One Week to Go
Anahi
Sun 16 Sep 2007 08:36
The locker which stores the two gas butane bottles (neatly painted white and named ' - ANAHI') needed strengthening as under the existing glass fibre the wood had rotted over the years. Also the front chain and rope locker was all chipped, flaky, stained and ugly so we thought we would do that too.
Picture the scene - Motril Yacht Club set in the middle of a working industrial port with massive container ships coming and going loading mainly cement. Blustery day, plenty of swell, Paul and I in old shoes and clothes, latex gloves on and armed with one huge can of resin, one small pot of reactor, a Heath Robinson paint roller attached to an old broom handle, old rags, a substantial looking role of glass fibre, a bucket to mix and a jug to pour. You see I had read my 'Practical Boat Owner' magazine and knew what to do!! First we cut up the glass fibre into manageable sheets the size of each side of the lockers, then into the bucket with the resin - quickly stir in the reactor - liberally paint the mixture in the locker - plonk down the sheet of glass fibre - roller in more mixture - one more sheet - more mixture before it goes 'off' and so on - what they don't tell you is that your latex gloves get soaked in 'mixture' very quickly so when you pick up your next glass fibre sheet most of sticks to your hands - when you kneel forward with your roller you get another glob attached to your knee - when the swell heaves up and down you loose your balance a bit you step in bits you weren't meant to step in and attach your feet to the deck - when the cement dust billows in the force 8 wind you get a coating of that chucked in for nothing and that attaches to most of you too and if your lockers are deep and your pole is short you get quite a bit in your hair as well. Having said all that the finished product looks very professional and painted white we half imagine we could go into business!
The second faulty chart plotter (GPS) has been replaced and fitted. The ship's information monitor (AIS) is connected to the GPS and the radio (VHF) connected to that. Now wouldn't you think that these two products made by the same manufacturer (Standard Horizon) would have wires the same colour which would connect like for like? Wrong! On reading the instructions blue actually connects to brown and green to blue etc....
The sails are back with their new sacrificial strips in navy blue (I like that - sacrificial because that strip is open to the elements when the sails are furled in and gets sacrificed rather than damage the sail).
Paul has made two teak mounting blocks for the outboard engines and a little seat right up the front attached to the bottom railing.
On the down side we found a few tiny cockroaches and a nest in the Yorkshire Tea Bags SO!! I have stripped out every cupboard, sprayed everywhere, removed every single piece of cardboard, taken the labels off every tin and remarked them and set up cockroach hotels in every available space - the English hotels are tiny little affairs with bendy over roofs and cut out windows - the Spanish ones I have found are industrial pads big enough to catch a rat it says on the packet. Anyhow we are catching a few but the numbers are diminishing which could be a good sign or the roaches could be super intelligent? I caught both Paul and Vic on the pads I put under the table and it nearly took their skin off removing them!
Only a few more days here in Motril - its all getting very exciting now and stowage is high on my agenda. Especially as we will now be six on board and seven when we get to Antigua.
Paul found a Dutchman working nearby who specialises in spray painting so today we are going to rub down the boom in readiness for his expertise tomorrow. Paul said he had a big boom - the Dutchman replied 'I have a big oven'! We shall see..............