Hardstand 2020 Week 1 ... continued

It rained for 7 of the first 10 days of our hardstand time. This was a significant disruption. Additionally it meant that The Bloke’s methodical habits as a serial operative were shattered. Instead of completing a task and moving onto the next, multiple projects were started, resulting in what seemed like every part of the boat in some kind of deconstruction. We were living in total chaos.

Some masking and caulking removal around our side windows was begun. Then we had to cover the area over with black sheet plastic to stem the rain ingress. The windows had become leaky which was why we were undertaking the project in the first place.

If it was raining, The Bloke made a start on disconnecting the mast wiring. The rigger and crane were booked and there was a deadline for this job because the mast was coming down to facilitate re-rigging. New rigging is pretty much mandated by the insurance companies after 10 years and in any instance we’d well and truly eclipsed the other metric of 15,000nm.  The re-rigging constituted our biggest project with the biggest budget allocation.

The Bloke soldering new connectors at the base of the mast.

Well that fat cable was for the Radar which until then was a continuous length.

Having made a mess of the decks and the salon, further half started chaos came in the form of removing the solar panels. Mr Fastidious felt it was appropriate to replace the signex (mounting material) for the solar panels. It needed to be wider and represented an opportunity to replace and rewire the downward facing LED strip. The old flexible solar panels were never removed when we upgraded to solid solar panels. Now we could be rid of them and lighten off. A one-day hire was arranged for a scissor-lift which was spread over an afternoon and a weekend. There was no other way to access this area.

Going up

Down came the old flexible panels. The mounting board had become deformed by their heat. 

Luckily by the end of the rainy period, the daily temperatures had declined helping to make our physical exertion more bearable. The Bloke’s toe was healing well and daily dressings no longer required. If you don’t begin, you’ll never finish. We dreamed in exhausted and aching sleep of the trip to New Caledonia.