Here we go again..........!

Serendipity
David Caukill
Tue 2 Aug 2011 09:33

Tuesday  Aug 2rd :  Today's Blog by David . 36:08.91N 05:21.32W

 

Tuesday was another hot day. Hot in temperature and hot under the collar!   

 

Sean the rigger arrived first thing – well, first thing for him.  He is a nomadic biker, heavily tattooed,  who arrived in Gibraltar 21 years ago.   Clearly expert at his job, he is the kind of guy that wants to talk you through how hard every step is going to be and to explain why he still has is fingers and other riggers don’t. Anyway he got on with the job. With an assortment of ropes and halyards and assistance from various of our crew it took us three hours to get the boom off and then a further three hours to access the gearbox.

 

 

 

Sean eventually demounted the gearbox and took it away for inspection. Meanwhile, the thought of gearbox fluids led Bob to check out the main engine gearbox oil levels which were OK (a good thing) but in the course of which he spotted that the timing cam-belt on the main engine is gradually being reduce to dust (a bad thing!).

 

Close inspection did not improve the diagnosis.

 

Oyster are trying to arrange for someone to fly out to fix the engine but some special tools and parts are required which could delay departure.  Now we have a pretty comprehensive spares kit including most of the required parts and tools – all of which were supplied by Oyster – and the day ended with my politely drawing that to their attention.