A Few Days of Work

These are some random shots of items of interest (to us, anyway) seen during the past few days.

This catamaran struck a coral reef and, as we've seen, the coral simply ripped her bottom off.  The damage is unbelievable!  If she hadn't been on a reef, she certainly would have sunk in minutres.  They'll repair her, as they can do. 

Wings!  She's been sitting patiently in her cradle for 9 months.  When we went below, she was much drier than she's been, a tribute to Conni's efforts with a caulk gun last year. 

TexMex?  Do the locals know what that means?  They had tortillas and such, oddly enough.  This is in the Champion, a local branch of the enormous Carrefour French grocery chain.

Lovely Conni is holding a jar of instant coffee. Note that it was screwed shut and taped to prevent moisture.  Also note the complete failure!  Into the garbage with you!

This is the inside view of the current depth sounder.  It will be replaced, but must be removed first. I've started and the inner part has been removed.

Another of my important tasks is replacing the bronze chock that is missing in this photo.  One of the lines (you call them ropes) to shore went through this to prevent damage to the teak rail, but a low tide and a big tug simply removed it and hurled into the air where it ended in the water below us.  A kind diver found it for us and now it must be replaced, but first I need to clean the wood and smear some epoxy over things for waterproofing.

This is the fairing block, a plastic housing that supports, protects, and streamlines the depth transducer, the part the part that protrudes into the water.  For two days, I worked overhead to remove this thing, but I finally met with success, but earned some sore shoulders.

This is why we rent the bungalow!  Imagine living in this mess.  We were forced to do so during last year's engine change, but not here and now.  Thankfully.

Moving the boat requires that we remove the cable that holds the mast from falling backwards: the forestay.  Normally, we use one of our halyards, ropes that raise and lower sails, to support the mast, but we removed them to prevent UV damage on the expensive equipment.  The yard crew needed to move the boat, released the forestay, then couldn't reattach it!  How long she went with no forestay, I have no idea, but we're fortunate that no damage occurred.  Conni and I worked several hours to rig a system by which we could replace the stay, and this is it.  The orange/red line goes back to a winch with which we hauled downward the "fork" (shaped like a teardrop from this angle) so that we could fit the huge pin and Cotter pin that safeguards the stay. 

In this package is a special, lubricated material that is used to prevent seawater from leaking around the propeller shaft as it protrudes from the hull.  It's called "stuffing" and must be replaced regularly.  It's moldy!  I would not thought it possible, but here it is and I had to dispose of it.