Relaunch Time
Ile Jeudi
Bob and Lin Griffiths
Tue 4 Oct 2011 16:02
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Saturday 1 October to Tuesday 4 October
2011
We pottered about on Saturday doing various boat
jobs and then went to the beach in the afternoon. The boat is a bit of a
bomb site with various engine components around the place so we checked in to
the Tivoli Hotel in Lagos on Sunday for two nights. This kept us out of
the way on Monday whilst Sopromar fitted the new exhaust elbow and turbo which
arrived last Friday evening amd completed some other jobs we asked to be
done. It was nice to eat at the hotel restaurants and relax by the
pool.
On Tuesday we were relaunched at 5pm. As it
was late in the day we stayed on Sopromar's free holding pontoon rather than go
into the expensive marina!. Although it was frustrating to have been here
as long as 13 days we have achieved a lot. In addition to the major
rudder and engine work we also had the pumps on the engine and generator
repaired or changed and an improvement made to the steering assembly.
John Holloway, our electrician, took our alternator
away for inspection and he confirmed it is unserviceable. The windings,
which had been emitting a strange burning smell back in Torrevieja in August,
had been corroded by salt water. The salt acted as a wonderful conductor
so we had had short outs sparking all over the place which burnt the
windings. When I was dismantling the sea water strainer in Torrevieja I
knew I had spilt some water into the engine bay but I hadn't realised I had
spilt it on to the alternator - which, erm, is directly underneath the
strainer! So I had caused the alternator failure. John advised that
I rinse the alternator with fresh water if this happens again. Although it
is counter-intuitive to do this it would wash the salt away and provided I let
the alternator dry before using it again he feels it would probably be
fine.
Here is the view past the fishing and pleasure
boats across to Lagos town from the waiting pontoon. For a working area it
is really quite pleasant:-
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