I spent the Festive Season in Europe (UK and Belgium). It was nice to enjoy the 'traditions' and to experience different seasons again (cold and rain - I am a masochist!).
However, by the evening of December 29th I was back in Richards Bay and 'on a mission'.
My friend, Paul, would be joining me in early January to help sail Skyfall to Capetown. Unfortunately, the repairs to the solar arch (see previous posts) had necessitated taking everything off the arch and pulling out all the cabling for Starlink and other antennae. In addition, the unique travel lift in Richards Bay, and the need to remove the forestay to come out of the water, had forced me to take all the sails off, remove the canvas bimini, sprayhood and lazy bag. Everything was stored below deck in the guest cabin. In addition, I could not use the fridge (it is a 'keel cooler' and the boat needs to be in the water.)
My goal was to try to get the boat back together, in the water and properly cleaned before Paul arrived. Many friends comment on how wonderful a RTW adventure must be. There are indeed wonderful moments but boats also require a lot of TLC. My boat chores were going to take a lot of hard graft to meet this schedule. To date, I have rarely discussed boat chores. However, for a change, I have decided to give a 'blow by blow' account to give some idea of what it takes to get a boat ready to go sailing. (I apologise in advance - the subject may not be of interest to all readers).
The first task on the 30th was to review the progress made by contractors whilst I had been away. The solar arch repair had been done. Unfortunately, not all the extra strengthening pieces which I had asked for had been added. I needed the welding to be completed so that I could run the cables again. Jannie and Neil were apologetic and agreed to complete the welding that afternoon. Andries and his team, who would help me to drop the rudder and to replace the seals, had not been able to start this critical work as Fedex had not yet delivered the seals.
The parts had arrived in South Africa in early December but had got stuck in customs. I only learned this once I returned to Europe on December 12th. Fedex customer support in South Africa were useless. I submitted three requests for information but got no reply. I even followed up with a formal complaint which was also left unanswered. Getting nowhere, I got the shipper involved. Like me, he learned the parts were stuck in customs but nobody in Fedex knew why and did not seem able to find out what needed to be done. Only when I returned to South Africa and called the local office did things start to move. I discovered the parts were now assigned to be 'returned to origin' as nobody was enquiring after them!!! Having successfully rescued the parts from being on a plane back to the UK, I was now told that I should have appointed an agent to clear them through customs. I asked for a recommended agent they work with. The answer came back that an agent was not necessary and that Fedex could take care of it! It had taken three hours on the phone but, by the morning of the 31st, the shipment had cleared customs and would be sent from Johannesburg to the local depot (in Durban).
The rest of the 30th was spent cleaning the boat. The boatyard is dirty and the trees continuously shed stuff over the boat. After two months away my decks looked more like a forest floor than a boat.
On the 31st, whilst the weather was good, my priority was to empty the lazarette onto my aft deck so I could get inside and run the cables up inside the solar arch. Then I could re-install the solar panels and antennae. It went much better than I expected. After a 12 hour day, I was 'almost there'. Needless to say, my New Years celebrations were 'brief' (I was asleep by 20.00!)
The work spilled over into the New Year but, by lunchtime on the 1st (having started at 06.00), I could take this photo.
The lazarette was now managable. However, the guest cabin was still half full and unuseable.
On the morning of the 2nd, my first action was to check the status of the seals. The Fedex website 'confirmed' that they had made it to Durban and had been handed to a third party and were 'out for delivery' and should arrive that morning. This was my trigger to get Andries to drop the rudder.
This is 'non-trivial'. Once the rudder was dropped, I would not be going back in the water until the seals arrived. So it was a risk starting before I had the parts in my hands. But the launch was booked for the afternoon of January 3rd. If I missed that, then I would be in the boatyard some time. Not just because of the weekend, but also because there was not enough water to launch on the Monday and Tuesday, even at high water (neaps). There was a lot riding on Fedex keeping their word.
We managed to get the quadrant detached and the rudder dropped in just 90 minutes. Andries's team were very professional and the rudder came out straight (important so as not to damage the bottom bearing). But lunchtime approached with no sign of the seals. At 11.00 I was again on the phone to Fedex. After 10 minutes I was told that the third party had decided not to deliver today as there was not enough freight to warrant the drive from Durban to Richards Bay. I exploded! It took a further three hours on the phone, escalating three levels before I was given a commitment that the parts would be in a van and delivered that day. Sure enough, at 16.30 the parts arrived.
I immediately wanted to check the parts looked right. Although my boat is quite rare (six built), the rudder bearing system is a standard Lewmar (big marine company) system and identical to what is used on most Oyster Yachts (many yachts sold). But I had never taken one apart and I was not sure I had ordered the correct parts, etc. So it was with some trepidation that I opened the box and compared what I had bought with the rudder post diameter and what was still 'in situ' over the bearing. Fortunately, it seemed I had the right bits.
