Antifouling on, we are back in the water, in the drizzle, on a grey April day. Nice to be able to hose the decks off – the boat yard is sludgy and gritty underfoot and doesn’t drain well, so it is hard to avoid bringing dirt on board and harder to get rid of it when you have. We hoped that without a mast to offer convenient perching, we might be less vulnerable to nuisance birds. Wrong again! Who needs masts when you have overhanging trees? The pigeons sit there biting off new shoots and dropping them (and other deposits) everywhere. The joys of wildlife…
Following on from last meetings at work, and the last day at work, could this week have seen our last night at Medway M2 services? As you can’t stay on board with the boat in the yard, we have become quite attached to the place over the last couple of months. It is the cheapest local accommodation and always available: £46/night and 30 minutes notice buys an acceptable room, unmemorable artwork, invariably cheerful Travelodge staff and a decent discount at Burger King. Saturday nights of late have come down to a choice of Whopper meal vs Chicken Royale (~60/40 to the Whopper even though Alex doesn’t like the tomato) and whether, after working on the boat all day, we had enough energy to have a shower first. If you are lucky you get a rear facing room and wake up to woodland views and bird song. If not, you get the lorry park and noise of running engines. We have been averagely lucky.
We may not have seen the last of the M2 services as there are new oil deposits under the engine and all round the gaiter that makes the seal between the drive leg and the hull. Gearbox oil? Engine oil? Hard to tell. They are both new and clean, and it could be either based on where the stuff has ended up. An oil leak on the drive leg was the main reason we had the thing overhauled in the first place, so it’s going to be a problem if that problem isn’t sorted. However, a pressure test suggested the new seals are OK, and the engine didn’t loose any oil last year, so we may just be seeing the aftereffect of old stuff that had got into the bell housing at the end of the engine. Fingers crossed. If we’re wrong, we won’t be in the water for all that long and there will be another cranage bill on its way…
In good news, Ventata isn’t leaking so we must have done a decent job reinstalling that drive leg – it sits in a very big hole below the waterline! So, back in the water, we are enjoying cleaning the deck (much easier without all that rigging about) and have fitted a solar panel. Together with an up-rated alternator, this should improve our power budget when away from marinas (and the humiliation of needing to plug a sailing yacht into the mains because you are too soft to live without a fridge and a chartplotter). We had a quiet moment of satisfaction that engine started first time and the up-rated alternator does indeed charge the batteries. If this sounds trivial, check out the notes below for making sure we put back the things we took apart and consider the disconcerting nature of having to remake the wiring (to take the higher current and because the old stuff has the wrong connectors) and, worse, of having bolts left over afterwards.
The downside of not sleeping in a Travelodge is that you need to remember towels. We forgot and have been using tea towels to dry off with after showers for the last 2 days. The life of luxury yachting eh?
Ventata 