Distress (flares) on the beach, and in the boatyard, but now back where we belong - Lagos, 16th March 2012
But more on those stories later...
Since our last update, we have been on only one of the weekly walks, prior to lifting Pipit out of the water. This may well have been our last
walk during our time in Lagos, and although easier than most of the previous walks, it provided some interesting views along the way. A local artist has
scattered numerous sculptures alongside the track leading out of Barão de São Joao. Someone mentioned that they thought he/she may be growing some
medicinal herbs in their garden...
Think the artist should have taken more water with it when he sculpted this one...
Isn't it pink elephants you're supposed to see when you've had one too many?
Had he/she been watching The Godfather?
The views back down towards Barão de São Joao were impressive - even the sculptures were admiring them!
And for Andy's former colleagues, sculpture of a more energetic nature:
The competition...
So on Monday the 20th of February we made a 5 minute passage from our winter berth to be lifted out at
Sopromar boat yard:
Ticket to ride. The first time we have ever been allowed/expected to stay aboard in the travel hoist. No Elfs* here...
The rest of this update is for those over 18 only, as there are photos of a dirty bottom, some showing men letting their rockets off on the beach and
others showing men putting their meat on a stone... There will also be talk of choosing between a straight female and a tapered female...
Pipit's dirty bottom being pressure-washed.
After being pressure-washed and lowered into our cradle we scrubbed the hull whilst it was still wet with Scotchbrite. Our first surprise was how many
more patches of antifouling had lifted compared with previous years. Not bad by any means, but noticeably worse than before. With hindsight, this was
probably (and hopefully) due to insufficient preparation last year - as we were rolling on antifouling last year, numerous small flakes of old paint were
lifting and sticking to the rollers - that should have given us a clue.
On the plus side there was no more than the merest scuff to the antifouling on the leading edge of the keel, the only evidence we found of our two
collisions with submerged objects when we crossed Biscay.
Surprise #2 was an increase in play in the rudder bearings. Again not excessive, but enough to make us spend two days researching and sourcing
replacement bearings, even though we were too low in the cradle to drop the rudder to fit them. Of course over the next few days several people whose
experience and judgement we value passed by and, having given it a good wiggle (the rudder that is), declared it to be fine for at least another season. At
least we have the new bearings for whenever we do decide to replace them (although there is a slight doubt over the top one being of the correct size).
So now we were 3 days into our planned week ashore and had not made as much progress as we intended, and I (Andy) had already had multiple sense of
humour failures. So just to cheer me up, our attention turned to seacocks. Our intention, once on terra firma, was to inspect them closely, lean on them
a bit and if all seemed ok, do nothing more. We did this, and all seemed well (except a bit of surface rust on a couple of handles that was easily
cleaned up), with only a small amount of pink (which easily sanded away) on the skin fittings indicating slight de-zincification. However, we positively
identified the ball valves themselves as being brass, not bronze or DZR. So what to do? Multiple sources indicate that brass is A Bad Thing, but on the
other hand there are thousands of boats around with old brass seacocks that are seemingly fine. On the other other hand, there are well documented
unexpected failures of these fittings, and our good friend Tim mentioned that he saw his first sinking due to a seacock failure in 1971 and has seen
several since.
John & Mo's final instalment of their Mediterranean Cruising talks provided a welcome relief from research and decision making. Drawn from 7 years
experience of cruising from Portugal to Turkey and back, they gave a balanced, informative & practical view of what we can expect, and everyone attending
agreed that they had done a superb job. Thanks again to John & Mo for the time & effort they put into preparing and giving the talks. You can read of
their adventures at www.syfuga.co.uk.
Now into our second week ashore, in order to sleep soundly at night when afloat we decided to change the below-the-waterline seacocks and fittings, specifically
the heads in & out. Pipit is now 9 years old, and the EU regulations state that below-the-waterline fittings have to have a service life of only 5 years, so
we thought we would only be delaying the sensible course of action if we didn't change them now.
We've also had email correspondence with another B36 owner, who had to replace his heads-out seacock and fittings, and was very helpful in providing
detailed information - thanks again Anthony! Interestingly Anthony's boat was built in the same month as Pipit, so obviously this fact influenced
our decision.
We ordered what we thought were the necessary skin fittings, ball valves and hosetails from
A.S.A.P. Supplies in the UK (who we found to be helpful and they also give a discount to
CA members). Having paid for DHL 1-2 day delivery, these parts took 3 days to arrive, after enjoying a nice 24 hours lingering in Lisbon, according to
the online tracking. This meant we missed the opportunity to get them fitted on Friday, allowing the Sikaflex to dry over the weekend ready for launch on
Monday. Further sense of humour loss... However, on closer inspection of the hosetails we had ordered, it transpired we (Andy) had made a schoolboy
error. It turns out that the elbows of the 90 degree hosetails are actually the diameter of the narrower end. This would not really be a problem for the
heads-in, but may hamper the egress of the holding tank contents - not something we really want to deal with on a regular basis... We decided that we
should really have the larger elbows and separate straight hosetails, despite this meaning at least a further week ashore. Guess what part A.S.A.P. didn't
have in stock? Sense of humour failure #27... Anyway, Tim to the rescue again, with his help regarding whether my female ends should have straight or
tapered threads and his access to Aquafax. Having paid for 48 hour delivery, these parts took 6
days to arrive, meaning a third week ashore - all very frustrating, all the more so because we could have made the decision and ordered the parts weeks before we
lifted out of the water.
