14 March 2016 Boat Lagoon, Phuket
We’re scheduled to launch tomorrow, so I didn’t want to start any big jobs, so I pottered about all day. I dry fitted the new piece of Perspex into the windscreen and it fits well. I adjusted the steering cables and locked them off. Meanwhile, Glenys ran some errands in morning and in the afternoon fitted the spray hood, which fits well. She now has to sew on the edging and reinforce the zips.
In the afternoon, I decided to give the outboards some Tender Loving Care. I walked to the mercury agent and tried to buy a few small parts, but the girl just laughed because my outboards were too old and no parts were available in Thailand. They’re obviously wealthy people here.
I thought that I’d “just” paint the leg of our 15hp outboard, which was looking a little tired. This turned out to be an epic three hour job, two hours of which was sanding off the flaking paint. I didn’t have time to do any varnishing.
15 March 2016 Boat Lagoon, Phuket
I awoke with a little voice in my head saying that my master plan for adjusting the engine alignment when in the water wasn’t going to work. The PSS seal has so much tension on it that I’d be unable to move the propeller shaft and trying to move the PSS seal would probably have water gushing in. I’m also not happy with the PSS seal, so I decided to fit a Volvo Stern Seal. I walked down to the marina office and cancelled the launch.
Fortunately, PSE had the right size of stern seal in stock, so I removed the PSS Seal and cleaned up the shaft and stern tube to fit the Volvo Seal. Everything went well and by lunch time, I had the Volvo seal placed on the propeller shaft ready to slide in place.
I re-connected the propeller shaft to the coupling and then re-aligned the engine, so that the propeller shaft is in the middle of the stern tube. A couple of weeks ago I was worried that the boat was flexing while out of the water, but I found that one of the four engine adjustment nuts was loose, so I think that the engine has dropped.
After aligning the engine, I tightened up all the bolts on the coupling and slid the Volvo seal into place. It looks good and is much less complicated than the PSS seal. It shouldn’t leak and shouldn’t make any clacking noises - I hope.
Glenys cleaned the dinghy, fenders and gas locker. In the afternoon, she cowered away from the blistering sun and finished off sewing the spray hood.
I just had time to put on another coat of varnish before getting back to have a few beers and dinner with Graham and Hilary from “Viannica”.
16 March 2016 Boat Lagoon, Phuket
The yard wanted to launch us after lunch, so I spent the morning getting ready and running a few errands. I cleared the decks, removed the awning and put out the fenders.
I then went to see PSE, the Volvo dealer to pay my bill. They wanted to take Alba out for a sea trial because they’d been messing about with the engine timing and water system. I wasn’t keen on this because it would involve motoring down the horrible twisty, shallow approach channel and also they wanted to charge me £40. After a bit of dickering, we finally agreed that they would send Chart to check the engine in our marina berth and wouldn’t charge me anything extra.
Yesterday, Glenys cleaned the gas locker and unfortunately, the wooden frame beneath the gas cylinders fell to pieces as she removed it. I measured up and ordered some pieces of teak from Nai to make a new one. By half past ten, I’d run out of things to do, so rubbed down the chart table and fridge ready for the third and last coat of varnish.
The yard workers arrived on time and we were soon trundling our way across the yard. Chart climbed on board just before we launched. As usual, the hoist stopped as soon as we were just floating and I ducked down below to check that we weren’t sinking. All was fine and even the new Volvo stern seal was dry as a bone.
We started the engine and Chart spent five minutes making sure that everything was okay, before telling me that we could go to our berth. There were two marina staff on board and a third hovering around in a RIB dinghy. Despite it being just before high tide, the depth dropped to an alarming 2.1 metres as we approached our berth, but then increased to 3.4 metres once we were in.
It’s a very tight marina, with the pontoons very close together, so I took it nice and slow. There were another three or four guys waiting to help us in to our berth. I started to turn into our berth, but couldn’t get the boat to turn as fast as usual, mostly because the guy in the RIB was “helpfully” pushing our stern away from the boat next door. Anyway, to my dismay, we clipped the corner of the finger pontoon and put a big black scratch down our beautifully polished topsides - first blood...
After the swarm of helpers had left us, I grabbed a bottle of gelcoat cutting paste and to my great relief the 18-inch long scratch came out with ten minutes of elbow grease. Meanwhile, Chart was testing the engine and after running it for thirty minutes declared the engine good.
I started to test the various systems - the fridges both started up fine, but the fresh water pump is not switching off when it has pressurised the pipes. I guess that the pressure switch has seized up after two months without being used - a job for tomorrow. I washed the decks down, applied the final coat of varnish and called it a day. We can start cleaning up and putting the boat back together tomorrow.
17 March 2016 Boat Lagoon, Phuket
We spent the morning removing masking tape from varnishing, tidying away tools and spare parts, then hoovering and dusting. Glenys started at the bow and took everything out of cupboards, dusted it all down and put it back. She’s taking the opportunity to look at all of our things and throw them away if we’ve forgotten about them never used them.
