The last few days has been a very trying time for Jennie and I .  I guess what they say about not so good things happening in threes is true in our case.

The period started with much delight and excitement when we heard that Mandy, my daughter, had accepted a proposal of marriage from her boyfriend Phil. We were thrilled to bits with this news albeit a bit bemused by the fact that all the events around this were communicated by text rather than phone.

Then the bombshell was dropped. Mandy & Phil have booked the 26^th July next summer for the great day. This is a total conflict with the rally program and we were faced with an impossible choice. Drop out of the Rally (completely) and attend the wedding, (having to make some four flights over three days, to get to the UK (with a £4K+ airfare) or continue with the rally. After much soul searching and discussion we have concluded that there is no practical way we can attend the wedding. We are heartbroken by this, and it has left us both quite depressed. This has not been helped by the fact that we have both developed a quite nasty bout of flu. So much discomfort on Zipadedoda, and more sleep depravation due to fevers, coughs etc,

The icing on the cake was to await us in the boat yard here in Puerto Calero. They have a 90 ton travel lift here, so we decided to have the boat lifted out for a detailed “below the water” inspection, and a bottom clean. We had also noticed on the way down here from Gibraltar that the Vang fitting to the boom was loose and that it appeared that a couple of the screws and bolts that fixes the fishplate to the boom were damaged.

  Zipadedoda minus her Boom

The catalogue for faults found over the next couple of days was nothing short of  horrifying!! In no particular order. The Maxprop anode and screws had been eaten away by electrolysis and some minor damage to the prop. This despite the fact that we had a galvanic isolator fitted to the boat in March to avoid this problem. The anti-fouling has virtually all been worn off. That is three coats gone in , ah well 3200nm. Fair cop! We will have Caribbean style antifouling put on in Jolly Harbour when we get there.

Two of the Batten boxes on the Main sail have failed. In one case damaging the sail.

But the real fun was the boom. The fishplate for the vang/boom was split. Needs a new one fabricated. The boom itself is cracked, where the fishplate connects. We will need to have a new bracket fabricated to fit inside the boom to take the load. The metal fittings to the hydraulic pipes inside the boom were very badly corroded and could have failed at any time. Two were stainless steel and the others were NOT MARINE grade fitting. Very Nasty. But the piesta resistance was the hydraulic motor at the aft end of the boom.

It is held in place by a 1cm thick cast alloy plate. This casting was sheered straight down the middle, where the two stainless steel bolts hold the hydraulic motor in place.  It was also twisted in such a way that it could quite easily have been lifted out of the boom, complete with mandrill and main sail. Had that happened mid-Atlantic, I dread to think what could have happened to us.

We are now back in the water, minus our boom. The boat yard are hoping to have it fully repaired and ready to re-install it this coming Tuesday. That will then leave us a few days to rigorously test it before the start of our planned Atlantic crossing next Saturday. I don’t even what to think about what it is going to cost to fix all these items……………….dry bread and water for the next month……………………………………….at least.

We spent the weekend being tourists. More of which tomorrow.