7/17/2015 5 Comments Living on the learning curve! I knew, when we were left back in February that taking over the management of the boat with the children was going to be a steep learning curve.
I thought back then that all the learning was going to be about the sailing and travelling. It turns out that the biggest issue relates not so much to the sailing aspects of the cruising life but the maintaining of the vessel! It seems since February that well over half our time has been spent working on the boat – and the other half writing about it! One day we might even get to sail again! It’s a steep learning curve, all this work, because so much of it has either not been done for a long time or done ineffectively meaning that it looks good temporarily but needs to be re-done properly. We knew when we bought Argos that she had been sailing around the world and was well up to the kind of sailing we had envisaged doing. We also could see that she hadn’t been lived on for quite some time and attended to a lot of repairs in the plumbing department and general live-ability of her. I remember when we first arrived in Albany to collect her, we had the idea that she was ready to go and so were we! Oh dear! We were incredibly naïve. She was nowhere near ready to cruise and we were even less ready to sail the Southern Ocean in her! To a certain extent I think we remained very naïve. We spent most of the last 3 ½ years doing more sailing than maintenance and while we thoroughly enjoyed the travelling and the places we went to, the fact is, Argos has suffered hugely as a result. Because I know that there is so much I don’t know about the boat, I find myself asking a lot of questions. Watching other people doing jobs on their boats and asking why they do things the way they do, why they use that particular tool, why that particular paint etc. I am so glad that we ended up coming back to Boatworks to get the repairs done and once again I find myself to be like a dry sponge, soaking up all that I can! It’s like when we were here before except that this time we are at stage two of our learning rather than stage one and we are able to add to the skills and knowledge we gained last time! This time we have added skills like sanding and really good surface preparation to our repertoire and have learned so much more about painting techniques that I have decided to repaint the hull while we are waiting for the parts to come that we need to repair the boat. There is so much to learn and so much to do and I must admit that there are times when I feel a little overwhelmed. One thing I am appreciating is that when so little maintenance has been done for so long that we will, for a while, have a great deal to do. But in time it will ease off. There will come a day when the big and small jobs will have been done and there really will be only every-day maintenance tasks to perform, regularly. The verdict on the boat by the way was that the prop shaft had been bent by the pressure put on the prop. A new shaft had to be ordered and we await its arrival. It will need some machining and then we will be able to have it refitted. There was damage to the hull and that has been repaired, and we will have the electrical systems, house battery bank etc work begun tomorrow. In the meantime we have completely restored the shower base and sides. I stripped it back to the base with my new orbital sander and resealed and repainted. It’s been a big job but it is looking awesome. Erina has been painting all the woodwork on deck – of which there is a great deal. She got some advice about how we had been doing it all these years. We ditched the old method which wasn’t achieving the results we would like and she has stripped things back, sanded, sealed, and varnished the wood so that it is all looking so beautiful. We had only just re-oiled it all two months ago – so the hope is that this time around the work will result in loveliness that actually lasts. One thing we are learning is how important it is to know what we can learn and what jobs need to be done by a professional. With the electrical system I am happy to defer to someone who has spent years learning and equipping themselves to know what is right and what is good. Likewise with the engine. These are areas I am happy to let go of the need to manage myself. I know what I can learn and I happily am managing painting and taking care of a lot of the maintenance. I am also happy to have been able to get another solar panel installed while I have been here – and have been able to have a frame made so it will sit safely out on my davits. This new panel means we are very self-sufficient and will rarely need to run the generator. We expect to remain at Boatworks another week. We do feel rather like we have moved in! We have made some lovely new friends and built on some old friendships. We continue to live and learn and love our life on Argos even if it is sometimes hard climbing up the learning curve we have been on! The results are most definitely worth it. Argos does require a lot of work but she is so worth it.
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It’s a beautiful sunny day here on the Gold Coast and we are surrounded by the noises of a busy shipyard. Boats are hauled out and returned to the water around us every day. People are painting and fixing and making their boats look beautiful all around us! We are at The Boatworks in Coomera, and have been here for a week now. We feel as if we have kind of come home in a way – it wasn’t so long ago that we were here painting and antifouling and getting ourselves together after being left back in February. People here were so incredibly kind to us at such a difficult time and it’s lovely to reconnect with so many of them!
