Well the week turned out to be nearly exactly as planned. Once out of the water the travel lift guys began the high pressure wash down and when they asked were we happy, Alan asked if he could have a go, and with the gun in hand, gave the keel coolers another go.
The more that is removed by high pressure means the less time we have to spend to scrape and sand to remove all the shell. Based on the recommendations in our manual it doesn’t advise treating them with antifouling.
Above: The main propeller anode deteriorated.
First up we scraped down the barnacles that were underneath the keel and then Alan polished the waterline whilst I removed all the old anodes and dismantled the bow thruster. It took quite a bit of time to sand the keel coolers Then came the messy bit of sanding down. We both ended up black as and full of dust. For the 4 days we worked from 6am til 7pm to get the work done. We had several offers of work from the Shipyard “tradies” as they can’t get workers to work. The ones that were there Alan had to line them up with a post just to tell if they were moving at all. The heat was non stop all week with only one or two very light sprinkles of rain, nothing that made us change our plans.
The final day we applied the Propspeed to the props and struts, this took 2 of us to apply. It is a silicone product to stop the barnacles from sticking.
Once we were ready to be returned to the water on Thursday we were informed by the shipyard that the travel lift had broken down and it was a wait to see if they were able to get it up and running for the lift back in. Staying off the boat for another night wasn’t appealing.
Lucky for us they had some new hoses fitted to enable them to put us and a few others back in the water but then it would be out of action for the coming week.
With the slings back into place Opal Lady was then lifted above the blocks and I was able to put a coat of antifoul where she sat on the blocks.
And then the slow pace back into the water begun.
Once in the water the pace picked up as she glided through the water with ease. We headed out of the boat
harbour and spent an hour going for a run before tying back into our pen. At 1200rpms we attained 6knts!
The weather has closed back in, winds have increased to 35knts and rain is all around!
Thankfully the weather held up for the week!
