Riverside Drive marina, Whangarei
Sea Topaz
Duncan Briggs
Sun 4 Apr 2010 20:47
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Since our last diary entry we have been working
very hard to get ready to go in the water, which we did last Monday.
Unfortunately we had water coming into the boat through the deep-sea seal, which
is a complicated rubber ring around the propeller shaft and should keep the
water outside. So we went back on the hard and Duncan with the help of an
engineer has been working hard on sorting the problem out. The flange (a big
metal ring) had to come off the shaft to replace the deep-sea seal, but it did
not want to move. All sorts of technics were tried, but nothing worked. So on
Tuesday they are going to cut it off and we will have to wait for a new one,
which is due to arrive in the country on Friday....
We decided to go to Auckland for a few days (we had
to take our liferaft in for service) and chill out. We also hope to leave on
Thursday on our long trip to South Island and fit the new part when we get back
(it should have arrived by then). The other yachties here have been very
sympathetic and supportive. In the meantime I carry on with repainting the
superstructure.
 
Getting to the bottom of
it
Sing song evening with the Dutch sailors
Nearly finished the first coat of antifoul
 
Ready to go into the water (or
so we thought)
A New Zealand hot
chocolate
Views on Whaheki
Island
Wine tasting at one of the many wineries
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