2017 & 2018: In the Yard & Keeping Cool

The Saga Starts: # 1

I've written heaps for 2017 & 2018 years largely because we started in Aug 2017 and remained overseas well into 2018.  Our usual seasonal schedule was out the window, over-ruled by the need to cross the Atlantic again.  I started back in Lagos, Portugal and was unaccompanied for the first several weeks as I wanted time to be able to work on the boat by myself without having to work around other crew, (namely wife/ GS aka galley slave), on board. (You understand, right?)  I was able to do heaps which was just great and it didn’t matter how messy the boat was.  Sopromar is a great boatyard, well resourced for boating spares, helpful technicians and staff and also in a great location, just a short walk away from supermarkets, restaurants and shops.

I had a couple of major projects planned and as always there's ongoing maintenance.  I also needed to check on all our safety equipment to make sure we were prepared for the voyage ahead.  Given that there's quite a bit to cover and I was busy doing a lot of the work myself, I didn't get round to taking photos.  So, lots of words without the visuals for the time being.  So, let's begin:

Dirty Boat.  The boat was filthy when I got back to it having been on the hard for some 10 months or so.  It took several days and washes before it was back to any decent level of cleanliness.  Nevertheless it had to be washed down every week, such are the prevailing conditions around the Sopromar yard.  There is a dirt car park just in front of the boat and winds/rain loaded with Saharan sand blow across the Med to Portugal.  Nothing you can do about it, just clean, clean, clean.

New Awning.  It was quite hot when I arrived at the boatyard in mid August, so I immediately started work on a new awning to replace the original, which was falling apart.  The fabric was sun shade material which was purchased in Greece many moons ago but for the past few years it was not so slowly falling apart.  I had tried to patch it up using contact glue, which was okey for small repairs or I sewed it using my on-board sewing machine.  Anyway, it was time to replace it and so I brought some sun shade material from Oz.  

The new easy-to-install sun cover keeps us cool & looks neater

I pulled the old awning  apart and used the ‘framework’ of sunbrella material which never seems to deteriorate at all.  I simply used the old shade cloth as a pattern and cut out the new one to the same size (mostly).  Amazing how you think you have accurately copied the old onto the new but, alas no, as you need to be able to stretch out the new cloth so that it is pretty tight before marking the pattern.  This was something I was not able to do well on the yard's cement, try as I did.  So there were a few bits and pieces that had to  be lopped off the new shadecloth when it came to sewing the new shadecloth to the old ‘framework’ sunbrella.  

Anyway, despite these few annoyances and some slight readjustment of lines to various tie down points on deck, it all worked out well.  So we have a nice new strong awning  that takes no more than five minutes to put up and does a great job of keeping the sun and heat off the deck/coachouse.  Took about a week to do, longer than I anticipated but isn’t that always the same with boat jobs.

Companionway Steps.  These steps had been annoying me for years.  It wasn't too difficult to remove 6 timber steps which were badly scratched and showed it.  I sanded them back using the high speed grinder sanding attachment, then applied three coats of water based varnish.  Improved them 1000% and applied each coat immediately after the previous one as they dried very quickly.  Easy quick job that improved the interior of the boat remarkably.