A Summer Splash!
Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Fri 3 Feb 2012 11:12
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Yes, summer finally arrived in the last 2 weeks of January.
It's been mostly dry with some lovely hot sunny days. There's normally
always a wind so it never really feels too hot and, with a southerly
blowing, the temperatures can drop right down at night - 26 during the day
and a chilly 13 at night! But no rain, so it's been dawn to dusk working to try
and catch up, and with all the painting finished at last, Aurora B was
launched (or splashed) last week. The boatyard here were very accommodating
allowing us to spend 2 nights (and so a full day) in the travelift to
properly sand, undercoat and antifoul (3 coats) the bottom of the keel. We
wondered what it would be like sleeping in the boat while suspended in the
sling, but it was remarkably stable - more so than being on the
ground where the really big timber trucks hurtling by on the road would
make the boat shudder. The Travelift has a measure of the weight it's lifting
and Aurora B weighed in at 19 tonnes - more than we thought, and that
was with the water tanks (700 litres) empty.
What a relief to be back in the water. With the fine
weather we had the sails returned from the sailmaker and back on in a couple of
days, so she's a proper sailing boat again. Since then it's been tackling
jobs that we couldn't do in the yard, the main one being to replace
the main batteries. One of our 4 batteries failed last April
(getting dangerously hot - too hot to touch) so they have now all been replaced
by 5 slightly smaller batteries. Although smaller, they still weigh 70lbs
each - not something you want to try and carry up a ladder once, let
alone 5 times! The 5 give us a total capacity of 525 amp hours, the
same as our 4 old batteries (which were 88lbs each), but the new ones
are sealed (VRLA AGM) batteries rather than traditional flooded
batteries which we had to top up. The new ones are maintenance free,
safer (no battery acid to spill) and more efficient, at least we hope
they are at £235 each! Being a completely different size, they've required
a lot of rewiring and we've taken the opportunity to upgrade the size of the
cabling, which in some cases was quite a bit too
small.
Along with the batteries, the new solar panel has now also
been wired up, and together with the 2 panels we already
had, generates up to 16 amps on a sunny day (our own solar system!).
Like the space shuttle (ref Apollo 13 movie) we closely
monitor amps - we count them all out and we count them all
back in! At least we have a battery monitoring device that does that all
for us. The panel should keep the freezer going and
help keep the batteries well charged, which in turn should make them
last longer (that's the theory and we hope it's
right!).
So it's been quite an upheaval inside the boat with a lot of
the lockers in the aft section having to be emptied to gain access to the cable
runs. With the final bit of wiring completed yesterday we can now
seriously start re-stowing everything for going to sea. We haven't checked on
the progress of the 'hunt the container' game going on outside the harbour, but
as soon as it's considered safe we'll start our sea trials - having had
quite a lot done, and some below the waterline (stern glands and rudder bearings
and seals), we need to check it all out and make sure it all works. We also
need to make certain we remember which ropes to pull, and when!
We didn't have to go far for some entertainment last weekend.
It was the Tauranga Air Show, held every 2 years at the Tauranga
airport. With the marina being close to the end of the runway we had a
grandstand view of all manner of planes, including 2 spitfires flying side by
side and extremely noisy jets flying at not much more than mast
height.
 The weekly shop! Countdown delivers the
groceries right to the bottom of our boat ladder in the
boatyard.
 The keel lifts off the ground for the first time
since last June! But only about 10 inches - any
more
and
the radar dome and solar panels etc on the back
would hit the travelift beam. This was our home
for a
day and 2 nights.
 Our shining propeller covered in Propspeed - a
squidgy substance that's supposed to
keep barnacles
and
all other marine life at bay. It doesn't poison them, they just can't get a
good grip on it and fall off when
the prop turns. At least that's what it says on
the can. It's the first time we've used it and we hope it's
as
good as they say.
 10 inches or so off the ground is just enough to
be able to sand underneath and apply paint using a
small roller. It's the first time we've had the
opportunity to do a proper job on the bottom of the keel
(sand, prime and 3 coats of antifouling).
Usually it just gets a
quick wipe and paint immediately before
being lowered into the
water.
 Aurora B starts her short journey
........
 ........ to the sea (Mount Maunganui in the
background.) and ......
 .... splash!!
 Back in the marina - all clean and shiny.
Shame that won't last long!
 Planes loop the loop at the Tauranga
airshow.
 The new domestic batteries in the battery
locker, with wooden wedges tapped in and screwed at each end
to keep them apart (for air circulation to keep them cooler) and stop them moving
when heeled. Our old
batteries were the other way - 90 degrees to these (across the ship rather
than fore and aft), and so the new
ones had to be completely re-wired. The blue top
battery is our engine start
battery, but we can parallel
this with the domestic bank if we need
to.
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