Long time no posts! Since my last post I have visited Zen Again twice. The first occasion was in mid-November and second was this weekend.
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| Gas-fueled heater is up & running! |
The November visit focussed on emptying and cleaning both water and diesel tanks.
The water tanks have been emptied, "shocked" with bleach and refilled regularly but they haven't been physically cleaned for at least 5 years. It was important to completely empty the tanks since there was a real risk of freezing with the boat ashore. All the tanks have inspection hatches which allow us to reach all parts of each tank.
The water tanks were surprisingly clean. The only dirt at the bottom appeared to be fine sand. There was a trace of rust on some of the welds around interior of the tank. Before closing up the tanks I sprayed some clove oil and vinegar mixture to stop mould growth.
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| Water tanks ready for closure |
The diesel tanks were last emptied and cleaned in 2013 during our Thailand refit. With the inspection hatches off I used a hand pump to transfer about 60 litres of diesel into jerries. Then it was a case of sponging the last of the diesel out into a bucket, including the expected lumps of gunk.
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| Diesel Gunk |
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| Diesel tanks ready for closure |
Now we fast forward two months to this weekend. As in November I travelled by coach from Woking to Heathrow, Heathrow to Glasgow, and Glasgow to Dunstaffnage. The trip is an overnighter taking 15 hours. The trip from Glasgow to Oban is spectacular...
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| Snowy Mountains |
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| Misty Lochs |
On arrival I had a quick look at our new standing rigging and furler. It was a quick look since it was literally freezing! The boat's deck had a glaze of ice, the dodger was frozen solid and frozen water droplet hung from the s/s rails. Twas time to get below and try out the gas heater!
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| New ProFurl and StaLok turnbuckles |
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| Icy Deck |
Phil and I sorted out the small programme of work on Zen Again prior to her relaunch. That includes fairing, priming and anti-fouling around the filled-in transducer; prepping and antifouling the shaft and propellor; and quoting on tidying up small scratches in the topsides paint. Hamish and I discussed the relaunch and possible dates.
Finally on Friday afternoon I visited Owen Sails and met with John who is coordinating our rigging and boom work. On the rigging I asked for some of the pins to be replaced with shorter ones to avoid their touching the mast. The boom work includes removing the excessive play at the gooseneck and fitting a larger vang bracket. The latter will spread the load and provide separation between vang and boom brake.
On Saturday I cleaned below, charged the batteries and installed a dehumidifier. The latter will supplement the tube heaters we have running and avoid condensation.
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| Chilly Dunstaffnage |
