Sunday 2 October 2016

Update: Stings, Pox and Other Issues

Apologies for style and presentation but techy issues mean having to write a lost of this on my phone.

Arrived on Tuesday evening. First job on Wednesday was to get in the water and check prop to ensure not too fouled. It was ok but cleaned it up a bit anyway. Age catching up; could not not stay under for more than 30 seconds. Noticed tingling on thighs and chest and arm pits. Turned into burning sensation. Rash developed.



No jelly fish. Then noticed tentacle growths on morning lines that I had been hanging on to. They were clearly stinging blighters.



Met Murray from Irish Eyes. Enjoyed a dinner at the yacht club and he helped me get AS ashore. Another retired GP. He's now flown to Baltic to sail with a pal there. Returns January.

Bit of a panic getting AS ashore. There was a delay at the yard so tried to turn engine off to wait but cut out switch did not cut out. Decompressed instead but then no power to panel so could not start. Thankfully engine still warm enough to hand crank start. But now got to figure out what's gone wrong!

Under water growth on AS strange. Low down only slime but where sunlight gets through say 2 feet below water line (and above where swell laps) heavy thin tubular growth like what stung me. Very clingy. Yard pressure washer excellent but had to scrape too. Unfortunately patches of expensive anti-fouling came off too so have had to order more.



Even more disappointing was discovery of osmosis blisters above water line where the growth was.




Perhaps microscopic punctures from creatures let water in? Consulted Chris who advised no immediate measures required but will have to address on return. Could be expensive:(

Chris en-route fro Sines. Should arrive here later next week to help with jobs. That will be a great help. Re bedding leaky windows which locals failed to do plus preparing prow where scraped on pontoon during gales last year when mooring line snapped. Oh and the engine electrics too!

Finding stuff/ tools took ages after so long away. Some stuff thought was here but not like the anti-fouling and treatment for the iron keel. Had to ask Sharon to post me the latter.

Saturday completed clean off of hull and prop. Took ages. The remnants of growth above the water line particularly stubborn.

Also started re-siting of bilge pump in cockpit to avoid fouling with tiller (which I added before departure from Chatham) but only realised could not use whilst tiller in use after departure.



Have now planned installation of internal bilge pump and need to go off and buy all the bits on Monday

Boat a real mess at present with gear everywhere and at least one covering of African dust. Not very pretty.




Today, Sunday. Realised that I needed to grease the rudder bearings. Guess what? The newly sited bilge pump had to come out in order for me to squeeze into the cockpit locker and contort my body so that I could JUST reach the lock nuts on the bearing assembly in order to part it and grease and then re-assemble. 

Then reinstalled the bilge pump (not connected) and blanked off the old aperture. 



The angle of the pipe to the pump now too sharp so will need to buy right angle connector. Also reinstalled the windless which I removed in March and took to the local workshop because it had seized up. They fixed it. The work cost me 50 euros which was fair enough but then I had to pay another 50 for storage which I thought was a bit steep especially given there had previously been no mention of storage charges.



Tomorrow will take bus into Arguineguin to go to the chandlery. Will probably need to order most of stuff I need - the main things are a new bilge pump to fit down below (currently not one fitted and I should really be able to pump below in storm conditions) and all the necessary pipe work and connectors. Also bits and pieces needed to apply the anti-fouling.

Given it's Sunday I've hit the sailor's traditional tonic - Rum. Have discovered that rum, ice, grapefruit juice, squeeze of lime and a dash of Allspice makes a pretty good sundowner! Cheers.



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