No.: 2 | Lat:34°48'S | Lon:138°32'E |
Two weeks ago, on Saturday 11 June at high tide I was pulled out of water for my annual bottom cleanup, checkup and paint. Everybody was little nervous because the tide was much lower than expected and we were worried if there's going to be enough water under the cradle for me to sail on. The tides were pushed down by as much as 0.5m by a huge high pressure system of about 1035HPa.
Anyway, we gave it a go and all went smoothly with less than a foot of water under the keel. Pretty close call...
The work went smoothly as well, no surprises below the waterline. Apart from cleaning of the bottom the Captain has installed a new gadget on the keel: A Line Preventer. The purpose of it is to prevent lines attached to fishing nets from getting caught in the slot between the keel and the rudder when I accidentally sail over them. I have caught one once and it eventually got over the propeller and damaged the prop shaft gland causing a leak...
The preventer is not a complicated gadget. Just two pieces of flexible sail batten screwed and glassed on both sides of the keel in such a way that the free ends protrude onto the rudder closing the keel-rudder gap. The free ends flex when the rudder swings. That's it. Here are some pics of it.
He's also pulled out the speed gauge and gave it a good clean. The little prop now spins freely but we haven't got a chance to test it as yet.
Another little job was to replace the head outlet hose. Pretty smelly job that was ;-)
And of course the new anti-fouling paint, nice and clean. He's put an extra strong stuff on the propeller. We'll see how it goes.
I went back in the water on Monday 13 June. It was a pretty uneventful haul-out but it's good to be back in the water. In fact hate being out. Same goes with the Captain. I see he is a much happier man with me floating in the water.
