Marina di Ragusa: How many more jobs can one job create?

Wanderingdragon
Stephen & Anne
Sat 8 Sep 2012 15:40

36.46.84N 14.32.74E

 

After over a month since the last rain/thunder storm we had a thunder storm on Sunday evening. We had been thinking it would pass us by,  but unfortunately not. Once again there were strong winds and rain, along with thunder and lightening. 

 

On Monday morning we had some residual drizzle, which meant we were on indoor jobs. After a clean of the inside of the boat, we started work on a replacement mossi net for the companionway (our front door). We have a good design but unfortunately the last lot of mosquito netting we bought hasn’t survived very well and has split in multiple places.  By Monday afternoon the weather had gone back to the usual sunshine and blue skies, so the rest of the week was clear for outside jobs.

 

During the thunder storm we were reminded that the hatch over our bed leaked, so Tuesday morning we started removing it. Naturally this meant another job first – in this case taking down the ceiling in the bedroom to get access to some bolts holding the hatch down. Over Wanda’s lifetime the hatch has been removed and replaced a number of times. Naturally the replacement hatches have different positions for the fittings and hence there were several old holes “filled in”. It was one of these old filled in holes that was the source of our leak.

 

With the hatch off we could clean up the old sikaflex and then correctly repair the old holes. While the hatch was off we also realised the wooden surround could do with varnishing and that it would be much easier to do without the hatch fitted. With the ceiling down we could also remove some other fittings that we don’t use which are on the back deck and always catch our feet.

 

As we cleaned the old hatch we realised that we (Stephen) had bent it as we removed it. We haven’t had much luck fitting slightly bent hatch frames – they tend to leak after about a year (or a day sometimes). Hence we urgently ordered a new hatch with the proviso there was no rain while we waited a week for delivery. On the plus side we had plenty of time to varnish around the hatch frame.

 

Meanwhile Stephen was trying to get access to the 110v inverter. We tried to use this a while ago and it had stopped working, so we were trying to see if we could fix it. If you thought the jobs on the hatch were growing like topsy, so does this one.

 

The first job was to look at the water maker that was in the way and realise we needed to pickle it for the winter. Once complete we could then look at removing the 110v invertor.

 

The 110v inverter is the turquoise blue and silver box straight ahead in this picture. This is in the cupboard under the stairs, so a very small space.  There was no way to get at the fittings to get the inverter out. The inverter had been fitted before the watermaker and all the watermaker bits were in the way. Removing the watermaker would be an absolutly massive task. Anne had the brilliant idea of taking the steps off.

 

The steps we could remove J

 

This made getting access to the inverter easier, and we then removed it. However getting in and out of the boat became a challenge!!

 

KOA to the rescue. Our friends Dan & Judy very kindly lent us their steps, which allowed us to get out of the boat, even then it’s not too easy. Yoyo is not amused that a large forced jump is now required to go outside – but she is getting use to it.

 

Now you might wonder why we simply didn’t refit the steps (and make life easier). The steps have been in need of a tidy up for a while, so while Anne had the varnish out already we decided to varnish the steps. I mean all it needs is a quick sand and a few coats of varnish…..well that’s a story for the next blog.

 

So now the inverter is out, whats wrong with it?

 

Description: Description: Description: Description: cid:image003.jpg@01CD8DD6.1A7A8FD0

If anyone can spot what is wrong let us know, we have no idea!! There is no obvious damage or failures although our knowledge of inverters is very limited. Mastervolt want a silly amount of money to “try to repair it but we probably can’t and then we will still charge you £100 if you want it back” L. We have decided we can live without the invertor for now.

 

So as you can tell we have had a busy week, with all the jobs and the usual day to day living.  We treated ourselves to a half day on Friday and went out for a lunchtime pizza with Dan & Judy. We had a great time catching up on each others summer.  During the last week other boats have been arriving for the winter. On Friday evening we went to the bar for a drink, and met some of the new arrivals.