This week I actually felt as if we were getting somewhere. In the Boat Maintenance Department, not the Travelling the Islands Department.
Moving forward with a big job
Last week if you remember, we sanded the keel as there was a lot more anti foul paint flaking off the keel than we’d anticipated. This week, it was time to apply rust inhibitor (or rust converter), and Baz did an excellent job of sanding underneath the keel – well the bits he could access, on either side of the blocks that the keel is resting on.
As it had been a few days since we’d sanded Baz first had to sand away the fine layer of rust that had developed on the exposed iron keel. I followed him with a damp cloth and dry cloth, wiping away the rust dust and immediately drying it.
After that, Baz applied the first coat of Axton rust inhibitor. Activation time was in 30 minutes, so we went ‘upstairs’ onto A B Sea and had a quick lunch, then returned for a wipe down of coat number one and we had to wait at least six hours before Baz could apply the second coat. As it was late in the afternoon, Barry applied the second coat early the next morning. This would have to be left for 24 hours before we could either apply another coat, or begin prepping the surface for the antifoul paint.
I tell you what though, it felt great to be doing this because it is part of one of the final jobs (applying antifoul paint to the hull and keel) before A B Sea splashes back into the water again.
At a standstill on another job
You’ll remember that we’d had to order another cutlass bearing as the first one we ordered was 0.5mm (0.02 inch) too big. The guy at the UK company was very efficient and sent it out to us on the 12thof May, with it actually arriving in Athens the following day. It was now the 28th of May and we still hadn’t had delivery. Athens is, at most, a 4 hour drive away. As you know if you’ve been following this little saga, we can’t move forward with rebuilding the engine until this piece is in place.
Baz contacted DHL which was the last company to handle the parcel and we will let you know once we’re informed where it is.
Does the impeller puller work?
Baz wanted to check the impeller and on visual inspection in situ, it looked fine and intact. However, he’d bought an impeller puller which he was hoping would speed up the job of removing it for a closer inspection. Last year it had taken nearly two hours with pliers. He was so excited to use his new tool!
The problem came when he tried to fit the puller into the confined space and unfortunately the starter motor was too close for him to be able to fit it properly. He wasn’t prepared to remove the starter motor so had to leave that particular job unfinished to his complete satisfaction. Although he was fairly confident that the impeller was in good condition.
The upshot is, if you’re anywhere near us and need to borrow the impeller puller, give us a shout and we’ll gladly oblige.
Barry was disappointed though.
Two days of rain and a nice surprise
We weren’t able to complete the next phase on the keel because it rained for the next couple of days and Barry didn’t want to apply any of the products in such a humid environment.
We weren’t short of work though. I had this week’s video to make and he had lots of computer conversations with our followers, subscribers and patrons.
When he went to the studio for his morning ablutions, he discovered a little parcel waiting for us. We were a bit excited to open it because we had no idea what it was. On inspection it came from Heidi and Heinz, two friends from Switzerland. But what was inside?
Cheese?
Clock?
Money?
We laughed at my excited suggestions!
Baz mused that it might be the code to unlock a Swiss bank account!
But the actual contents turned out to be way better than all of those ideas. It was Swiss chocolate!
Yummo!
Then I remembered I’m on a low carb diet.
Not missing out on Swiss chocolate, I decided my keto diet could take a back step for the day. We were very appreciative of this generous, out of the blue, gift. It went a long way to brightening the rainy day! Thank you Heinz and Heidi who sent us these as a thank you for reviewing their Brillean products!
The prop shaft key
Baz has been concerned about replacing the prop shaft key once the prop is in place. It took a good hour attempting to prize it out and in the confines of the engine bay, Baz was a bit dubious that he’d be able to prize it back in again.
He took the key down to the shaft one morning and, after a bit of inspecting, realised the cross section isn’t actually square, it’s oblong. So if he turns the key a quarter turn from its original position, it will actually go in very easily, albeit a tad on the loose side. It’s certainly eased his mind that this will be one job that won’t cause difficulties.
A big thank YOU
We wanted to say a big thank YOU to YOU. Each and every one of you who follows our story and subscribes to our YouTube channel and blogs. We very much appreciate that you’re with us, some of you from the very beginning. We’re looking forward to continuing our sailing adventures soon, and taking you along with us for the ride!
When can we sail?
We’ve heard that Greek and Turkish borders will re-open on the 1st of July.
That will be a good time for us, as it gives us another month to finalise all of the important jobs on A B Sea. It also gives us a full month after paying Greek cruising tax (which has to be paid as a complete calendar month, even if you only cruise a few days in that month). That will give us plenty of time to visit a few more Greek islands on the way east and south to Kaş in Turkey.
I can actually picture us sailing now, which is very exciting!
How are your plans shaping up? Are you still in lock down? Or do you have more freedom again? We’d love to hear from you.
If you’d like to see the video that accompanies this blog just click here.
