More preparation
Ile Jeudi
Bob and Lin Griffiths
Tue 15 Jan 2013 18:31
|
Thursday 10 to Tuesday 15 January 2013
The boat has spent a lot of time stationary in
marinas since August last year and the bottom has become quite fouled.
There is another issue about spending time in marinas in
that some of them, or the boats within them, leak stray electrical current
into the sea which cause the bronze through hull fittings (for water intake and
exit pipes for example) to erode away by electrolysis. This is
potentially disastrous of course and boats are fitted with sacrificial zinc
anodes so that these erode before the bronze fittings. We decided to get a
diver to scrub the slime and barnacles off the hull and propeller and check the
condition of anodes. Unfortunately he couldn't come until Tuesday but
since both Ian and Judith are ill at the
moment - with bugs we gave them at Christmas we suspect - we have time on our
side so we booked the diver.
On Friday Lin emptied and rearranged the
'Shed'. This is known by normal people as a double bunk
cabin but ours has become a storage area after several years of living
aboard. It looks like we will have to accept that the boat will roll a lot
on a downwind passage and Lin wanted to re-organise a lot of the stores of
provisions so that the things we need to access most frequently are the
easiest to get to (sorry about ending with a preposition).
We also wanted to move the mini 'washing
machine' from the forward heads (toilet) and store it in the shed so
we can use that toilet again. When sailing the contents of the
toilet are pumped straight out to sea. And when inshore at an
anchorage for instance, the contents are pumped into a holding tank instead, to
be pumped out later when at sea again. When the boat is heeling under sail
it is sometimes impossible to pump out because the seawater intake is above the
water line. For this reason some boats, including ours, have two
heads, one on each side. So, the rearrangement of the shed included
making space for the displaced washing machine. Lin has a particular
skill for creating tardis-like storage facilities and this was much
needed today.
The lower bunk of The Shed. The washing
machine is now behind those drawers on the right and space has been created for
more 'stuff'. We are starting to build up our supply of 8 litre water
bottles:-
 We have monitored how much kitchen and toilet roll
we consume over a 3 week period (not something we ever had to do on land)!
These lighter items go on The Shed's top bunk:-
 The forward cabin is now building up as 'Shed 2'
:-
 Some provisions:-
 Some more provisions:-
 This used to be 'The Office' containing our
files but as it is easily accessible it now contains mainly, erm...
provisions:-
 Well I'm sure you get the idea without seeing
photographs of the other 3 cupboards containing food, or the underfloor
stores.
That took most of Friday and on Saturday we found
we couldn't operate the 'long out of use' toilet. This was fixed
after servicing various seals and valves but we then discovered that one of the
sea cocks was seized as well. This means that should the toilet pipework
split or become blocked (don't think too closely about it) we would not be able
to close it off, ie keep the seawater out, to work on it.
Eventually I got it moving again, thereby avoiding a lift out by crane and
resolved to do a better job of operating the seacocks periodically to keep them
free in future!
The diver described the condition of the anodes to
us on Tuesday morning, which were still good, and then spent nearly two
hours cleaning the boat. He also managed to find the water filler
cap on the sea bed which we had lost overboard last week.
|