David, the rigger from PSS, came on-board in the afternoon and I helped him to re-tension the rigging. He was very methodical and explained what he was doing, so I feel more confident about adjusting the rigging myself now. It’s always seemed a black art - a common belief maintained by riggers, who see themselves as superior beings.
18 March 2016 Boat Lagoon, Phuket
I spent most of the morning installing the Perspex window into the windscreen. I used a black Sikaflex 295UV sealant, which is supposed to be good for sealing polycarbonate, but is very tenacious. My history of using sealants is not good and I usually end up with it smeared everywhere on me and the boat, so I spent well over an hour masking up the window and the surrounding area. It all went surprisingly well and by lunchtime the job was finished.
After helping me with the window, Glenys spent the rest of the day cleaning and tidying up. The boat has never been so clean (and probably never will be again).
I had a rather unsuccessful afternoon, running a few errands and then trying to sort out the water pump. After disassembling the pump, which looked fine, I found that the pressure switch sensor wasn’t working. Instead of a simple micro-switch, this particular pump has a sophisticated motor controller using a magnetic switch, which isn’t working. It’s all very clever, but I can’t just change the switch, I have to change the expensive motor. I think that it’s scrap.
I had another freshwater pump that I tested a year ago, but when I inspected it I found a loose connection on the pressure switch and while fiddling around broke off the connector of the micro switch. I now have two useless water pumps.
19 March 2016 Boat Lagoon, Phuket
I disassembled the pressure switch on the old water pump and it’s just a simple micro-switch, so I went wandering around the various marine suppliers in the boat yard to find a replacement. I found a couple of places that sold them and bought a couple of switches. They both had little steel levers, which I chopped off with my trusty Dremel and I soon had the old pump installed and working.
Unfortunately, it’s making a lot of noise when it runs, so I think that the bearings in the motor are worn out. I went on my travels again, to find a replacement pump. AME had the best choice, but I was faced with buying the exact same model or a slightly lower pressure one. After a lot of deliberation, I decided to buy the exact replacement even though I won’t be able to repair it if it develops a similar fault. At least the performance will be exactly the same.
I removed the aft deck shower tap, which has been leaking for over a year. I suspected that it was an O-ring on the spindle, but I’ve been putting it off because I was unsure how it all came apart. I ended up dismantling it completely and removing the whole valve from the boat. Once I had it cleaned up, I could see that I could have left the valve in place and just removed the spindle - bugger!
Having removed the spindle, I found that there were two O-rings, so I went off to AME to find replacements. It’s a 30 minute round trip to walk to AME and this was the third time today, but they have the best selection of parts, especially awkward things like o-rings. I refitted the valve to the stern and had to use some pipe sealant to fit a couple of brass pipe fittings, so I can’t test the water pump or the valve until tomorrow.
With all the running around that I’ve done, it hasn’t been the most productive day, so I’m afraid that we won’t be getting a Sunday rest day tomorrow. We’re planning to hire a car on Monday and leave on Thursday, but we still have a couple of dozen jobs on the list, the sails aren’t installed, most of our running rigging is still in the back heads and we’re running out of time.
Our friends, Steve and Jackie arrive in a weeks’ time and we still have to do some sea trials, get the water-maker working and test everything. I was hoping to go out to the Hongs and chill out for a few days, but it’s going to be a busy ten days before we have to leave Thailand when our visas expire on the 29th March.
20 March 2016 Boat Lagoon, Phuket
With a heavy heart and begrudging the loss of my Sunday, I was out of the door by eight o’clock. My first task was to grease the three furling gears, which took a couple of hours. Meanwhile Glenys was finished off cleaning the aft cabin and aft heads, hoovered the floor and put the carpets down.
I went up the mast to replace the VHF antenna, the wind sensor and the navigation light bulbs. I inspected the rigging as I was coming down and found to my dismay that the sheave for the genoa halyard is badly worn - I forgot to inspect the sheaves while the mast was off the boat. It’s not a critical job, but it will be ten times more difficult to do while suspended 70 feet above the water. Oh well…
Everything else on the mast seems to be okay, so we put the sails on. It took a a couple of hours to put the three sails up because we had to dig out the sheets and other ropes that we’d stored away. Everything worked okay and the in-mast furling for the main sail seems to be a lot smoother and easier after all my work, so I’m relieved.
We spent another 30 minutes tidying away all my tools and spares and removed all of the dust sheets to wash. The boat looks like we could live in it again; perhaps we will be able to leave in a few days’ time.
We’d finished by two o’clock, so we went back to the apartment for a late lunch and chilled out for the rest of the afternoon. In the evening, we went for a beer or two with Mike and Rosie from “Shakti”, who are in the middle of a major refurbishment of their boat, with another six weeks to go.