We really copped some damage through the trawler incident – and not just the things we already knew about with the electrical issues. We came in last Monday and as soon as we were out of the water we could see things that had been impacted. The prop shaft was not sitting right – we could see it immediately – it was off balance and wonky. We had it all inspected immediately but to see properly what was happening it had to be removed. It took Brad from Everything Marine (the business that had been so, so kind to us last time) a few days of wrangling to get it out and then we could see what had happened – it had a small but significant bend in it. The prop itself is ok, thankfully but in addition to the prop shaft we also have to get the stuffing box repacked and the stern gland properly adjusted. Under the hull there was also damage visible, due to the trawler’s chain. And all our anodes – which never show any sign of electrolysis, were all crazy – all eaten away and all needing to be replaced. Happily the rigging was not affected and we have not found any other damage. Right now we are waiting……parts are never easy to find for Argos – she is a beautiful boat but it’s always difficult when it comes to her uniqueness! Being made in Canada is part of it as everything is imperial but the engine is not standard and neither is anything much else. The prop shaft is, of course, not standard and so to source and ship one to us is both costly and time consuming. The electrical work will be carried out while we are here too and all the proper checks conducted so that when we do get to go back into the water, all will be well. But while we are waiting for the repairs to be carried out – and I must just say how incredibly happy I have been with our insurance company, Youi who have been excellent – we are busily doing jobs that are easier to manage while out of the water. Erina is a little work horse – seriously hard at work painting the external wood work. We only painted most of it 2 ½ months ago so this time around she is using a more protective top coat so that it lasts longer and the maintenance isn’t so time-consuming in the future. She gets out there as soon as the sun is up and takes breaks only to get coffee – I am so impressed with her and proud of her. I find I have to keep a close eye on her here though – a good hard working girl who loves boats is highly desirable apparently to everyone around us!!! I have been working inside, on our shower which was re-painted about a year ago but not properly sealed at the time. So needless to say the paintwork only looked good for a few weeks before it all started to peel away again and look worse than before. I am having my first lessons in the use of 2 pack paints and proper surface preparation. It has been quite time consuming but I am getting a great result and I am finding it very satisfying to be able to learn from people who are excellent at what they do and to actually get these jobs done right. I remember in the past the many comments people would make about Argos and how much maintenance she must require. The comments were always dismissed with a laugh but the reality is, to care for her properly there really is a lot of maintenance. And a great deal has been neglected for too long. It’s quite a job now and some days I do find that I feel just a touch overwhelmed. But I do remind myself to tackle things a bit at a time – one job is enough for each day. In time we will have invested enough time and effort to have caught up a little and then it won’t be quite so much of a job. Then it really will be just maintenance! I am also working every day on my manuscript – for a book I hope to see published by the end of this year about recovery themes. And Liam – he too is busy but not so much with boat maintenance. On our second day here the shipwright doing the inspection and repairs noticed all the rope work we have on board and asked who had done it all. When Liam identified that it was him, he was immediately asked if he could make some rope shackles for them – apparently they need a lot and had not been able to find a good source of them. Liam was of course quite delighted – at the recognition – and the opportunity to be paid for what he is so good at doing! He has made fifty in the last few days and loves making these very useful items. He hopes to be paid at least partially in rope so he can make some for us and do other decorative things. Who would have thought that Liam would have found such a flair for this ancient art! We expect to be at the Boatworks for another week or maybe two – and if we can I hope to get the hull repainted. I painted it when we were here in March but the old aluminium tinny has made a mess of all my hard work and I have decided to try and tackle it again so that we look even more beautiful as well as fixed when we go back in to the water. |
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September 2017
Our life aboard Argos has been seriously challenged this year with the surprise departure of our skipper. As a writer, diesel mechanics and the complexities of many aspects of Argos’ on-going maintenance are way beyond me! We would like to see Argos continue to sail and eventually hope to use her to offer support, encouragement and a break to people who are struggling in their lives. Any on-going help towards maintaining Argos would be greatly appreciated and enable us to achieve this goal.
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