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.

Count-down

The end of my current contract is in sight - the end of August and I've started planning and preparing for my return to Arctic Smoke in Pasito Blanco, Gran Canaria. My flight out is booked for 25th September. The plan is to spend October preparing Arctic Smoke for the Atlantic Crossing before returning home for a couple of weeks for the birth of grandchild number 4 (somewhere else I had said it was number 3)! This latest will be my daughter's first and another girl apparently, which will make 4 in all. I fly out again on November 13th. A bit of poor planning on my part because the Ocean Cruising Club (OCC) East Atlantic Rally is due to depart Pasito on the 15th. I really want to leave with them so at best will face a hectic day on the 14th with final preparations and provisioning. [31/8 update - booked a new flight for 10th November. Hope Ursula's baby is not late - due on 4/11! My long-time sailing buddy, Mick has signed up for the leg to Cape Verde and he will fly out on the 13th by which time I should be ready.]

I've got quite a lot of maintenance and other jobs to undertake to get Arctic Smoke ready for the off and therefore leaving with the rally will be dependent on getting everything done in October. I've booked a lift-out for AS on 29th September. Kiwi Chris will try and get to Pasito around the same time to assist with the chores which would be a big help. He has just returned to his boat JB in Cangas, Atlantic Northern Spain and is at the time of writing, has just arrived in Bayona. If all goes well he'll arrive in the Canaries around the time I fly in. I'll have a reasonable chance of getting the key jobs done with his help.

The main ones are:

• Check through-hull fittings (they are all only a couple of years old so should be fine)
• Clean off bottom (I'm hoping that the Verometal copper coat applied in spring 2015 will still be working and therefore that anti-fouling is not required)
• Fit an internal bilge pump
• Re-site external bilge pump (the handle fouls the tiller since converting to tiller steering)
• Engine service (so far my 10 HP Bukh has been bullet proof despite only basic care from me)
• Check the standing and running rigging (particularly the Genoa roller reefing which gave problems last year when a screw in the drum came out and one holding the foils together unscrewed sufficiently to prevent the roller at the head of the sail from sliding down, leaving us unable to furl or drop the sail until I went up the mast at anchor to screw the screw back in.
• Repair the prow which has a chunk gouged out when AS broke a mooring line last winter and rode up on the pontoon.
• Re-fit the windows that were leaking at an increasing rate last year (I've asked the locals to do these last two jobs)
• Re-seal the hatches which were also letting in more and more water last year

.... plus a host of others and no doubt a number I have not even discovered yet.

I've also started thinking about food for the passage. I've had lots of helpful suggestions from fellow members of the OCC for which I'm most grateful.

Turning to the subject of Crew - I'm not sure who will be with me yet. Mick has expressed interest in the leg down to the Cape Verde. Tom from Boston had hoped to join me but I've not heard from him recently and therefore suspect that he may not have been able to find a means of juggling the running of his law practice with taking a month off to go ocean sailing.

The passage plan will be down to Cape Verde with the OCC East Atlantic rally and Kiwi Chris and then wait for the trades before heading for Antigua. Thereafter my goals are to meet up with Sharon and hopefully some of the kids to celebrate my Birthday in March - in hopefully Jamaica (Sharon's birth place) and then to cruise the south coast of Cuba before starting the long haul home.

Pasito Blanco, Day 7 - win some lose some and a nasty turn

The good news is that I managed to repair Angus yesterday and to re-site his blocks to more appropriate positions and with permanent fixings. It was a rather laborious task and therefore took most of the day. The carbon fibre connecting tube (that connects the wind vane part to the paddle part that stick in the water) had split earlier in the summer and we had sailed from Horta to the Canaries with it taped up with gaffa tape.

The tube connects the two parts via a system of bolts and linkages at each end of the tube. These are secured into the tube by being screwed/glued into a piece of wooden dowel which is also glued in. This dowel has to be drilled out to receive the bolt. Drilling a 6mm hole through a 10mm dowel straight and parallel is all but impossible unless you have a drill press to hold everything straight. Needless to say I didn't have one with me. So I had to grind the old dowels out of the old tube with a hand file. A lengthy and messy business. However, I got it done. Then I had a bit of luck. I glued the dowels in and then the link bolts into the dowels using separate epoxy glue mixes. The first one went according to plan and the expoxy set in the 5 minutes stipulated. The second mix for the link bolts seemed to be a bit light on the hardener but I went ahead anyway. Then I tried to re-assemble the whole lot only to find that one of the end fittings had to be at right angles to the other and I had glued them in on the same plane. My lucky break was the the epoxy had not set and I was therefore able to rotate one of the ends through 90 degrees. The fact that it then took me another couple of hours to figure out how everything went back together is by the by. Eventually it was all done and I was able to re-site the blocks for the tiller lines.

