13 May 2019 Herrington Harbour North, Virginia
It was another grey start to the day and had been cold overnight, so I turned on the heater to remove the chill. The rain hammered down last night and was a good test of the port-lights - I’m pleased to report that we have no leaks. It rained on and off all day, so we did jobs down below.
I cleaned up the components for the steering wheel hub and decided to paint the hub body because it was looking shabby. That simple process took a couple of hours because I had to set up a cardboard box as a little spray booth in the cockpit and then go to buy some white paint. Meanwhile Glenys packed her shell collection in a cardboard box to ship home and then cleaned the bilges in the front cabin.
After lunch, I cleaned up the aft window and then applied the final bead of silicone sealant - nearly finished. I then spent the rest of the afternoon inspecting the seacocks, cleaning them up and making sure that they turn. I also removed 12 of the handles to clean them up and re-paint them.
We’ve received a quotation from one of the “detailing” companies for some polishing work. The cost for polishing the hull up to the deck level is $900 and to polish the coach roof is $995 - it’s far too expensive here in the USA with people charging $120/hr even though they use cheap Mexican labour. The cost of cleaning our 150 sq. ft. of carpet is an outrageous $285 - I can buy a carpet cleaning machine for $100…
In the evening, Mike and Karen from “Marie Louise” came for a few beers - they own a HR43 which is in the berth next to us.
14 May 2019 Herrington Harbour North, Virginia
It rained for most of the morning, so Glenys lurked down below going through some of the lockers to decide what we throw away; what we take to the UK and what we leave on the boat. Meanwhile, I assembled the steering wheel hub and fitted it back in position. It wasn’t too bad a job and I was done by lunch time.
By the afternoon, we had sunny intervals, so I borrowed one of the marina’s bikes and went to Free State Yachts to use Roger’s workshop, where I used his bench grinder to wire brush the sea cock handles. Roger didn’t want me to spray paint the handles in his workshop, so I’ll have to wait for a calm day to paint them outside.
While I was there, Roger told me that he has a prospective buyer coming to view the boat on Monday 20th, so that changes the order that we do our jobs - we need to get the boat tidied up in six days’ time.
The courier from MyBaggage (DHL) was supposed to pick up our box of personal effects in the morning, but there was some confusion and he didn’t turn up until 1730, which was a nuisance for Glenys, who had to keep ringing them up all day. It’s not an auspicious start to the process.
15 May 2019 Herrington Harbour North, Virginia
It was a blisteringly hot sunny day. We took down the stay sail and the genoa. While folding the genoa, Glenys noticed a small 4 inch length of stitching on a seam which was perished. Unfortunately, we’ve sold our sewing machine, so she had to sit in the beating sun while she hand stitched. We pottered about in the morning doing deck jobs - soaking ropes; greasing the furling gear; and generally tidying up.
In afternoon, Glenys started to wash the hull, but gave up after a couple of hours because it was so hot. We’ve decided that it will be too much work to polish the hull ourselves, so Glenys will continue to wash the hull for the viewing and we’ll then pay $900 to have the hull polished professionally. We can do the coach roof ourselves, so we’ll save $995.
I lurked in the shade ticking off a good number of small jobs from our list. I scraped off the last of the sealant from the aft fixed window and we’ve finally finished the long job of replacing the lenses in the port-lights. I reckon that we’ve spent 80 man-hours on the job. I chatted to Mike on “Marie Louis” and he said that they paid $6,000 to have theirs replaced, so I feel good about having only spent $600 for materials.
- Prev
- Next >>