We still had a chance to launch on the 3rd. Andries had agreed to turn up at 06.30 to start work. It was the first time he had seen the Lewmar system and it took about an hour to figure out how to release the old seals from above the bearing (we did not have drawings). Then it was a question of cleaning everything up and putting the new seals in.
The rudder was back in by 09.00 and I left Andries to put the steering quadrant back together. I wanted to check with the office exactly when we would launch.
To my dismay, I was told that there had been a change of plan. They had seen the rudder out that morning, assumed that I would not be ready and had scheduled to haul a catamaran out that day! I exploded again. Nobody had come to ask. I had booked the slot and anyway, there would be no issue taking the catamaran out on Monday whereas I would have to wait until Wednesday or Thursday if I did not go in that day. Part of the problem was that high water was at 18.00 and I could not launch before 17.00 anyway. The staff had overlooked this (they normally finish at 16.00) and were looking for an excuse to 'bump' me. There is only one way to get stuff done in South Africa - bribery! As well as paying the club the normal launch price, I came to an ''arrangement" with the boatyard crew such that they would stay late and launch me after the catamaran had been pulled out.
Sure enough, by 18.00 Skyfall was floating and safely tied up on a pontoon. The new seals had worked and Skyfall was 'dry' again for the first time since Fiji. Just as important,I could turn the fridge and freezer on again and make ice!
The morning of the 4th, work started at 05.30. The temperature was forecast to rise to 45 degC and I knew that it would be impossible to work on the boat past midday. The first task was to put the forestay back on (the wire at the front of the boat which holds the mast up) and then tighten the rest of the rigging (except the uppers, for which I needed help to go up the mast).
Next I put the spray hood and bimini back up. Then I was ready to put the second set of solar panels back on top of the bimini. Once I had done this, the guest cabin would be more or less clear. The panels are held by velcro, one side sewn to the bimini, the other side glued to the solar panels. Unfortunately, after three years of UV degradation and the demounting in November, about half the velcro was peeling off the solar panels. The only 'good' solution was to remove most of it, clean up the panels and replace with new velcro. Several hours later and the solar panels were on and the guest cabin was (almost) habitable.
Paul was due at to arrive at 11.00 on the fifth and there was still lots to do. It would be another 05.30 start to the day. Putting on the genoa is easier with two and Gary (SV Manxman), a solo sailor, had asked for my help with his boat so I also accepted his help to get mine done too. After that, it was a question of cleaning inside the boat before Paul arrived to try to make it presentable.
I was relieved when Paul did turn up. It gave me an excuse to 'down tools' for the day and to spend the afternoon 'catching up'.
The following morning, with two pairs of hands to make it easier, we put on the mainsail and lazy bag. We were finished by 10.00. And just in time as the heavens then opened. With so much rain, we decided to take on an 'inside job'. My Iridium GO satellite phone had died coming across the Indian Ocean. I had decided on an upgrade and bought an Iridium Go!Exec which we needed to install. Unfortunately, I had not done my homework properly. The new unit did not detect an antenna when plugged in. At first I thought it was my cabling. We wasted several hours checking everything before discovering that the antenna for the old Iridium GO is not compatible with the new Iridium Go!exec. Actually, this is not a complete disaster as the unit works with the internal antenna. It does mean you have to bring the unit on deck. I will order the correct antenna to be delivered to Capetown so it is installed before the South Atlantic crossing.
By the morning of 7th the rain had abated. By 06.00, I was up the mast to tighten the 'uppers' (wires which control mast bend). They had been slackened off as part of the procedure to take off the forestay. Once the uppers were set at the correct tension, we were able to go round and make the final tensioning of the shrouds. The next step was to secure all wires with split pins. The rigging was now 'back to normal'. Finally, it was time to go round the boat again (and back up the mast) double checking everything, and then to tape over the split pins to prevent sails getting torn or damaged on them. By lunchtime we were ready to sail!
Now we had to plan our departure.The forecast had been looking good for Thursday 9th. All we had left to do was to complete the paperwork.
In South Africa, even to move within the country, it is necessary to prepare a 'flight plan' and then to go round customs, immigration, the police and Port control to get it approved and stamped by each department. So we spent the rest of the 7th downloading and printing the flight plan forms, researching how to fill them in and preparing everything so we would be ready to tour the government departments the following morning.
As it turned out, the forecast changed between Tuesday and Wednesday. The weather window had narrowed significantly and we decided that it would be better to stay in Richards Bay until the following Monday. Which meant we had some days to explore the area. But more of that in the next post.