Oh boy, what a crazy, busy week it was. When Baz watched the rough draft edit that I’d put together, he said he couldn’t believe how much we’d achieved in just seven days. I said that probably explained why we’ve been knackered each night LOL!!
So here’s a quick rundown of what we got up to … and yes, we did get to show you the installation of the cutlass bearing!
Antifouling the hull
We painted the second half of the hull with the first layer of antifoul. Once that had dried, we painted the full hull with a second layer. Each layer of this particular Boera paint needs 6 hours to dry before the next application. Of course, before we painted we had to mask the top of the area above the waterline to give it a nice neat edge. Using two stepladders, we got into a good rhythm with one of us masking a section while the other placed their ladder further along, so we sort of leap-frogged our way along both sides of the hull.
Editing takes priority time-wise
In between jobs, I edited the next video as we release a vlog every Saturday, but share it earlier with all of our Patrons. This means I must begin working on the episode on Sunday (Monday at the latest) so I can hand it over to Barry to add the beginning segment, the credits at the end, do any fine-tune editing, then upload it to YouTube and share the link for our patrons a few days before general release date.
Saying goodbye to more friends
Our good friends Renate and Wolfgang left the boatyard on their catamaran, Meerkat of Cowes. It was a sad day for us as they’d become good friends and they’d been very kind to us during lockdown by doing our weekly shopping – and we’d had a few good meals and Friday night gatherings with them.
On a less important note, it also meant that unless another liveaboard boatie turned up, Baz and I were going to be the last ones in the boatyard with no-one to wave goodbye! Editing-wise, I added an adjustment layer to fade the video colours to blue, to show how sad we were feeling. Baz got some good drone shots of the launch, and I got knee deep into the water (holding the camera with a vice grip) and took some interesting footage of Xaris under the catamaran, releasing the prop stands. I’m impressed that Livaditis Boat Yard are able to haul out and launch boats of all shapes and sizes.
Getting the cutlass bearing IN!
As you’ll know if you’ve been following us for some time, the cutlass bearing has been a bit of a saga. It was finally delivered and we both had baited breath while Baz attempted to fit it in the P-bracket.
Was it the right size? Would it fit?
Happily and to our immense relief, it slipped in fairly easily. So Baz called the guy (who’d pulled out the old one) and he made short work of fitting the bearing and tapping a couple of screw holes to hold the bearing in place.
Celebration meal in Limni
To celebrate the successful outcome of this very long chapter, Baz and I enjoyed a beer and a tasty light meal of octopus and salad at one of the waterside restaurants in Limni village. It was gusty as the Meltemi wind was blowing, but we didn’t mind. We had our cutlass bearing in situ. Baz could release one enormous bit of his mental stress. And we didn’t lose any alcohol or food to the Meltemi’s gusts!
Will the prop shaft slide in?
After we’d given A B Sea a second coat of antifoul, Baz suggested we attempt to get the prop shaft through the bearing. If we could manage that then he could re-attach it to the engine.
Filming the first attempt had been tricky because I was trying to hold the Sony camera in one hand, while supporting and guiding the propeller end, behind Barry’s shoulder. In order to fit the prop shaft throgh the P-bracket, we had to take the prop back as far as we could. There were only a few centimetres between the end of the prop and the rudder though, and I don’t know how much help I actually was!
After a bit of an initial struggle – because we didn’t account for the friction caused by the tight fitting shaft in the new fat rubber inner ring of the bearing – we tried again. This time lubricating it with some washing up liquid. That worked a treat and the prop shaft slid easily into the P-bracket. Baz made sure it was pushed in as far as it would go, so the next task after that would be to secure it with the tiny (and very tight) metal key, bolt it to the flange and then connect it to the gearbox.
Egg white on the propeller
While Baz was tackling the next big step, I began a much simpler task. We’d heard from our sailor friends, Andrea and Bob that layers of egg white painted on the propeller blades work as well as any metal anti-foul and at a much cheaper cost too. So we decided to do a side by side comparison, painting most of the prop with regular metal antifoul paint, and painting 6 layers of egg white one side of one of the blades.
I sanded back the blade to create a good bonding surface and over a few days painted on egg white, allowing each coat to dry well before applying the next one. I used the white of one egg and had enough to paint eight layers.
We’ll keep an eye on it over the next few months to see how it compares to regular antifoul and report back to you. But I reckon that’s a real eggsperiment, don’t you! *Loud groans at the bad joke!*
Nail varnish on the anodes
Following some advice from one of our followers, Baz painted nail varnish onto the bolt holes in the anode for the propeller shaft. Apparently that slows the corrosion which eats away at the holes first and can cause anodes to fall off. He also tied zip ties on the prop on each side of the anode, so if they did work loose, they wouldn’t scoot up or down the prop shaft. Another good piece of advice.
Fixing stern gland and key to prop shaft, and prop shaft to gearbox
Baz had a hot and sweaty three hours fitting the stern gland in place, the key into the keyhole to keep the prop in place, and finally securing the prop to the gearbox by bolting it to the flange. The engine compartment is very confined which made the job more difficult. He also had to carefully file down the edges of the key so it fit tightly into the keyhole – basically it needed to be a perfect fit. Too large and it wouldn’t go in the hole; too small and it wouldn’t be a secure fit.
Anyhow, when I went into the starboard aft cabin several hours later, Baz was looking relieved that it had all gone into place and was tightly secured.
Another massive job to tick off the list! Well done Baz!
Greetings to our newest Patron!
It’s great that people are regularly signing up to our Patreon family and last week we were able to greet Rik Irving. Welcome aboard Rik!
Well, that’s pretty much it for this week. Next week we get even closer to splash and things are getting very exciting.
If you’d like to see the video, just click here.
Until next week, I wish you a very pleasant week and that you get a little closer to your dreams and aspirations.
