Just when Baz thought it was safe to go into the aft heads, I discovered another job for him!
You’ll remember that a few weeks ago I cleaned the toilet floor very well after Baz removed the old outlet hose in order to replace it with a new one. Now the hose had arrived it was time for him to replace it. However, where the back of the loo had been sparkling, there was now a rusty stain on the floor beneath the salt water inlet hose, indicating a leak.
After closer inspection, it seemed the seal had disintegrated (which happens as the salt water corrodes the plastic). Baz couldn’t get the seal out of the back while the toilet was in situ as he didn’t have enough leverage. So he removed the whole toilet and took it on deck. That gave me an opportunity to clean the toilet floor even more thoroughly as the loo was out of the way. Lucky me.
After a lot of struggling, Baz eventually removed the seal and he hopped on the boatyard’s scooter to Limni village to see if he could get a replacement party (unlikely as it’s a Jabsco toilet part), and a few other bits and bobs from the hardware store.
He returned with a few pieces he’d wanted, some he didn’t and – no surprises to discover they didn’t have a replacement toilet seal. We’re going to order a Jabsco seal kit online.
While he was away, I also cleaned the toilet that was sitting on the cockpit table, so that gleamed brilliantly in the midday sun!!
After spending the morning on the toilet seal job, Baz got down to the original task of fitting the new outlet hose to the seacock end, creating a big loop under the sink so there’d be no backflow of sea water. Now we’re just waiting for the replacement Jabsco part and Baz can replace the loo!
The good news is that now when I sunbathe on our glamorous forward deck, I have an outside toilet close by!!
Don’t get a bee in your bonnet!
Well Baz did. Literally. In his hair.
While he was looking through YouTube videos for clues on how to remove the Jabsco seal from the toilet, a large bumble bee landed in his hair and pottered around for a while before flying away. Cute!
There are also a fair amount of brown and shiny green beetles that come into the boat, which we don’t mind and they fly away easily once we pick them up off their backs and take them to an open hatch.
No I’m not pregnant
But I’d been craving steak for a couple of weeks, so when we went shopping, we visited the butcher and bought a couple of huge steaks. I love the Greek butchers as they keep the meat hanging in the cold room until you ask for it, and they bring it out and cut it off the bone for you. It’s so much nicer than picking it up in plastic wrapped, polystyrene trays, which we usually have to do when we get frozen chicken breasts from the supermarket.
The steaks were so large, we decided to only have one for dinner, cut in two pieces, saving the other steak to eat in a couple of days. We had it with shallow fried potatoes (I only had four tiny pieces as I’m cutting down on carbs – see last week’s blog), mushrooms and a fresh salad.
We’d also bought a very nice bottle of Greek red wine, Tsantali from Rapsani, which according to the bottle’s label, is “one of the oldest PDO regions in Greece, nestled in the south eastern slopes of Mount Olympus, which is home of a long-standing wine making tradition.” This 2016 bottle of wine was made using three indigenous red grape varieties – Xinomavro, Krassato and Stavroto which were matured in French oak barrels for six months and cellared before release. This was a delicious wine that complemented the steak so well, we bought another bottle for the other steak.
Thank you for our follower who kindly sent us a PaypalBuy us a Beer donation to treat ourselves to a nice meal and bottle of wine. We very much appreciate your generosity. xx
A freeze on the cutlass bearing front
Ready to replace the old cutlass bearing, Baz had placed the new brass one in the freezer for a few days to make inserting it into the P-bracket easier.
However, when he attempted to hammer the bearing into place, it didn’t fit. He called the guy from town who’d removed the old bearing in less than 15 minutes with his home-made gadget, to see if he could get it in place. Fortunately he brought his English speaking son and after another failed attempt, they measured the bracket and bearing and discovered that the bearing was 0.5mm too large in diameter. They advised Baz to contact the supplier.
He sent a few emails back and forth and it turns out the P-bracket is actually an imperial sized one, and we’d ordered the metric sized bearing. Baz paid Exalto for the replacement imperial bearing, which they’ve already shipped. And as soon as we receive that, we’ll send the metric sized one back to the company. After inspecting it to ensure they can resell it, they’ll refund the cost into our bank account. So all we’re up for is the postage. Thank you Tom at Exalto.
So the cutlass bearing saga continues, but we’re nearly at the end of that one, as the new bearing is on its way to Greece as I type this.
Covid restrictions continue to be eased
And now there is talk that we may be able to enter the water mid-June. However, we aren’t making any firm plans until we hear definitely. But we’re getting excited. In the meantime, we’ve still got a few big jobs to do, one of them being renewing the anti-foul on the hull and keel. So we won’t be bored while we wait, and you’ll still have plenty to see over the next few weeks until we set sail for Turkey.
I hope this blog finds you well and happy, and not too stir crazy if you’re still in lockdown.
If you’d like to see the video that accompanies this blog just click here.
