Ian has been in touch with Haidden for a few weeks to take care of the sail drive. It should only need a change of oil and seals but the seals have been on order but not arrived yet, so we have the added worry of are they going to make it this week?
The other thing on the list is the change of oil and the filters for the engine. The change of oil was not so much of a problem for Ian, but the filters were a bit more problematic. Again talking to the professionals, Falco suggested changing the primary filter mounts as well, with a new see through model which would enable monitoring of the state of the oil. When he turns up to do all this, he realised that the diesel filter is clogged up. On looking closer, the diesel is found to be contaminated badly, a brown sludge. It’s probably happened over several years but it could be fatal to the engine and expensive to resolve. He suggests having a sample of the diesel given to “Tank and Fuel Services” so they can assess how bad this is. Unsurprisingly, it is found to be so bad that they recommend the fuel tank to be cleaned, which in turns provides us with another set of problems. The fuel tank has only one inspection hatch, but 3 separate compartments. The only way to clean the tank properly is to cut another 2 inspection hatches. The tank is made of stainless steel and cutting was hard and time consuming, it will take them a full day to do this. Off course, we had to dispose of the contaminated diesel, over 90 litres were left in the tank after our crossing. We are a bit deflated. Fortunately, Haidden comes in with good news, the seals for the sail drive have arrived, he is able to come and fix them.
In the mean time, I have tried to get the stains out of the top side but even my magic product is not making a dent in it, a little man proposed his services to clean it for me. As he only wants the equivalent of £50 to do it, we let him. And we are glad we did, it took him half a day, and he did a fabulous job even with the stainless steel of the wind monitor. Of course it does not end there, we had a conversation with Gigi and Robert about sealing and waxing the topside and how it was protecting the hull against salt and water damage as well as stains. It did not take long for our little man to convince us that it would be a good idea to do it. Again the fact that he would only charge us the equivalent of £100 was a factor. No way could we have afforded to have that done anywhere else. This leaves me free to do some creative work, stencilling the boat name and logo on the gangplank.