can we help
+44(0)1983 296060
+1 757-788-8872
tell me moreJoin a rally

Menu

Starblazer - 10/01/2016- Four more weeks in Cape Town part 2



Cruising is not just an extended holiday, it has been described as boat
maintenance in exotic locations. The boat is our home and, just like at
home, repairs become necessary, however there is a difference. At home you
know exactly where you can source parts, you have good internet, a reliable
postal or delivery service and an address! These factors were all absent in
Cape Town though the 3G data cards for the i-pads did provide some internet.
It was limited, however, and I couldn’t download many apps to my new i-pad.
This blog will detail the work we or others undertook, or didn’t.

During week 2 we made progress. Ullman Sails sent someone along to sew new
tapes on the intermediate studs between the batten cars which slot into cars
on the mast track. One of these studs had torn off before we arrived and
two more were badly worn.

The riggers came along, as promised, to replace the rigging they had
identified as having broken strands. In each case the breakage concerned
just one strand at the point where the wire exits the swage fitting at the
top. They also pointed out some chafed halyards and told John where he
could find the Southern Ropes Factory Outlet shop. I completed one eye
splice braid on braid, my most successful attempt ever, but it took me over
2 hours. The rigger said they could do it in 20 minutes! Subsequently they
spliced eyes into four halyards for us for a very reasonable price (less
than the cost of one in the UK).

We finally had a visit from the electrician sent by the Fischer Panda
agents. Apart from checking some basics using John’s tools, he went away to
discuss the problem with the importer. John managed to have one further
telephone conversation with him the following week which went along the
lines: “They think it might need a new rotor.” “Do they have one? Can they
get one? How much?” NOTHING happened, we had no further communication with
the engineer who didn’t answer his phone or pick up voicemails. This is
especially galling as the generator was fitted new in New Zealand in April.
Warranty work? Highly unlikely. We are not impressed.

We still had no visit from the company to quote for a new sprayhood (dodger
to American readers).

The Webasto chap came along, couldn’t easily find the fault but could
organise a replacement for self-fitting at a very good price. Our unit was
very old and hadn’t worked since just before we left England in 2013 so we
accepted the offer.

During Week 3 the parts we had ordered for the engine fresh water cooling
system arrived. Once he had a full set of gaskets and one short rubber
section, John could dismantle the cooling system more thoroughly and put it
back together with some extra sealant, and hopefully no leaks, so we will no
longer need to refill the reservoir every few hours!

Winston from Ullman Sails called around to see if we had any other problems.
We muttered about a new sprayhood but understood that their canvas workshop
was rather overstretched. He said he thought they had time and took
measurements, e-mailed us a quote which we accepted then called back a few
days later to say sorry, can’t do it. We were not surprised. We
subsequently e-mailed him after Christmas to ask him to supply the canvas
and the window material which he delivered to us the day before we left.

The SSB was returned after Christmas with no fault found though they did
manage to get the output power meter working. Our transmission seems to be
better, magic.

On the Monday before we left “Barnacle Jill” (Terry) agreed to scrub the
hull for us. She and another diver spent 0ne and a half hours scraping and
gave us the accolade of “The Dirtiest Bottom in the Fleet”! She explained
that, in her experience, Coppercoat can foul badly in their waters if the
boat is stationary for any length of time.

We never did receive a quote for polishing the topsides. On the positive
side, that saved us money.

Our days were not spent just waiting and watching other people work. We
both fitted in Doctor’s appointments, dental appointments (mine totalled 7
hours) and eye tests and new glasses.

John reattached the window in the windscreen which suddenly fell out; he
took the opportunity to dismantle the locking system, which hadn’t worked
since we bought the boat, cleaned up the parts and successfully reinstalled
it.

John has serviced the engine as well as repairing the cooling system.

Our mainsail attaches to the mast by studs pushed into cars and held in
place with long metal pins, rather like thick, elongated paperclips. These
pins have a nasty habit of snapping. If they snap below the stud you can
still remove the stud by prising out the pin. One pin snapped above the
stud so the only way to remove the stud was to dismantle the car which has
24 Delrin balls in it. John taped some polythene as a catcher below the
car, carefully took off the base plate and gathered all the balls. This
allowed the broken piece of the pin to drop out, then he put the base plate
back on, took off the top plate and replaced the balls. He decided to
service every car otherwise it would be impossible to fit the whole pins in
some of the cars due to broken bits in the way. We do not have enough whole
pins, we have used all our spares and couldn’t get any moreuntil John found
some the day before we left. This little problem came back to haunt us as
will become obvious in tomorrow’s blog.

I completed a new bimini as the old one had started tearing, the material
rotted by UV. I finally sewed in the third zip just before we left as it
was brought from the UK by the daughter of one of the other boats just
before Christmas.

I also made a complete set of code flags which we hoist to ‘dress overall’
in harbour. The set comprises 26 rectangular letter flags, 10 long
triangular number pennants plus a similar sized ‘answer’ pennant and 3
smaller triangular ‘Substitute pennants’. Only two of the flags are a single
colour the rest have up to 4 colours each, some are easy to make others are
more of a challenge. The printed set we bought just before we left England
had decomposed! UV is no respecter of fabric.

The sprayhood has also been patched yet again.

More tomorrow.

Joyce


Previous | Next