Been
a while since I could be bothered to write up these pages for a
number of reasons. A couple of close friends dying took the edge off
things for a while as we slowly came to terms with their separate
deaths and we were working on the boat, which can be pretty boring to
write/read about and so the months drifted by. But now our time of
departure is counted in hours rather than weeks and as it feels more as
though we're back in cruising mode it seems as though we should get
some sort of update posted.
The
changes. We took out the long serving (and very efficient) Lavac
toilet, filled in the holes and opted to use a Porta-Potti. We had
nothing against the unit but really disliked the through hulls. The
Taylor's cooker likewise was disposed of and we pondered how we would
gimbal our dinky little “Primus”. Bee, browsing through a local
on-line listing found an Atom (see here) for sale second-hand from a
guy who was willing to deliver and the problem was solved. We'll let
you know how the system fares at sea but we're happy with what we so
far have.
Eventually
we took the shelter down and Bryden came along to help hoist the
rudder into place. We'd used the guys from the local (and very
successful) Come Boating rowing team to get it off but reversing the
process required a crane. In the event we had to do it twice as we'd
got the washer sequence wrong and it didn't sit properly.....as I was
desperately trying to tighten up the nuts and get the split pins
inserted, Ken was reversing the trailer under the boat ready to lift
and launch us. We launched and began the slow process of adding
rigging (running backstays, bowsprit shrouds, lazyjacks and a heap
more). Jeez it seemed to be so much harder this time as we finally
set the blocks for the mizzen only to realise we'd got one out of
sync and... oh never mind it was wrong anyway and had to be changed.
Then
we ran the engine and heard an ominous knocking noise.....”Got to
be the alignment” I said whilst in my mind I was thinking “ I
can't believe this - it sounds like the gearbox has gone again” We
called in John to have a listen.....He dismissed the alignment but
thought we had a gearbox problem.....we had, as removing the gearbox,
bell housing and drive plate proved. A phone call to a US distributor
elicited the response that we could get one from them for $353 but
not until the end of the month unless we paid $140 for expedited
shipping...a phone call to Mike Bellamy of Lancing Marine in England
via Skype found we could get it for $160 plus shipping. 77 hours
after we placed the call the package was in our hands. Remarkable
service. Whilst we were at it we did change the engine mounts,
removed the car heater and sorted out the alignment. The depth
sounder hadn't worked since we relaunched and we checked, rechecked
and rechecked again to no avail. Jim, a fellow cruiser/liveaboard,
who currently works for the yard, offered to loan us his unit to
check things out and for good measure lowered a microphone over the
side(he's a diver which is meant to explain why he should have such a
device.....)So we found the transducer works but not the head and
danced in jubilation as we all we had to do was replace that rather
than haul out etc. Short lived however as research showed that whilst
our transducer operated on 155khz almost all modern units operate on
200khz and it was beginning to look as though we were into major
expense. Luckily it is possible to dry out here so we could always
use that as an option. But, as ever, Bee checking out options found
an old depth sounder (much older than ours) on Ebay for $5. The
seller even offered a transducer if he could find it on the boat for
the sale price. He did, the set up arrived, we worked on it and it works! Meanwhile
an email to Nasa Marine about their sounder had a very rapid and
positive response. That arrives tomorrow so with luck we'll be on our
way on Thursday.
So
one further bit of flag waving for a UK company. After some thought
we decided to try a Jordan Series drogue, a device I'd first read
about a couple of years back. Pricing it out we found that Ocean
Brake (see here) would make up the unit and ship it out for about 15% more than
I could buy the individual components and make it myself. A boat the
weight of Hannah requires 139 cones to be stitched and attached....
Of
course we're now a couple of weeks behind “schedule” and as we'd
hoped to get up to Disko Bay in Greenland this summer we're a bit
miffed. However with a couple of short pushes we could recover some
of the time and it might still be possible to get things done. We'll
see.
Late
last year another friend of ours died. Allan was in his 80's and had
had a stroke that had left him mostly paralysed and in a wheelchair
for the last 17 years of his life. His sense of humour and interest
in the waterfront never diminished and he was always there when we
returned, wanting to know what we'd seen and where we'd been. His
family had a gathering in Boston and scattered some of his ashes
there and then another celebration, months later, in Belfast to allow
his many friends here to celebrate his life. A small Viking ship was
made and, with much of his remaining ashes aboard, set alight and
allowed to sail into the bay. It was a great ceremony made more so
for us by the fact that prior to it all starting his daughter Rose
had given us a small jar containing some his ashes for us to paint
onto our mast so he could journey to all those places he loved to
hear about whenever we came into harbour.
