Getting Ready for the Hard

We have only a few more days on Charlie dock before we go on the hard for the Northern winter and back to Australia for the summer.  So we are going through the checklist of preparations to store the boat for 5 months while doing some maintenance and repair jobs.

I was sent up the mizzen mast in the boson chair to secure the wind generator blades.  For someone who does not like heights, I was amazed I could do this.  Mind you I hung on to the mast for dear life as the bruises on my legs and arms the next day attested to.  Because I wouldn’t let go of the mast all the knots were tied one handed.  I will definitely need to practice my knotting skills.  Using only a clove hitch and bow line were not enough.  But what the ropes lacked in knotting finesse they made up for in bulk and it should hold during the winter storms that hit this area.  I’ll try not to think about untying them in the spring.

Eileen up the mizzen mast

A big job was getting the sails down, folded and stored in the forward cabin.   The sails hadn’t been used all season so were still clean and crisp and they all came down easily.  Folding them wasn’t too bad either but they are certainly bigger than the sails of little Solar Mist!  I washed the sail covers in the big blue bucket.  While on the boat I have been getting quite good at this hand washing caper.

It's a big sail

 

Raising the main sail

Being inspired by watching one of our neighbours cleaning and packing away his dinghy, we decided to clean ours.  This turned into a one and half day job.  First it had to come off the davits and onto the dock.  The dinghy is much heavier than we thought and we may have to get some wheels for it as I doubt we will be able to lift it with the motor on.  Once on the dock I found an out of the way spot to do the cleaning.  It was a bit of a shock to see the grime under the nice blue cover.  A good cleaning product and lots of elbow grease and it came up looking pretty good, much to the amusement and comment from our various neighbours (a good way to meet people is to do some work on the dock).  Then for another big wash of the cover in the Big Blue Bucket.  The BBB has become my friend.

Cleaning the dinghy

Meanwhile Bob has been plugging away at the electrical wiring.  He has done a fantastic job.  He pulled out at least 10 kg of redundant wires which were not connected to anything, put in fuses, got rid of excess joins and resistance in the circuits and tidied up the whole thing.  Most importantly he now knows what wires go to what instruments and the electrical system is all making sense to him.

 

Behind the 12v panel before

After

 

Before

After Bob's brilliant handiwork

The other day while we were at the marina office a huge cloudburst broke bucketing down rain.  When we got back to the boat the settee under the starboard hatch was soaked through to a puddle on the lee cloth underneath, as were all the freshly dried clothes I had placed there to be folded.  An urgent repair was needed as we have been having lots of thunder storms over the last few weeks and we certainly couldn’t leave the hatch like that over the winter.  I shudder to think what a mess we would have had come back to in April if we hadn’t discovered this leak.  Never mind, making lemonade out of this lemon, I took a Stanley knife and sliced away all the black silicate sealant from the top and bottom of the Perspex pane.  Then I cleaned all the excess rubbery sealant and aluminium corrosion off the lip of the hatch.  After several hours of this we were finally ready to add fresh black Sikaflex sealant.  What a messy job spreading the sticky black tar like substance, while carefully not getting anything on the deck.  It cleaned up fairly well with alcohol solvent but we couldn’t get it quite as neat and tidy as I would have liked.  My fingers will be black for days. Still what the repair lacks in beauty it makes up for in utility.  We now have a water tight hatch.

Scraping away the old silicone

The finished hatch

Then we had to top up the fuel tanks for winter storage.  Peter, the broker, had come along and given us some good tips on how to do this easily with no mess.  It is best to keep them full to minimize condensation during the wet winters. 

Siphoning in the diesel

Cleaning up the fuel locker

So progress is being made and I am feeling quite proud of all of Bob’s work and of me learning new skills.