To some more experienced than us, it may seem that we agonise unduly over decisions and, in this case, have made a lot of fuss over just changing two
seacocks. However, even after two years of living aboard, we are still learning. We are both methodical and in certain aspects, careful souls, so we do
tend to research information from as many sources as possible so that we do, in most cases, make the right decision. These decisions are also more
critical than most we made in our former lives, as they relate to our floating home, and our safety. In this instance, the devil is in the
detail - brass, bronze, gunmetal, DZR - which is best?
So with hindsight we should have planned things a bit better this year, and have learned some valuable (though slightly expensive) lessons, but I believe
it was Edward Phelps who said "The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything."
We could have lived aboard Pipit whilst all this was going on if we really had to (there are good showers & toilets in the boatyard) but it
would have been very awkward moving around below as tools, tins of antifouling and half the contents of the deep cockpit locker (annual maintenance 'stuff' etc) were
taking up lots of space in the saloon (we don't have a spare cabin to stuff all that into) so, even though it was an unplanned expense, we extended our
stay in the apartment. I typed the earlier part of this update sitting in the sun on our private patio 'poolside' with a beer in my hand - it's not all bad, and of
course put our trials and tribulations into perspective. Ann was wonderful in trying to keep my spirits up, or more precisely Sagres, cans of which she
hauled from the supermarket... And I had more baths in the last two weeks than the last two years - just because I could! The apartment was extremely convenient for
both the marina and the boatyard, and is very peaceful with a pleasant vista over the private garden and pool - unlike many in the immediate vicinity which overlook
scrubland or the backs of other buildings. Details of the apartment can be found
at Quinta da Cardeira Holiday Apartment.
We hope the above ramblings don't sound churlish, for we know how fortunate we are. We are just giving a balanced account of the liveaboard life, and
to reaffirm that it isn't (quite) all G&Ts & olives. Sometimes it's Sagres & crisps...
Living ashore for the duration does have its compensations... The view from the apartment patio of the pool and landscaped garden, shared with just a few
others. Did we mention the apartment has a bath as well?
So we finished all the jobs we intended doing whilst on the hard, and had a couple of welcome diversions as well, the first of which was an opportunity to fire our
time-expired distress flares on the beach. This was organised by the marina with the attendance of the Polícia Marítima and although we were initially reluctant to
fire them ourselves (having read accounts of mis-fires etc) we were glad we did, as it demystified another unknown. It also showed our Pains Wessex flares to be
superior to other brands - the buoyant orange smokes were, well, far more orange and smoky, the parachute rockets went higher, were brighter and lasted longer and the
handhelds were also brighter.
Move along - nothing to see here...
Spot the red cap from the flare top!
The parachute rockets fire with a considerable 'kick' - a steady hand is required to ensure a straight trajectory.
My turn.
Lift off!
The casing of the handhelds get very hot - even the handle started to melt. We keep gloves in our flare bucket.
No Elfs* in attendance here either...
The only time I have worn jeans during the day - a precaution against hot embers in the Gentleman Region...
The following evening we had an excursion to Adega do Papagaio at Espiche, a short taxi ride from Lagos. Here they bring you raw meat (as much as you
can eat) and a hot stone on which you cook it yourself to your preference - a very sociable way to enjoy a meal:
John & Mo of Fuga and Tony & Alison of Reveller.
Our meat sizzling on the stone...
I think the 5th litre of wine had arrived by now...
The entertainment, including some traditional Portuguese Fado songs.
Fado is soulful and very melancholic traditional music and an iconic part of Portuguese identity and heritage. Fado apparently began in Lisbon in the
1820's, though there are many theories on its original source. More information on Fado can be found
here.
We spent more time sanding and priming the hull with Primocon this year, so hopefully the antifouling will be in better condition next year than it
was this. Topside polishing and antifouling is done, as are the saildrive oil & anode changes.
Can you tell what it is yet? Ann's winter art classes haven't paid the dividends we hoped for...
What a rip off...
Finally on Monday the parts arrived, and were fitted in just two hours. So 48 hours later we found ourselves being lowered back into the water and returning to
our winter berth. We then spent two hours cleaning off all the dust and grime from the boatyard. So now we can continue with our final preparations for the coming
season, starting with investigating a leaking exhaust silencer - no doubt there'll be more on that story next time, if you can contain your excitement...
* Elfs = Health & Safety types...
