The final countdown

We have finally wandered our way back to Marmaris where the boat is going to over-winter. And it is coming, winter that is.  

The weather has suddenly changed – still in the low twenties temperature wise, but the days are alternating between sunny and cloudy with thunderstorms occurring regularly.

However this is much more pleasant for working in, and that is what we are now about.

We have had a bit of a nightmare with the work that was done on the boat last winter and I may have to itemise these deficiencies at some point as they have been serious and dangerous. At the moment we are just concentrating on getting the boat de-commissioned for the off season.

The first job was to re-bed the hatch above the forward heads compartment. This has been leaking resulting in a puddle of stale water in the shower compartment that has rusted the shower drain fitting

.

Well masked, in the current idiom. 

I wanted to wait until we were close to base to do this as if it went wrong, I may need parts and assistance.

The screws came out easily but the Sikaflex sealant took some persuasion to release it’s grip. The danger in this is that it would be easy to bend the aluminium hatch before the sealant released. It was a combination of levering and cutting that was required but eventually it came away. I got an excellent sharp lever in Datca which is basically an industrial scale drill bit, that was the arbiter of success.

Butyl in the bead.

There were at least four different generation of sealant fixed to the deck and the hatch, so basically it had been leaking for many years and generations of repairers had just put on another layer of sealant without removing the old ones!

I had a happy afternoon picking and scraping all the sealant off the deck and the hatch. I then taped up the deck and re-bedded the hatch using a Butyl rubber sealant. I had seen this recommended by a guy online who seemed to know his onions. It never sets completely and was ideal for this job.

Good stuff. 

It worked perfectly and withstood a full scale hosing 48 hours later. It was crucial however to tape up the deck as it is wicked stuff that sticks to everything it touches, so getting the extruded over-run onto tape rather than deck is a good thing. It comes off with acetone but slowly. I left the tape in place for 48 hours to allow it to thicken a bit so the over-run could be removed more easily.

We anchored off the marina overnight and took down the sails at anchor. I find this easier as you are always nose to wind and the sails are not trying to sail away a boat moored to a pontoon.

They came down and folded up well and are being stored aboard

The next morning we went into Marmaris Yacht marina. I serviced the engine and fuel system, which always takes longer than you think. It took an age to suck out 10 litres of old oil. M went off into town to see if she could source some 15W-40 at car rather than marina prices and arrived back with her bounty – well done.

I also did the tappets. It was the first time for me on this engine, and I think the engine was a tappet virgin too. I was pleased to have done it as all 4 exhaust valves and two of the inlet valves had no clearance at all. This can be potentially disastrous for an engine so pleased to have done it. I was worried the re-used gasket might leak, but not so.

I checked the gear box lubrication. I had only just found out that this is automatic transmission fluid, not gearbox oil. I might have made a serious error here, but it was not in any of the manuals. I only discovered this on the Beneteau forum I watch. How valuable.

My next job was to replace the hot water heater element. We were getting plenty of hot water via the engine but in a marina you need to connect to shore power and use the immerser in the tank. Last year every time I put on the immersion heater, it tripped either the boat electrics or sometimes the entire marina. I had tried replacing the thermostat to no avail and now I was planning to replace the heater element.

Removing the old one was the issue. Of course I was upside down in a deep locker doing advanced boat yoga to get near it. It needed a 54 mm socket which I did not have. I could not get mole grips or a water pump wrench in place to get enough grip. Loads of WD40 and penetrating oil later I eventually got an adjustable oil filter wrench which connects to a ratchet handle to get a grip. Slowly degree by degree and with fountains of verbal abuse the b****r relinquished its affiliation to the water tank and came out. You then lose 40 litres of water into the bilge but that seemed a joyous release under the circumstance.

You can see from the photo why it was not working. So the replacement went in easily and we are now blessed with infinite hot water. Showers all round.

The deck was scrubbed and then treated to it’s annual dose of oxalic acid, and hey presto, a white boat again. The running rigging that could be removed was, and soaked overnight in fresh water. The rest was gathered up and stored in bags on deck.

I greased the deck fittings for water. Diesel and waste (carefully).

A few days earlier we had been in a bit of a blow and during a tack under some duress, a snaking sheet had somehow got around a Dorade vent. This is a special air vent that allows ventilation into the boat but prevents water getting in. It is made of a thermoplastic of some sort, probably polypropylene.

The vent and its box were ripped off and nearly went overboard. M did some heroics (against my better judgement) to retrieve it before it went into the briny.

I was therefore compelled to try to fix it. It was split almost in two and three of the four fixing points had been ripped off.

I sanded the edges of all the wounds and used a technique I have used before with motorbike fairings. The trick is to get it well aligned and held together with tape. I then used a soldering iron to make multiple weld stitches across the injured parts to hold them together.

 I then epoxied and fibre-glassed it from the inside. Plastic does not make a good chemical bond with epoxy so sanding and cleaning with acetone is key to getting a mechanical bond.

I then filled in the cracks on the outside with epoxy fairing compound, sanded it down and painted it with gel coat spray paint. It is not perfect but it will do. No idea how you could find a replacement anyway.

We were lifted out uneventfully and are now land based for our final day.

The final jobs are: to drop the anchor and chain out the locker and hang them up to benefit from clean rain and ventilation.

Clean the dinghy (M volunteered), put antifreeze through the heat exchanger, fill in all the through hull fittings to prevent avian infestation, lubricate all the through hull valves, clean the prop, clean and put everything away, laundry, empty the fridge and other ditch comestibles, drink the last of the beer.

We filled up with Diesel and I did the final calculations. We have motored for 70 hours over two months, so a little over an hour per day. I think this reflects my expectations in that we almost always sail even against the wind which Summertime actually does very well. We have had a couple of long motors, such as when we had to return to Marmaris when the furling failed. Getting in and out of port and berthing will inevitably take around 30 minutes of motoring. So I doubt we could have kept our carbon footprint much lower.

Fruits de met. 

Finally the bounty from the sea. M was particularly delighted to pick up a nice big brand new fender in a stylish grey fender sock. It looks like it belongs to a set on a large fizz boat, so perhaps the crew’s knot tying skills are being reviewed. She was pleased as Punch.

Marine Diogenes syndrome. She needs to be careful. 

We are planning to return next April 2021 to do some more sailing. In these times there are multiple uncertainties. We hope to leave Turkey and head West again, but we will need to remain flexible in our plans.

If we make it, I will let you know.