Current Location: Boat, Plymouth; Us, Stroud
Last week was the first really full session on Mehalah. I think we made generally good progress.
One of the first jobs was to check the new weather station to see what the temperature was. 13 degrees Centrigrade. That'll do nicely. We needed at least 10 degrees to apply the new Port of Registry transfer to the back of the boat. It worked! No bubbles, no peeling bits, just a nice new transfer. OK, so the colour doesn't exactly match but it's good enough. Why is this so important? Well, for UK boats if you want to spend more than six months a year outside the UK you are supposed to register the boat "Part 1". In practice many people don't bother but this time we wanted to go ahead. For this you need to have a plaque mounted inside the boat (see earlier post) and also your name and Port of Registry on the back.
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| Port of Registration added. |
We now have both so by the time we returned to Stroud at the end of the week we found our nice new registration document there waiting for us. This is the document we'll need to produce every time we arrive in or leave a new country or marina therein. It's also the key document that customs ask for if we are stopped on the high seas. Well worth having!
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| Official Part 1 Registration document. |
Ah, ha. You'll see below that the amps are back. This is the battery charger that stopped working last time we were down. A gentle topping up of batteries is in play again. This after a sometimes working, sometimes not situation. Mike Stone our friendly marine engineer took it away, replaced the blown fuse and gave it a good clean. It remains to be seen whether that has done the trick or whether we will need to purchase a replacement one. Time will tell.
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| Amps again, but for how long? |
Whilst we're on the subject of issues to resolve, the generator which we thought had been fixed by tightening a jubilee clip is still leaking. It looks as though the injector needs tightening in its seat. And the tank manufacturers, as expected, are disclaiming any responsibility for the leaks saying it is user error. Yeah, right. We'll bite the bullet and get new ones.
Anyway, back to progress. We picked up the two new anchors en route to Plymouth, one just outside Dorchester and the other from a guy living on his boat in the river Tamar. So we had to review the ground tackle. Chain and rope out onto the pontoon Gilly had space to check out the anchor locker. Not too bad as it turned out though we need to service the windlass before we leave.
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Cleaning out the anchor locker.
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We marked up and reinstalled the chain in the rain. Of course this simple statement belies the reality. One trip across a very busy town to get the blue tin of hammerite and another to get decent shackles for the back anchor. For the big anchors at the front we've ordered proper heavy lifting shackles which have now arrived and will go to the boat next week.
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| The chain gang. |
And then there's the rigging. We knew the mast, boom and wire bits had been replaced three years ago but we wanted to be sure all was good to go. So AllSpars, the rigging company, were called in to check things out. This was a very successful visit with only relatively minor repairs required with the added possibility of a secondhand bosun's chair thrown in. In preparation we exposed and cleaned all the chain plates which join the big wires from the mast to the boat. They look pretty good and although the riggers don't formally check them apparently, we won't be asking for a second opinion.
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| Cutting a hole to allow preparation of the chain plates for inspection. |
I thought I was pretty agile when climbing the mast. This guy was like monkey.
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| Intense discussions with the riggers. |
The required gas fittings for the new cooker had arrived the previous week so I set to work. Of course the old copper pipe was 6mm and the cooker required 8mm so a 90 degree reducer was sourced. Except is wasn't because it didn't seal properly. Anyway the job was finally completed and on the second attempt proved totally leak free. This is something you do NOT want to check for with a naked flame. The cooker works just perfectly and I have a very happy skipper!
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| The business end of the gas installation. No leaks! |
With that complete it was on to the other end, the horribly messy, probably unsafe gas locker and its bottles. This was highlighted as an area for work in our pre purchase survey. It was cold and awkward but I did a great job and I'm really happy with the result. New in date hose installed, drain hole rediscovered and cleaned out, other holes in the locker sealed and new connections made to the solenoid using heat shrink sealed butt connectors for the first time.
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| The gas locker. Clean locker, cleared gas drain hole and new solenoid connections. |
Back to the leaking port hatches. Except they're not now. We learned the hard way that removing these to replace the seals is not easy and very messy. That learning stood us in good stead for the remaining three leaking ones identified by Ali when she sailed with us earlier in the year. New super strong clips pressed the seals into their little grooves whilst the messy adhesive cured. Close them up, not too tight, wait for rain, inspect for leaks. There are none. This was one of those rare jobs that took less time and with a better result than we expected. We like.
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| Cunning press to glue the new port seals (oink) in place. |
Back in Stroud we are now preparing for next week's jobs which might include.....
....taking off the sails, removing at least one of the leaking tanks, freeing the self steering gear, checking out progress on the stainless steel bars to take the solar panels, odd bits of woodwork and another attempt to fix the mainsheet winch.
You are going to be busy Hugh and Linda!!
