Last things before launching

Saturday & Sunday 13-14 Nov, re-launch 2021, HHN days 45 & 46: Final must-do’s before launching this coming week: anchor chain up, gas locker reinstated, final generator test after fixing leaks, more varnish layers on hatch frame, tidy-up decks, etc.

The essential tasks are now all ticked “done”, so it’s time to start the multitude of small jobs in preparation to launch in this coming week.
With the chances of ever getting our turnbuckles back from FedEx apparently very low, yesterday I made the order with Stephen of East Coast Marine Rigging, to get the same items from Selden in USA. The ones that were lost had been sold to us at a discount price of $1,000, whereas the ones available in the USA are $3,500. That’s quite a hit for us, but nothing else that we can do about it if we want to replace like with like. And any other way would mean the mast back down to re-swage the V1s to match a different length of turnbuckle. Yesterday Stephen said 3 days to deliver, which puts us back on track to be in the water next week.
And, lets face it, if we don’t get into the water soon, we might as well head home for Christmas and give up sailing this winter. And that, my friends, is NOT happening!

Saturday sees me cleaning the Go-Cycle and its trailer/trolly, breaking them down into pieces and stowing back on the boat. Over the last year this set up has done me very well. Providing transport around the yard and even to the shops, saving untold sums on hire cars. But now that we have a loan car from Ken and Alison, they can go back inside and rest for a few months.

Gas locker is next. I’d previously repainted it, replaced all the pipes and fittings but the hatch over the locker still needed attention. Normally HR has designed these hatches not to be watertight. Presumably to let air pass through them, flushing out any stray propane. But with this design all the deck water drains through the gas locker causing a lot of corrosion and dirt in there. So, after my re-painting I also install a sealing strip around the lip of the hatch. The other issue with the hatch is the hinges. The screws have become loose in their holes, so drilling out and epoxy filling is required. Then re-drill and tap new threads for the bolts. Simple work, but time consuming.

In the evening, it’s time to test the generator again following a leak on the heat exchanger when we last test-ran it a few days ago. This time, the heat exchanger is good, but there is a leak from the raw water pump, coming from behind the impeller housing. We have had this issue before. The shaft seal is leaking. And I have a spare water pump ready for simple plug-n-play. Such a pleasant change to have a spare part to solve a problem. Normally, if you have a replacement part, that part will never fail again!
It doesn’t take long to put the new pump in, but because its brass pipe fittings need new sealant, we cannot test it again tonight.

And before we go to bed it’s another layer of varnish on the forward hatch frame.

Sunday morning, we have an unusual lie-in till 8am. Well, it is Sunday! Very cold out today. Even need a wooly hat. Now, we had said that we need to be sailing south again BEFORE wooly hat season starts. Looks like we failed on that one.

Ray is here mid-morning to help us get the newly galvanized chain back up into the anchor locker. It’s all neatly laid out in 10m lengths in front of the boat, with markers every 10m. With Ray helping on the ground, Oana on the buttons, and me in the locker getting the first 60m flaked into the front part of the locker, we proceed. Occasionally, we have to stop the operation to loosen bonded links – locked tight together with galvanized metal. A swift blow with the hammer loosens them off.

Once all the chain is in the locker and the anchor again proudly on the bow like some shiny silver figurehead, I look and realise just how nicely things are coming together after all these months of hard work. Here we have a newly galvaised chain, in a newly painted locker, with new chain markings and a new anchor guide chute. Each piece of that was time consuming work – and now there it is, all in one place, looking like new. And this is just the anchor locker. Same in gas locker, bathrooms, mast, boom, rigging, propeller … it’s all coming together in these final hours before launching.

We then go from this “high” to another low point. I show Ray the new dive compressor that just arrived from Italy. But when I get it out the car, we instantly see that it has suffered during shipping. The end grill on the electric motor is all bashed in, such that the cooling fan behind would not be able to rotate. And the very strong frame is actually bent. It must have suffered quite a blow to bend that. So there I had been, thinking “well, at least the compressor got here in one piece “only to now find it damaged. Pfff it will be yet another round of negotiations with FedEx tomorrow morning ☹

After Ray has left, I head off to fill our 2 glass-fiber propane tanks. Just $15 to fill both of them. Pretty damned cheap compared to Europe, where a standard small camping gas bottle is, what? 20 Euros?

Next, the mooring lines go on, ready to moor up after launching. And our big fenders are blown up and hung over the side ready to go. And finally, all the pallet, wood and other junk lying around under the boat are cleared away. We are ready to go!
Well, it would help is the cockpit wasn’t full of junk and the steering wheel was back on … So maybe not 100% ready yet.

In the evening we test run the generator again. 3rd time lucky. All good, no leaks. The covers can go back on and the engine room ready for action when we need to motor into the marina after launching.
And last but not least, the rest of the evening is catching up on the blog. With all the activity in the last days, I had 4 days to write. Sometimes the blog is a bit of a faff!