December 19th…  Really ?!  

I’m still on the boat,  in Almerimar, Spain.   The most striking discovery — how quickly the time is passing by,  even if you forget  the calendar… 

Which is pretty easy to do in Almerimar — the small ’summer town’,  forgotten in ‘ the middle of the nowhere ‘ in Spain… It is a small place around the nice looking marina,  squeezed  between square  miles  of agricultural green houses  and the sea…  I’ve been told that during the summer time — there are plenty of people there… I’ve heard even complains that there are too many people there… But today,  as the winter started,  the whole place  looks more like a ghost town… A lot of residential places are empty,  which easy to notice by the dark windows during the evenings… 

Two things do not let the life to run away from the town completely — constant renovations ( as preparations for the next summer season ), and the sailing community — those, who have chosen to spend the winter there…  The typical day — full of Sun,  noises of  the  tools, coming either from the construction on land, or the boatyard.  Approximately,  once a week — strong, up to middle 30th  Westerlies for a day or two…. With those nice quite days in between… 

In short, not too much has change from my last post… Ah,  yes… A new friend started to come periodically and sitting on the neighbour anchor rod: 

The time outside the boat seems to pass quietly and monotonically… 

So, what am I doing here ?

That is the question which appears every morning as I’m attempting to wake up, going for walk along the beach…. Everyday I see the fishermen fleet not far away in the sea… And nearly everyday I can  see the boat leaving the harbour,  turning to the East, or pointing towards the Gibraltar…  

That is the moment when the question pops-up — ‘ Are people sailing ?  In the Mediterranean, in the middle of  December ? ‘   It is difficult to argue when you see the boat(s) leaving… The rising Sun is promising the warm day, with the temperatures between 13-19 C  / 57-66 F…  Some FB groups  are discussing the sailing in the Med during the coming holidays…  Some friends  — are still sailing, and are publishing wonderful blogs and sending e-mails…  So, they are sailing… and my boat and myself are sitting in the marina…. Why?  That question wakes me up as good as a good espresso… 

The day passing by in attempt to find the answer… The Sun going down…  The temperature going down too…. The café and restaurants are starting the heaters inside the closed  terraces…  I’m closing the boat…  My two simple  heaters make the living space inside  warm and cozy…  ( I started with one, but now I have 2  simplest ventilated heaters… 2 kW makes miracles…  but not enough to keep all the boat warm… )  Now the picture changed…  With a glass of wine,  I’m checking the weather forecasts… No, no miracles… The weather in Almerimar seems to be one of the warmest in the Med… At least currently…  

I’m trying to imagine to be on the anchorage at this moment… Well… My boat — I do not have a build in heating system… But if people are serious about sailing in such weather — probably they installed it… Ok,  that may be fixed… Cold water outside… What about a shower?  If not long… But at least  really warm ?  Ok… probably also possible to fix… 

What about the weather ?  The last few days with the strong Westerly winds…  It was ‘fun’  to ‘live through’  them in the marina, being attached to 2 mooring lines, and the dock… Would it be nice to be on anchor, probably alone in the harbour,  with this cold wind ?  ( The last time the wind was blowing, the noise its made in the mast reminded me about Montreal, snowstorms, wind and its songs in the chimney … )  And those Mediterranean  waves,  which are so quick to pick up ? 

Or should I plan well, and run / jump between harbours, hiding inside from the Mistrials, which started to blow a bit too often to my taste ?  But if I have to hide into marina each time I’m coming to the destination…  It is not sailing I’m liking… ( Ok, granted… the last statement personalised, and cannot be taken as the argument… ;-))….

I’m trying to imagine those people, who are enjoying sailing in such conditions… Sailing here — means cruising… Not to go sailing for the day, under nice conditions… And I’m discovering with some surprise — that I cannot do it !   But people are sailing!!!   (  The Mark Twain’s story — when half of the city said the performance was excellent in order just to convince the other half of the city to come and to see it too… — is dismissed for a moment…  I really think people are enjoying cruising in such conditions… But… I do not know…). 

Those evening thoughts contradict a bit to my morning question….  And at the same time — ending the day… The wind starts to pick up and to sing its song…  The heaters started to switch on more often… 

I know… Tomorrow I would see the boat leaving… And I would like to go too…

In between those two events of the day — I’m working on the boat. She has been taken care about us for three years now, and  it is time to pay back… 

At the moment — the whole boat  inside is up-sight down. I’ve started the renovation… 

Have you ever renovated your home or apartment ? Really renovating, like re-painting everything, changing electrical,  or changing the bathroom?  Remember the fun ? 

Trust me, living in the boat and working on her windows at the same time, renovating the small things here and there — much more fun!  ( Trust me on that one,  do not try to experiment on the boat(s) of your own! ).

