Zoonie lift out and work in progress

Zoonie
Tue 20 Jun 2017 03:22

Zoonie’s lift out and refit.

Early on a pleasant Tuesday morning Brian of Whangarei Marina came up to Zoonie’s stern in his launch and tied the boat to the stern starboard quarter in readiness to give us an alongside tow down to the Riverside Marina where she would be lifted out. The prop seal behind the engine had seized and had we started the engine river water would start seeping in and we did not want that.

Within an hour of our arrival Karl operated the hoist and Mo started spraying off the thick ‘furry’ coat of weed, barnacles and oysters (appropriate!?) The line of osmosis blisters that have been growing over the past three years were revealed and as the antifoul on the waterline that we had raised in Poole was cleaned off it flew off in places revealing the old water line. They hadn’t bothered to rub down the blue boot topping before applying the new Coppercoat.

Re-wiring Zoonie required all the floor boards on one side to be lifted so living aboard would have been a nuisance to Mark, the electrician, and impossible for us so we carried our small clothes bags on to Cetacea upon Gail and Tony’s kind invitation and spent a week sharing meals, films, drinks and company.

The day after ‘the lift’ our NZ Visitors Visas arrived and on the Thursday we booked our flights home on July 17th arriving UK on the 18th.

The cables are now laid and the new bow prop installed. The prop seal is done and do you by any chance remember the black water tank issue? Well it had to be removed as it sat over where the old and new bow props are located so Mo helped Rob with the charming job of spray washing it and Rob has now taken off all the pipes on the top and re-installed it ready to refix the pipes so they are tight. The loosest one did not have a washer or sealant under it. So along with the non-self-priming pump that burned out after the first use and no washers under the pipe fittings, it never was going to work was it. Also the bottom of the gauge and part of the breather system were just lying in the bottom of the tank.

We are so glad that we are on board while this work is being done and we can literally check everything as it is installed.

I had a nice canine interlude recently. Alex who has been working on the engine sometimes brings his thick brown coated husky to work with him called Bear. He is only 18 months old and is interested in everything, I discovered when I took him for a walk around the Hatea Loop. There are cardboard cut outs of all the rugby players in the Lions team situated on both sides of the walk and he could not understand why they did not move. We stood for a few minutes on the canopy bridge as he watched the ducks. He hugged the ground as other dogs came over to see him and loved the people who made a fuss of him, he is very cuddly looking. He is also very strong and I had to hold him by the collar when he was tempted to leap off on some errand.

I was just walking in the marina recently when I saw a catamaran making its way up river. I then noticed it was called Windance III. Well that belongs to Christina and Werner I thought. Gail joined me and we walked around to the Town Basin where they had moored up and went to meet them. We thought that when they left the marina a few weeks ago we might never see them again so this was a real treat. They are selling their boat and the buyer wanted a survey done and a lift out down river. So when that is all complete they will fly home to South Africa which is where we may see them again one day.

They joined us aboard Cetacea for a Mexican supper that evening and neatly secured all the ties we thought might be left broken. So that was nice. We reminisced over the evening we spent at the ‘Fakaa Ladies Night’ in the Bounty Bar Vavau, Tonga where the three of us danced on a table so we could see the show better.

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