Scott-Free’s blog - On the hard and working hard

On the hard and working hard

Scott-Free’s blog

Steve & Chris

Mon 8 Aug 2011 19:35

Monday 8th August 2011

By mid-afternoon last Monday we were still waiting to be lifted, so we went to the office to find out what was happening. It seems that nobody thought to tell us that we were booked in to be lifted "during the week beginning" not actually on 1st August! The lady in the office was very helpful and said she would ring us in the morning to let us know if the travel lift was fixed and whether we would be lifted on Tuesday.

Around 08:30 the next morning we became aware that the big travel lift was in place and shortly after the guys arrived to move us into the slings. By mid-morning Scott-Free had been lifted, washed off and chocked and we had started on our very long list of jobs to be done over the next two weeks. She actually looked very good considering the mileage she has clocked up since her last lift-out. The antifoul is still looking very good on the hull, and there was very little growth to be washed off. We were very disappointed, though,to see that the antifoul, together with all the layers under it, has bubbled up and lifted off in several places on the keel. As this was the second attempt by Demir Marine in Turkey to do the keel successfully, we had hoped there would be no further problems. We shall have to seek advice on what to do with it now.

We have spent every day cleaning, polishing, fixing, replacing etc. It seems that no sooner do we get one job done than another unexpected one crops up,so the list gets longer instead of shorter! We have several items that need professional attention, for example the sprayhood, bimini and dinghy cover need repair and reinforcement, and so we have been getting quotes for this work too. The headsails have been sent off to a sail loft to be washed, inspected and repaired where necessary. We are in the process of ordering a new battery charger from Holland,and the final gearbox of the steering needs looking at. When Steve was climbing up the boarding ladder the other day, one of the brackets that holds it on broke. Fortunately he was not hurt, but we now have to try to remove the broken piece from the transom to get it welded back together. Unfortunately the bolts are in a most inaccessible place inside the back of the boat and so this afternoon we have to empty out the port aft deck locker and dismantle the side of the locker to try to get inside the space inside the transom to undo the bolts.

On the positive side, we have almost finished cleaning and polishing the hull, fixed the new propellor on the bowthruster, scrubbed the rib till it shines and sourced and fitted a new davit wire. We have removed the Max prop (the main propellor) and sent it off to be machined as it had too much slack in it, and we have had a new screen and bezel fitted to the chart plotter. Apologies to any readers not interested in the nuts and bolts of the boat, but we have complaints from our more technically-minded readers that we omit such interesting details!

The weather is still very hot, so we have been starting early and then doing easy jobs in the hottest part of the day, and finishing late in the relative cool of the evening. Some days supper has been cheese and crackers before falling into bed! That is not a complaint though - the boat looks after us very well on our travels and now it's her turn for a bit of TLC.

We do have the occasional treat though. At the weekends there is a coffee and pastry kiosk at the boatyard, so on Saturday we stopped work for breakfast in the aircon of the customer lounge with cake and coffee. Yesterday we gave ourselves a few hours off in the evening and caught the trolley bus to Petie Greens in Deale to sample the crabs. The trolley bus runs only on Friday evenings and the weekends, and costs 25 cents per ride. You can hail it anywhere along its route. As it comes right into the boatyard, we got on just yards from the boat and off again right outside the pub. We ordered a dozen crabs and asked for some instruction on how to get the meat out of them with the knife and wooden mallet provided. Our waitress Amber gave an excellent demonstration and then we were off - for the next hour and a half we picked our way through all fourteen crabs (either they can't count or a US dozen is different from a Brit one!) No plates were needed, they just cover the table with thick brown paper and you eat off the table!