Snap, Crackle and Pop
Vega
Hugh and Annie
Sun 4 Sep 2016 14:16
The first thing we noticed when settled in our new anchorage was the loud crackling sound around the hull that you can hear when down below. It is like a bowl of rice crispies and is incessant. Our immediate thoughts went to osmosis and hull delamination, barnacles burrowing into the bottom or similar nightmare scenarios. We have heard it before on occasion and assumed then it was fish feeding on hull weed but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Apparently you can hear it when swimming under the water. Very strange but nobody we have talked to has come up with a convincing explanation……………
Although we are in a secluded anchorage we are nevertheless only a five minute dinghy ride from Secret Harbour marina which serves as a social point for those anchored around the bay and berthed in the marina itself. There is a vibrant “cruiser” community that extends widely around all the bays and is coordinated on the Grenada Cruisers Net - a daily broadcast on channel 66 that follows a set format running through security items, weather, social activities (of which there are many), “treasures from the bilge” i.e. items for sale or wanted, parts and services and so-on. One thing that has been a surprise to us is the number of boats with young families on board. Lily, daughter of friends Paul and Jayne on Delphinus, has set up a Kids Net that follows a similar format to the Cruisers Net but avoiding the adult stuff. The radio exchanges include kids as young as six and it is eye opening to see how adventurous, sociable and confidence building their upbringing is. They are all home schooled using on-line resources and go at their own pace for each subject which often seems to be much faster than the strictures of the formal school regime allow. I had imagined schooling to be a big restraint on cruising with children. Far from it, they seem to thrive in this more adventurous and flexible environment.
The guys from Grenada Marine came around to finish the tasks still outstanding from the yard. The coachroof is now shiny again despite them maintaining that they polished it in the yard. We have a new cockpit VHF radio and socket that seems to be an improvement on the old. The pushpit mount for the outboard motor is now beneath the new davit which means we can raise and lower the motor from the transom without having to lug it halfway down the boat to a block and tackle on the boom. One of the tasks given to the yard was to change the seal (stern gland) where the prop shaft comes into the boat. In theory a straight forward exercise so we were a little surprised to find our bill also included a new cutlass bearing (where the prop shaft exits the hull) and 25 hours work to realign the stern tube through which the prop shaft runs so that the prop shaft aligns with the flexible coupling where it joins the engine shaft. According to the yard the cutlass bearing was worn (despite it being changed last October) and the wear could have been caused by the shaft being out of alignment. True but why would it be? One reason may be that, unlike most other boats, the stern tube and the external mounting on a Malo (and Halberg Rassey) are bonded together. Normally you would expect to remove the external mounting to leave enough room between the hull and the rudder to withdraw the shaft and attached cutlass bearing for removal. On our boat you can’t do this and somehow have to push the shaft in and then cut off the cutlass bearing (I am unclear about this so won’t confuse you any more). Putting on a new bearing and reattaching the external mounting could cause an alignment problem with the stern tube apparently……………….. Anyway, who am I to argue the technicalities about all this? Taking the explanation at face value and backed up by some knowledgeable input from Dan Hills at Malo we managed to get a refund on 7 of the 25 hours work.
On the dinghy front things are looking up. It has been an ongoing frustration that revving up the engine beyond fast tickover produces nothing more than wallowing at the stern and foaming bubbles in the water. Last night I had to return to the boat on my own and applied full throttle in order to ponder the wallowing issue. But lo, the dinghy lifted up onto the plane and shot forwards so fast I had to hang on and pray it didn’t do a Donald Campbell and lift up out of the water at the bow and do a graceful backflip before smashing into the water and disintegrating into a million rubber pieces. Later in the evening with Annie back on board we were in a hurry to get back to Vega before what appeared to be an imminent thunderstorm arrived. No sooner had we left the jetty than we ran out of fuel, the cap wouldn’t undo on the fuel container, the engine wouldn’t start again, tempers were fraying and the lightning was getting ever closer. Eventually we had fuel in the tank, the engine started and I thought it was time to repeat the fast planing experience back to Vega. However, as soon as we revved up there was a horrible clanking noise from the engine that I thought was the cover come loose. Reattaching the cover didn’t have the desired effect and we had to crawl back under tickover in a slow motion race against the storm that, of course, never arrived. The next task is to investigate the clanking noise.
Today the humidity is officially 100%.