Ann's "art shot" showing the ladder down from our deck and the shadow of Charisma against the ground.
Worked all day to get the propeller and its mount nice and shiny so we can paint it with anti-fouling paint to keep the barnacles off.
Third day and Ann is now a little over halfway down the port side...
Our first "gotcha". This is the Bobstay fitting (no relation). It's one of the most important on the boat, holding the mast up. As you can see one of the holes has an odd crack. I have to take it off to check it for corrosion. Unfortunately, the bolts that hold it on the side of the boat are completely covered with fiberglass. Ouch!
We’ll likely be here a couple weeks, so ignore this for a while if boat yard stuff is not your thing.
Today (Sunday) Ann spent another day polishing the hull. I spent another day sanding and polishing the propeller. Ho Hum-boatwork. Actually, I did get a couple other things done. I overhauled the anchor windlass. It had jammed and needed some TLC. Nothing that a hammer, a little Acetone and a new coat of grease couldn’t handle. Another project crossed off the list.
The one that wasn’t on the list but has now gone to the top is the Bobstay fitting. No, not named after me. I don’t know the history of the term, but google tells me it dates from the 1700’s. Anyway, the bobstay connects from the end of the bowsprit down to the waterline and basically holds the mast from falling down. So, quite an important piece of gear. The piece in question is the fitting that sits right at the waterline. At least it did before we started cruising. A couple thousand pounds of gear later, it now sits a couple inches underwater at the bow and seems to be suffering from crevice corrosion. When I cleaned it a strange “chunk” just broke off. No Bueno. So, I have to remove it to see what’s going on. No biggie, right? Well….as someone in the Tayana Owners Web Forum noted; “This is probably going to be the worst, most miserable job you’ve ever done”. OK, thanks for the encouragement.
To get to the bolts you have to drop both anchors out of the anchor locker. OK, not too hard since I can just drop them on the dirt. I’ve been wanting to do that anyway to check the chain and such. Next, take out the (very dirty) plywood floor. Did I mention that at this point I’m jammed up into the very end of the Vee-Berth in the bow of the boat and trying to squeeze my very ample body into a very small opening? OK, got the floor out. No sign of the bolts.
Onto the Tayana Owners Web site, which has all kinds of good info. There I find that the boat manufacturer, in their infinite wisdom FIBERGLASSED OVER the bolts! You can only find them by licking your finger, twirling it in the air and pointing to a place in the inside of the hull whereby you start drilling away hoping you’ll find them-instead of just drilling right through. Arrrrgh. That’s why we do this kind of stuff up on the hard. Dry land. Good.
I also find that some manufacturers may have used asbestos in their fiberglass back in the day, so I’m waiting until Monday when I can buy a respirator to keep the material from clogging my lungs.
In any case, tomorrow I’ll be jamming a too big body in too small a space trying to drill a mystery hole into the hull to find the mystery bolts that hold the damn, possibly broken thingy in place!! Welcome to cruising, we love this stuff.
Aside from that, we had a delightful evening. Sunday nights here in the boat yard there is a potluck BBQ. There’s a really nice gazebo-like structure over by the river with a BBQ and a bunch of picnic tables. Everyone gets together at 6PM. You bring a dish and some meat. We brought ginger-garlic green beans (which were scarfed immediately) and a couple steaks. We proceeded to have a great evening, meeting many of the other folks in the area who will also be cruising up into Fiji later this year as will we.
Lots of new friends. Lots of boat work yet to do.
Parties and friends “in the same boat” must help a lot! Love the pics, it helps to understand the work you are doing!