It’s getting so close to our splashing back into the water and as I write this we’re cramming as many last minute jobs into our days and collapsing in a big heap at the end of every day!

The cutlass bearing finally arrived and when I saw Baz hugging the box from Exalto Bearings, he reminded me of Scrat, the ‘squirrel’ from the Ice Age movies who was always chasing an acorn and the occasional times he got hold of it, he hugged i...

When I suggested to Baz that we check the autopilot control head as it was on the list and we wanted time to troubleshoot it if it didn’t work, I was met with a slightly snarly response.  Well it was hot and sweaty and yet another one of the cockpit lockers would have to be emptied, and Baz simply didn’t want to get into it that afternoon, given the temperature was around 32 degrees C (approx. 90 degrees F).  But I wanted to t...

One of the boatyard cats became pregnant and had two kittens a few weeks ago.  Actually several of the boatyard cats became pregnant and had kittens.  Thanks to the very randy black male cat that lives in the yard. 

Most of the cats just get on with their business, have their kittens and carry on as normal, sometimes with one of the larger cats feeding the younger cats’ kittens.  They are quite social but they also se...

One delay after another.  Attempt to change one part, and something else in the system’s bolloxed.  Or a crucial boat part (the infamous cutlass bearing) is still undelivered.  As someone who studied astrology back in the day, I can look at the daunting collection of planetary transits and simply say to myself, Of course there are delays.  Just remain patient.  Most of the time, that’s enough explanation.  A lot of t...

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 – we...

We lost our relatively new batteries in October 2019 when they mysteriously lost their charge.  They were newly installed in June 2018 and we were surprised and dismayed to have to buy new ones so soon.

Not wanting this to happen again, Baz did lots of research and discovered that battery charge can be affected by unequal lengths of cable and also depends on how they’re connected.

There are various methods of connecting batterie...

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 inle...

This week Baz did all the boat work and all I did was film and edit the video.  If you’d like to read about his successes this week – and yes, he did have successes!! – do check out Barry’s Blog #131

So what did I do?

Obviously filming and editing takes out a major chunk of the week.  After all it takes two full days to edit and upload a 15 minute YouTube video, and that’s without the filming and footage review to decide what go...

Now the prop shaft had been removed, we (well Baz) was tasked with removing the cutlass bearing from the P-bracket. The cutlass bearing is a tube that fits snugly inside the P-bracket (which is attached to the bottom of the hull) and the prop shaft passes snugly through the bearing, which allows it to spin fast without shuddering.

Before he began the task, Baz popped the new cutlass bearing on the prop shaft and it fitted perfe...

Baz was stalling. 

I knew it. 

He knew it. 

In order to move forward with the boat maintenance, he had to tackle the next job on the Boat Jobs List.  And this would be the key which opened the door to many other boat jobs on our list, pertaining to the prop shaft and putting the engine put back together.  Baz explained those steps in last week’s video.

So why was he stalling?

The first step was removing the key: a small thin s...