods to the boat and she manages to get them all stowed totally out of sight. Bet you cannot do that on a newer HR model! The cabins on these older models may seem small compared to the newer designs, but boy-oh-boy there is cavernous stowage.
In the evening I do several jobs. I received from Amazon a new air pressure gauge and new bicycle pump, each with its own unique design to enable me to get pressure into our water system sphere/bladder, with its extremely awkward-to-get-to valve on top. With the water pressure drained to zero, I manage to pump 1.2 bar into the bladder and get it checked with the pressure gauge. Still extremely awkward to do, but our new purchases made it possible this time, without any swearing or tantrums! Now, with the water pumps turned back on, there are much longer periods between pump activations, while the faucet pressure remains constant, just as it should be. Job ticked at last.
Finally, I decide to run the water maker. Not something we would normally do in a muddy brackish river, let alone in a marina. But we plan to change the membranes for new ones anyway, so no harm can be done if we don’t put the water in the tanks (other than muddying the pre-filter). Like the fridges and freezer this morning, we are pleasantly surprised that it all seems to work OK. No leaks, no errors on the computer, and fresh water is coming out of the testing-tap and salinity is good (drinking level).
After a few minutes I get out our new water testing kit (another Amazon purchase) and find the salinity and pH to be close to perfect! Wow! We didn’t even bother to flush the membranes when we stored the boat last May and here we are with them apparently working perfectly. So is there really a need to pickle the system for long periods of no-use. I wonder?
We had run the watermaker using the inverter, because I don’t want to run its electric pump motors on the USA spec 60Hz shore power (the inverter give 220v and 50hz, European spec). So now is a good time to really stress test the generator to recharge the batteries. And that goes well too. Cloudy Bay and her systems seem overly happy today!
All-in-all a long but fruitful day and we finally flop into bed at 1am!