After that I took a little walk and took a couple of photos..

Today I had the afternoon off. Agustin and Sonya were taking me for lunch.

As I was pondering which job to this morning I idly thought I should check the windless - the big winch at the front of the boat used to get the anchor up. A rather essential piece of equipment. Last used as I recall when Tony and I anchored in Horta in June last year (when the anchor got stuck under a chain on the sea bed and we had to hire a diver to free it). Anyway it was completely seized up. I spent a few hours trying the free it and then another hour removing it before getting cleaned up for lunch which was most enjoyable. Tomorrow I'll take it to the engineering shop in the boat yard and see if they can free it up for me.

After a lovely lunch in Arguineguin with Agustin and Sonya, Agustin took me to the local chandlers and I was able to buy the line I needed to replace the main out-haul. Once back on the boat I fitted it. I also met Nigel another OCC member, from Juliet a Vancouver 32 currently in the yard but due to be re-launched within the next couple of days. He had just flown in from the UK. He was on board nearby, the night of the gale that bashed AS into the pontoon and damaged her bow. The same thing happened to Juliet which is why she was out for repairs. We arranged to eat together at the Yacht Club tomorrow evening.

The nasty turn occurred during the early hours of Saturday morning. I woke with violent stomach cramps that got steadily worse over the next 30 minutes and then it felt like my head was going to explode - it felt a little like someone was using a road drill on my skull combined with an intense downward pressure - I wanted to pass out but couldn't escape the excruciating pain. Eventually it subsided and I thought I had better get on the loo. Thank goodness I had discovered that the sea-cock was OK after all. I need say no more. It's self evident that I lived to tell the tale. I had clearly given myself a very nasty dose of food poisoning by re-heating the spag bol I had made the night before. Sharon did warn me on the phone but....Never again.

Pasito Blanco - Day 5

Days 3 an 4 were spent working mainly on improving the installation of the solar panels. I had previously installed new stainless tube rails supported by uprights bolted to the toe rail. The panels are fitted to the tube rails and can swing up to the horizontal or down to the vertical stowed position. The first problem was lack of rigidity and therefore I had brought over some aluminium flat bar and bits and pieces to attach the bar to the upright tubes. I fixed two bars on each side at roughly 45 degrees to prevent the whole assembly from moving backwards and forwards. That did the trick but it took all day Thursday to accomplish. Hours of drilling and filing were involved.

On Friday I remembered another problem which was that when we fitted the Bimini in Horta we had to move the solar panels forward because the Bimini fouled them. Unfortunately we moved them too far forward so that when in the stowed position they fouled the winch handle . I therefore had to move them again which involved amongst other things re-positioning most of the fixings I had spent all day Thursday working on. Eventually however it was all completed and another day was accounted for.

Today I started off by hosing/scrubbing down the decks and the cockpit which were covered in grime caused by the fine sand that sometimes blows in from Africa. Then I re-fitted the boom that I had removed in order to replace the goose-neck fitting. Agustin had very kindly drilled a hole in the new fitting so that a retaining pin could be inserted. It was the shearing of the old pin in the old goose-neck fitting that had resulted in the boom almost falling off on my failed attempt to sail to Flores in the summer. I didn't realised what had happened at the time. Indeed it was only when I got to Pasitio and took the old fitting off that I figured out the cause.

Then I tackled a job that I was feeling quite apprehensive about - repairing the connecting tube on Angus. The original had cracked and I had taped it up before leaving Horta. Whilst back at home I ordered a stronger carbon fibre tube. This afternoon I ground out the wooded dowel fittings from the ends of the old tube with a hand file and glued them into the new tube. Tomorrow I will reinsert the bolts/connecting fittings into the dowels. That will be the critical point. Will the dowels stay firmly in position or will they rotate as I screw the bolts in? Fingers crossed! If all goes well I can then re-assemble Angus.

Pasito Blanco - day 2

I forgot to mention that the new cockpit table/sole had also suffered in the sun, all the seams had opened up. I have oiled a few times and will continue to do so. I will stow below when I leave next week.

