Work in St Lucia

Kahia
Paul and Catherine Davis
Sun 22 Jan 2012 12:51

13:00.38N 61:14.50W

We were advised by a Lewmar Agent in England not to cross the Atlantic with that knocking we had in the steering, especially when the autopilot was on. Well we tried to do it in Mindelo but the set up there did not give us confidence to do such crucial work. We bought the bearings there and knew this work needed to be done. Rodney Bay Marina was promising.

Patrick and Amanda (Egret) have been here for 3 weeks now to sort out their major work on their new rudder and were very helpful with information and support. It took 3 ½ days of hard work and manpower to take everything apart, go to a local workshop to get the old bearings off and then rebuild the whole system back together.

STAGE 1: P1030453 Patrick and Paul

P1030456 Then with German neighbor Georg

 

Underneath everything was well apart but on deck things needed a lot of banging and pulling.

P1030449 

Making room for one job means mess somewhere else on the boat! P1030454 We are supposed to sleep here every night!

STAGE 2:

At the yard they took on the job on the day and did excellent work!

Paul thought he had retired…

 

 

P1030466      P1030475

P1030471 Lots of waterproof grease!

STAGE 3: P1030477  P1030482 P1030483

Putting everything back together, rewiring and testing to see all systems work took a lot of concentrating, we felt like back in time, when we were building Kahia…

A perfect job done!

While we worked in the cockpit our German neighbours, Andrea and Georg worked on the rigging, that’s cruising! “It’s a hobby” says Georg.

P1030487

The Autopilot also steers to the wind but the wind instrument did not work since we arrived in the Caribbean! So up the mast on day 4:

P1030489  P1030501 

Almost 2 hrs up a 16 meter pole swaying in the wind… what a hobby…

The wind instrument is still playing up, but Paul also rigged lines down the mast steps, so halyard can’t get caught anymore.

We anchored another two days in the bay to get the boat back together and rest.

It was lovely to have Patrick and Amanda over for a meal and catch up on more news.