Kind of like gardening and home maintenance combined. Some stuff you need to maintain, and other stuff you need to fix.
Today was a mixture of both. Sitting at our mooring, today I rebedded a chainplate that’s been leaking into the food storage cabinet I “fixed” it in Hiva Oa when we got to French Poly, but the fix didn’t last. Looks like the heat there created a bubble in the bedding compound and it popped leaving a nice hole. This time it’s cooler and the bedding went on nicely. I think (cross fingers) that this one will work for a while. In any case, they never last much over a year or two before you need to do them again.
Then, while Ann went off to the store, I changed the oil. Not a bad job this time since I just did the filters in Mexico, so this change was oil only. Nice to do it here, since we’re right off a little boatyard where they have oil disposal. That way I don’t have to carry the old oil until who knows when-probably New Zealand before we see another yard like this.
Once Ann came back, she jumped in the dinghy to scrub the green slime that grows on the hull at the waterline. I’m sure it slows us down a bit, but it also looks unsightly. Everyone gets it and we’re always either in the dinghy or swimming in the water scrubbing the waterlines of slime and barnacles. The anti-fouling that KKMI put on is working great though. There’s nothing on the bottom at all. I don’t have to touch it, whereas I see some other boats that are scrubbing their entire boat underwater. Great Job KKMI (call Bob Hennesey at KKMI in Richmond, Calif) if you want great service from a great boatyard) putting on the “good stuff” that really works (I think it was “Trinidad”) for those who want to know.
A big squall just pushed through both cleaning off the boat of salt water, but also soaking everything on deck. Unfortunately I had emptied the lazarette into the cockpit to get at the oil and changing pump so now it’s all wet and I have to wait for it to dry out to put it back. Which reminds me. Future cruisers: buy one of those self-contained oil change pumps and make sure you know how to change oil and all filters (oil and both diesel ones) by yourself. You’ll have to change oil and filters in some remote places. Carry enough oil for at least one full change if not two as you will not always find the type of oil you use (if you find oil at all). Obviously lots of filters too, you’ll never find those. We use a great product. I don’t know the name, but it’s a five gallon plastic jerry type jug with an electric motor, alligator clips for power and a ΒΌ” hose that you can put down the dipstick tube. Takes about 10 minutes to empty the sump. Priceless when you’re in the middle of nowhere as the thing is also plenty large enough to carry/store your used oil through several changes until you find a yard with a recycling bin where you can dump it. OK, we’ll close this now. It’s 0030 hours. Craig and Bruce from Gato Go just left. We had a delightful evening catching up. It was great getting a radio call from them when they showed up in the anchorage this afternoon, but it’s time to get this blog out and go to bed.