Maintenence

Robinetta seemed in quite good condition when we got aboard last night. Not too much mould inside, and not too much water in the bilges. Even better, this morning the engine started first time on the new battery. There have been casualties during the last 5 weeks. Worm's port front quarter knee has come unglued. The string securing the solar panel to the cover broke and the panel was in the water. It doesn't work properly any more. We lost a shackle pin from the bobstay tensioning gear.

We motored to the pontoon and Alison brought her in beautifully. That would make provisioning easy.

I had ordered a new battery so we would have two new ones. It was safe in the Harbour Office. I got it on board and just for fun tried starting the engine on the old one. It started first time! I decided to leave it in place and keep the new one for when we need it. Without a solar panel a spare is very comforting.

The other new battery had a temporary tightening screw for the positive terminal and was not strapped in. The old metal strap fixing had seized and I had to saw it off in Cairnbaan. I had brought a nylon strap but had no idea how to fit it. The Tobermory Chandler stocks battery cable terminals so I bought one and fitted it. Problem one solved. I took the battery out and the old strap was held on at the front with a captive machine screw and a nut. At the back a baton screwed to the floor of the locker held the strap. Amazingly the three screws (good bronze ones) came out easily and I was able to cut the nylon strap and fit it as a direct replacement. With everything back in place the strap could be tightened easily and holds the battery perfectly. I'm really pleased with this.

The bobstay was a bit of a problem. The bobstay is chain. It shackles to a becket on an old block which has two beckets. The other one is really thin and I tie a line to that which goes through a double block to tension the bobstay. It was the shackle connecting the chain to the becket which had lost its pin. The shackle was too big to pass through the becket - it must have been fitted with the block disasembled. We looked in the chandlers for a new block but they had nothing suitable so I bought an undersized shackle that would fit through the becket and sawed off the old shackle. We bought a junior hacksaw handle in the iron mongers. It came with a blade that lasted under a minute. The blades we had bought in Ardfern were made of sterner stuff! One of those made quick work of the shackle and we had a working bobstay again. The new pin was firmly moused in place! I need to go over all the other shackles on the boat and mouse them.

Every time I thought about trying to fix the quarter knee back on Worm the rain got heavier. I will need to put it on with screws. The white beam the quarter knees are made of is lovely wood but it doesn't take glue well and I don't have any clamps. Screws will clamp it in place while the glue dries and I will leave them in place to help. One day when it is dry.