Repairs (9 Dec – 9 Jan)

Those of you who have read other blogs about cruising (I am not sure why you do that, all you need to know is here!), know that some authors sped a great deal of time writing about the repairs they do. You know, the tied the engine together with chewing gum and bailing wire until they could get a proper whoopiefratzer which they subsequently applied in a brilliant manner.  They do that for two reasons. First, of course, they like fixing things, the feeling you get when you properly repair something and, of course, they like writing about fixing things. I wish I were one of those people. But there is a second reason they write about repairs. As anyone who has ever owned a boat knows, boating is to a large extent about maintenance, maintenance management and fixing things that are broken.

Now I wish I were one of those guys who could fix anything; sadly, I am not. I can usually fix things that require one step, but when a second or third step is required, well, I am going to have to find someone who can help.

One of the purposes of a shakedown cruise is to identify things that need to be fixed and things that need to be improved. We identified a bunch. Some are obvious (e.g. radios and windlass), some are self-explanatory and some aren’t that hard to figure out. Anyway, I fixed what I could and we left the rest for Rick, our yacht broker/maintenance manager/chief repair person. Rick does the same thing I do – he fixes what he can and subcontracts the rest (the difference, of course, is that he can fix a lot more than I can).

He stayed and worked on the boat when we went to Fort Pierce. As you can see from the list below, he got quite a bit done while the boat was being bottom painted. He just started working on the undefeated and untied windlass, so the outcome of that particular competition is still in doubt.

·         1st Priority:

Bottom Paint                                                                     Completed
Replace (not repair) Windlass                                     Started
Replace Depth sounder                                                        Completed
Replace Radios                                                                  Radios ordered
New anchor                                                                       Ordered
Inspect and repair propeller as needed                 Completed

·         Second Priority:

Install new Microwave                                                  Completed
Clean the Carpet                                                              Completed
Replace Kitchen Faucet                                                 Completed
Fix Middle windshield wiper                                       Completed
Repair steering                                                                 Identified

·         Third priority

Repair Autopilot                                                               Completed ?
Fix switch on Glendening Synchronizer                  Completed
Have two Traveling Soul Signs painted                    Working
Modify outlets on inverter                                         
Repair Aft Head Lectra-San                                          Tried

The one thing that came as something of a surprise was the need to fix the propellers. You will recall that we ran into something on the first day of the cruise. We weren’t sure what it was or what, if any, damage we did to the props. Over time, the vibration we had initially felt kind of went away and we had almost convinced ourselves that we hadn’t damaged the props after all. Well, when we pulled the boat out of the water for bottom painting, we discovered that we had damaged three of four fins.

See the bent fin? There were three of these

The same prop after being conditioned and shined :-)