The title of the last month may be — ‘window replacement’.

The wood around the window(s)  started to show some signs of water penetration. Not really leaking,  but very close to…  

The receipt to cure the problem — remove the windows,  clean everything,  strip the wood from varnish, treat the wood,  re-varnish the wood, and put everything together again! 

( Only 4 windows, only 4 wooden panels… )

A peace of cake!  I have been watching my friend Maurice doing that multiple times!  ( My friend Maurice is a professional boatbuilder and renovator… During the long Montreal winters,  I liked to come to his shop, and to do some small projects to my previous boat,  but mostly to learn how to repair / to take care of  different boat systems… )

 

Encouraged by the fact that I have been watching windows replacement multiple times, and even assisted on a few occasions…  I’ve jumped into the project…   

The first thing I did — I wrote the e-mail to Nautor Swan, to their support team, and asked a few questions about the parts availability… I got the answer nearly instantly!!! ( A boost to encouragement… ) They looked to the drawing to my boat!!!  They still have the full documentation on her!!!  They even provided me with suggestions and instructions how to do the job!!!  Their instructions were basically the same as I learned from my ‘Boat Windows 101 ‘ from Maurice…  ( Another big boost to encouragement !!! )  And finally, they informed that the windows, frames, etc… were done by Nautor specifically for that boat… and they do not carry the replacements parts… They doubted that I would managed to remove the frames in one peace since they should be glued pretty well… and suggested a few options what to do then…  ( Ye… that put the encouragement a bit down… But it has already gotten dangerously too high… And my plans — to ‘repair’ the boat…  not to break her… and parts… ).

In short,  screws removed… with some efforts — the windows frames removed…  the lenses removed…  With the help of the heat gun and scrapes — the old varnish removed from the wood panels inside… 

The ‘demolition phase’ is over…  And demolition —I meant… 

The re-assembly  started with the wooden panel preparation, and revarnishing… 

The first results of revarnishing…  showed that I have several options :

— brought the boat to Montreal… asked Maurice to fix it… 

— brought Maurice to the boat, and asked to fix it… 

— if above fails,  bring the boat to Nautor, and asked them to fix it… 

— stop talking about sailing — at least for a couple of years, — and concentrate on learning how to restore the wood… 

— some other options, which I do not know… 

The saga of my attempts to varnish… is a story  of self educating in the widest scope of disciplines:

— chemistry:   after fruitless attempts to use the teak cleaners from the shop,  I read Bruce Van Sant book,  and found how to make 2 part teak cleaner — caustic soda,  and muriatic acid…  I had components… Why not to try ?   Mixed,  applied to test on small peace of teak — worked!  Applied to test in small corner of the  teak deck — worked!!!  Applied to the window panel…  And it started to work in the corner…

— medicine:  Have you ever seen iPhone, as it is loosing power ?   My teak panel,  which started to show the signs of brightening — turned black… Black black… As black as the iPhone screen when the deviece is off…  A few seconds before — I see the teak panel… a bit old, agree, but with teak colour… and the next moment — black peace of wood…  My jaw fall in disbelieve…  I opened the book on first medical aid  and started to read  about first symptoms of heart attacks since I’ve been absolutely sure that if the wood would not change colour back — I will get one! 

 — meditation: sitting in front of the ruined part of the boat,  trying to keep yourself calm, and positively thinking…. 

 — patience:    after the wood came back to normal colour — took only ~36 hours — resending, re-varnishing, re-sanding… re-varnishing… re-sa….         

At this point,  in the mornings, when I see the boat(s) leaving the harbour I’m saying myself  that one day,  I will leave the harbour in my boat… hopefully, it will be the summer day… 

I stopped checking the calendar… Why bother, if your time is measured by hours between different layers of varnish ? And then — most probably — cleaning again, and starting from the beginning… 

It is a monotonic process… Which does not have an end… It may be stopped at certain point… But, as writing,  I have not idea how … 

Some people have been coming to visit… First, the stopped asking what I’m doing…  They know the answer — I’m varnishing the same panel…  Second,  they have becoming speechless — they do not want to lie  and they do not have the  proper words to describe what they see…  Now, they start to come less often… Probably, they realised that the salon inside the boat is disassembled,  no place to seat… plus smell(s) of chemicals,  etc,  etc… 

There is definitely positive things  too…I know well what I’ve did yesterday,   what I’ve done today, and what I’ll be doing tomorrow…  They say Xmas is around the corner…  I know what I’m going to do on Xmas…. Just need to buy a bit more resolvent,  a set of brushes,  sand paper, gloves…  — otherwise, I’ve may run into the closed shops… 

Ok, time is coming  to check the last attempt… 

Everything is fine and under control on the boat!  

Talk to you soon, 

M .