Fri Jul 16 2021
Day 3 (continued)
Once Kaden had managed to cut away all the ragged fiberglass layup flappy bits and edges he surrendered the hacksaw, a tool which was pretty effective for the job, but would have been better with coarser tooth blades. Kaden took a break back up on deck, then back in the water he went with Isabel manning the spinnaker halyard to position him on the bosuns chair. Next Ryan and Louis handed him down a variety of buoyant objects, some of which they had found in the sea, and some that Isabel provided from our boat stores. First in was a big rolled up kiddie play mat made of closed cell foam. They had found a bunch of them floating around, obviously lost from a container ship - many still in their plastic wrapper. The playmate proved ideal to fill a good portion of the cavity with it’s approximately 1.2 meter length and 30 centimeter diameter. Next were some Westmarine life vests then a couple of canvas/foam canoe seats. Finally one of our 10” diameter fenders was used to create a crude bow shape. The entire collection was then captured by a hunk of heavy duty commercial fishing net with perhaps 3cm squares. The net was big enough to wrap around the bow and aft past the damaged area a bit and from behind the damaged area on the hull bottom up to and over the top of the bow.
While all this was going on I was madly fiberglassing collision bulkhead structural stiffeners fabricated from some half inch plywood we had onboard. After discussions with the Seawind factory I elected to add a stiffener down low near the waterline, and one up high at where the chines of the upper and lower hull sections were joined. We had a concern that constant pounding of seawater while underway might cause the fiberglass layups that attached the plywood bulkhead to the hull to begin peeling back. My effort was to add some stiffness to the bulkhead so it wouldn’t be as likely to flex and create a drumming action that might promote the layup peeling away. The crew from Lady Amber worked like madmen until about 1900, bidding my backside farewell as I was fully invested in the forward work space and couldn’t move or turn around. I managed to complete my glass work around 2000, and we finally sat downs to supper around 2100. Both of us were completely knackered but at least we’d had a hot shower to clean the gungadin off.
On day 4 the crew of Lady Amber returned with the intention of trying to secure a piece of an old sail over the net in an attempt to clean up the shape further. The seas had gotten a good bit rougher and the more we looked at the situation the less likely it seemed we could succeed. I eventually thanked them for the effort and thought, but noted it would likely fail even if we could get it tentatively secured using a large cargo strap wrapped all the way around the hull. Instead I dug out a length of 1/4” double braid, leftover from a full spool when I built new lazy jacks, and they used that rope to strengthen and increase the fishing net attachment system. Then we called it good.
The crew returned to Lady Amber to gather their things, then Kaden and Louis arrived to have their hot shower, bowl of hot lentil soup and a cold beer. They really seemed to enjoy themselves, kicking back and yakking with us a bit, then they went back to Lady Amber and Ryan arrived with his wife Lisa. Ryan visited with us while Lisa cleaned up then they swapped places. They were delightful company and seemed tickled pink to have a chance to wash in hot water. We did our best to show them fine JollyDogs hospitality until they finally retreated to Lady Amber. We all made preparations to get underway, then we were off. They ambled away at about 4 knots - that 20 meter aluminum schooner likes about 25 knots of wind - and we sailed about a half hour before I found the first leak and we hove-to again. I let Isabel know she might as well sleep while I sorted it out, and she was out like a light.
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