Today was slow progress. I decided to install a battery charger and small solar panel for the engine battery so that it will stay topped up/ will be easy to charge it up. Last week Agustin tried to start the engine for me but no power and he went to great lengths to charge the battery up. Previously the leads of the battery charger had to be attached and the charger plugged in. Because the charger is so inaccessible under the cockpit sole that was no easy matter. Suffice to say it took me all day to accomplish those two tasks. I didn't have all the right bits and pieces and so had to improvise with various wires attachments and soldering iron and of course dropped a few bits down the bilge. Whilst doing all that I noticed that the leads on the battery terminals were loose which may be why the charging light was not going out. It might even be why the stop button was not working, but now I'm scared of starting the engine in case I can't stop it. Tony suggested using the decompression lever. I may try that.

Eventually the installation was done and I was able to stow everything back in the cockpit locker and so make things a little more presentable.

Treated myself to a rum and coke afterwards. Almost too dozy to right this!

Update from Pasito Blanco

After almost 7 months back at home I flew back to Pasito today for a short visit to check up on the boat and undertake some maintenance in preparation for what I hope will be continuation of the passage come November.

Over the last few months life has been dominated by the kitchen extension project and looking for work. I found some for a while then it unexpectedly ground to a sudden halt and now I'm looking again. There are a number of opportunities in the pipe line but whether any will bear fruit is too early to say. The extension is finished and the new kitchen is being fitted this week. Hopefully by the time I get back next Wednesday it will be all but done and Mrs Fisher will be happy.

I really need to land one of those opportunities soon so that I have enough time to earn enough money to ensure that continuation with the passage is not a financially risky undertaking in addition to being otherwise a slightly risky thing to do.

I arrived laden with a heavy bag and a long parcel of stainless steel tubes and replacement kit for Angus. I spent hours packing it yesterday only to check the EasyJet website AFTERWARDS to discover it was too big to go as hold baggage. Much smaller than some sports equipment though. To be safe I rang EasyJet and after lengthy discussions during which I failed to convince them that it was no different than some Sports equipment (such as tents which are allowed) I had to unpack it, cut some of the stainless steel tubes so that they would fit in my bag and then repack so that it was within the size limits of hold luggage. On arrival at the airport I had to place it in a sports equipment size guide (into which it fitted all too easily as would the original package). A porter type chap asked me what was in it in very broken English. I don't think he understood my answer but it was waiting for me at Gran Canaria!

I've got loads of jobs to do including improving the mountings of the solar panels and fitting new reefing pennants and repairing Angus. More than enough to keep me occupied for the week I'm here.

However, I've now got event more. 7 months neglect even with Agustin keeping an eye on Arctic Smoke has generated another list of jobs:

• About a square meter on AS's port side was covered in dried and hardened fender plastic residue. AS had been rubbing the fenders of the next door boat. These are covered in a horrid green gunge caused I think by constant friction. That was ground into AS. That was my first job after re-adjusting the mooring lines to pull her clear. It took the whole of the afternoon.
• The prow has a six inch strip of gel coat rubbed off when she was rubbing up against the pontoon before Agustin noticed and pulled her off. I will probably have to make a temporary repair from the dinghy. A proper repair will require her to be hauled out when I am back in the Autumn.
• Her bottom is badly fouled despite the expensive anti-fouling. It might come off easily with no need to anti-foul but.... I'll have a go from the dinghy. I do hope I will not have to anti-foul again!
• The tiller had been rubbing on the edge of the rear cockpit hatch and worn away a chunk of gel coat there too.
• The nut on the end of the bolt holding the tiller on the rudder shaft had worn loose and fallen off. I was able to find it and put it back.
• The outlet sea cock for the loo has seized. I've squirted penetrating oil on it but that might require a haul out too. I might have to replace the whole thing skin fitting included!
• The LED strip lights in the cabin are behaving like firework displays. So much for cheap LEDs from China!
• The red warning light on the instrument panel does not go off when the engine is running. I think that means it's not charging so hopefully just need to tighten the fan belt up.
• More worrying is that the engine stop button is very reluctant to work. I had noticed this before but had forgotten. It's now much worse. For a while I thought the engine would run until it ran out of fuel but after a while frantic repeated pushing did the trick. Now that I think about it, the start button is behaving similarly but I had thought that was a loose connection somewhere. They are ancient so it's not surprising. I now remember trying to get a new panel before we started the cruise last year but they don't make them any more! I will need to seek expert advise. Agustin may have some ideas being an engineer.

Other than that it's nice to be back on the boat even if only for a short visit and with no sailing. Hopefully I'll be able to make some progress this week. Trouble is another long spell away will generate more jobs. She'd be safer out of the water but that's more expensive.

All change - again

Unfortunately I have had to postpone the onward passage from the Canaries and subsequent Atlantic crossing until winter 2016. There is rather too much going on on the domestic front over the next 12 months. I will be leaving the boat where she is until then.