All cruising yachts need some structure, a plan! But, "the best laid schemes o' mice an' men, gang aft agley" and so we refer to "today's plan", because inevitably it will change.
Our lay up in Chesapeake Boatworks, Deltaville VA was great. It kept us out of the path of any hurricanes, very economical (we knew that when we found "Summer Wind" had laid up there as well!), friendly and clean, and most importantly we had access to boat parts and excellent skills, if we should need them.
Best of all was the renewed offer of the cottage in the grounds of Bill and Lydia's summer house and the use of their truck while they were in Europe. All we had to do was to cut their grass!!
Very hard to get going in the morning as we settle in to the tranquility of the surroundings and watch the osprey building their nest, wild turkeys, the Canada geese calling in for a short break, ducks looking for food and of course the great blue heron stretching his legs on the dock. If we stay around longer we can spot a bald eagle catching its prey in mid flight.
And yet a lot has been accomplished in two long weeks - antifouling applied (my speciality), steering gear repaired with the help of the machine shop and reinstalled, wash down pump installed on the bow (electrical connection will happen shortly), cockpit table stainless steel supports refinished and polished and table now installed. Bimini stainless steel structure strengthened, gas cooker re-installed, taping to dry mesh underneath cabin cushions and batteries reviewed. Local sail maker has completed repairs to the mainsail and 130% genoa and Chris from C2 Canvas has done a fantastic job making a new canvas dodger and bimini with connectors, all adjustable. Two stainless steel handles have been installed on the dodger at either side to the cockpit entrance which will make a huge difference in heavy weather.
First coat of antifouling^
The Lofrans anchor windlass was disconnected during the first few days and horror upon horrors we found a bearing had entirely disintegrated. With windlass in bits, spare parts were couriered from all over the U.S., the machine shop in Gloucester helped once again, and the bearings should arrive tomorrow......then the windlass will be reassembled and mounted on a new base.
While all of this was going another big job for me was to clean out the anchor locker, scrub off the rust left by a rusty anchor chain with a weak solution of .....and paint it ready for the wonderful regalvanized anchor and chain. Only problem was that once you're in the locker you can't get out!! Well, not without the help of a line tied to a deck cleat on either side. Even then, unless you're very skinny, it's a difficult manoeuvre, and impossible to bend down!! So, using my feet and a sponge I finally soaked up all the water and leaves below the outlets and found a nifty Shurhold attachment to our pole for scrubbing down. Luckily the weather held for drying out and the day came for painting with bilge paint and an angular paint brush (long handled brushes not available:( Bob said he was the man to start this job because he could reach in head first and with longer arms he could at least paint the bottom! He forgot that his shoulders are wide, his upper body weight heavy and with only the line to hang on to, he desperately needed some divine intervention from above;) It was a struggle to get him out, and remembering his performance with sticky adhesive for the windlass base and the cockpit table supports, I had visions of bilge paint being applied to everywhere other than the anchor locker!! Needless to say, I finished the first coat with just a little pain in the nether regions:0))
We are waiting for the rain to stop and the weather to get warmer again before Bob can finish polishing the freeboard and I can apply the second coat in the anchor locker and antifoul the fiddly areas around the rudder.
Posted with Blogsy
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