16º 27.049s 145º 22.048w
Mon Jul 01 2019
Here’s
one that continues to save us a good bit of $$ when it comes to maintaining our
super deluxe creamin’ Gori 3-bladed folding props. Danish engineers really
designed these props like jeweled watches, and they work really well. Then they
put zincs where they would be most effective, a pair of half moon zincs towards
the forward end of each prop, and a dinky little triangular zinc at the aft
most point along the drive shaft.
We’ve
been buy our zincs from (guess who?) www.boatzincs.com, and we’ve been pleased with
their fit. I only have to use a small hammer to get the half moons screw holes
to line up with the threaded holes on the props. At the suggestion of Kurt
Jerman, Seawind broker extraordinaire who helped us procure JollyDogs, we
installed a big giant beer can sized zinc (I’m talking tall boy here) to dangle
in the water anytime we’re parked and not moving. It’s electrically grounded to
each engine with a big ole 8 gage cable and lugs, and it’s working a charm in
this environment. I say that because different water temperature and perhaps
other local water conditions seem to change the zinc burn rate. Well, I put new
zincs on up in Nuku Hiva well over a month ago, and they still look new to me.
Score!
Our
Micron 66 ablative bottom paint looks equally new thanks to it’s fine qualities
and the efforts of a bunch of ramoras who hoover anything that collects on our
bottom. The Trilux 33 anti-fouling paint on our aluminium (a nod to my English
better half) saildrives is also doing its job. Perhaps if we had put Propspeed
on our fancy propellers I wouldn’t have anything to deal with below the
waterline. However, I needed a hobby and motivation to have a peek down there
now and again, so prop polishing with a scuff pad about once a month seems to
be doing it.
We’ve
identified a yard up at Hiva Oa in the Marquesas that should be happy to haul
us out in November for storage and a bit of maintenance; with any luck we’ll be
able to refresh our paint, change sail drive oil, etc. while there. Boat
maintenance takes a bit of planning as these local yards fill up early,
actually not too different from most yards and marinas in Mexico during
hurricane season.
We’ve
begun identifying several canvas projects we’d like to do in Tahiti – things
that will keep the rain out of the cockpit and forward saloon windows. They
should improve ventilation a good bit and keep the sun out as well, while
keeping our cockpit seat cushions from getting soggy. Funnily enough we didn’t
even think much about keeping rain out while in Mexico, perhaps because it
pretty much never rained.
Rain
here is a blessing and a curse; the rig and hull stay clean and free from salt
accumulation, and there is ample opportunity to harvest clean rain water for
washing and drinking as desired. The downside is the lost opportunity to enjoy
the cockpit or trampolines due to blowing rain, and also having to close up the
saloon hatches which leads to “stuffy saloon syndrome”. That’s followed pretty
quickly by “smelly sweaty crew syndrome” which nobody likes.
Thanks
to several other Seawind 1160 owners and our own funny ideas, we’re homing in
on solutions that should keep blowing rain out and allow almost constant
occupation and enjoyment of our ridiculously large cockpit, also known as the
yoga studio, mosh pit, grill meister’s domain, etc.
Just
in case you thought we were getting a bit too comfortable, yesterday we noticed
the water tank was leaking. We had hoped this would never happen to us, but
it’s a documented problem for Seawind 1160s of this age, and the repair is
going to be really fun. NOT. Ugly, expensive, and difficult. We think if we
keep the tank level around 300 liters or less, we can live with the leak for a
while, but as I don’t like anything on the boat to be less than “correct”,
it’ll have to be fixed. Might be something we can put off until we haul out –
might be worth attacking in Tahiti in a few weeks. More intel required.
It’s
not all rainbows, sunshine and butterfly farts. . .
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