Remedios High and Dry

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High and Dry

From time to time, though built to be in the water, a boat needs to come ashore for a little spa treatment. Remedios, feeling as if she had worked hard getting us safely across the Atlantic and needing some work on her underside, asked if she could spend a couple of days fully exposed to the warm, dry air of Portugal. She needed some paint on her drive unit (think pedicure), a new zinc ring on the drive unit to prevent corrosion by the salt water (think sunscreen and a wide brimmed hat), new gear lube in the transmission (think fancy drink with a paper umbrella), and a general inspection (think health maintenance including colonoscopy). Tom and Pat elected not to tell her about the colonoscopy before we got her out of the water where she couldn’t get away.

So, last Tuesday morning, around 10:00, the crew at the Cascais Marina wrapped slings under Remedios’ hull, gently lifted her up in the air, drove her to a pleasant corner of the yard where she had a view of the city and the beach, and set her carefully in a cradle. She was now ready for the aestheticians, Pat and Tom, to go to work. The biggest job was painting the drive unit. Over the following 48 hours, we sanded it to bare metal in spots where paint had failed then primed and painted. After that we applied two coats of anti-fouling paint to prevent growth of algae and other marine nasties. Remie (she lets us call her that when she is feeling relaxed) chose black for her drive unit color – very goth.

The condition of the zinc, which is meant to sacrifice itself and corrode away as protection for the other metals in the engine and transmission, was a surprise for us. Living her first nine years in cold fresh water, we had become accustomed to very slow dissolving of the zinc. Saltwater is a much better conductor of electricity than fresh, meaning the current that causes the metal to dissolve is much stronger. When I dove under Remie to cut away the rope that had fouled the prop near Horta in the Azores, I was shocked that the zinc I had installed just a few weeks before had melted like a breath mint to less than half its original size. In the picture, Tom is holding three zincs and the zinc on the left is the one just removed from the drive unit. The one in the middle is one we used to hang off the side of the boat to temporarily help the smaller one protect the drive until we could do the change(sailors call this a zinc fish). The one on the right is the new one. This is what the smallest one looked like when I installed it. It was a great relief to put on the pretty new one to continue the protection through the rest of the trip. To get at the zinc, we had to remove the folding propeller giving us a chance to completely disassemble it and give it a good cleaning and lubrication. This also provided a good opportunity to replace the gear lube in the transmission. After our work was done and the paint was dry, Remedios slipped quietly and gracefully back into the water with the help of the Travel Lift crane, ready for the next phase of the trip.

During our time on the hard, we got some advice and help from the folks at the Cascais Marina and we were also able to send pictures to Eric Thomas and the rest of the crew at Barker’s Island in Superior, Wisconsin. They were great about reviewing the pictures and giving us advice on removing a stubborn part of the propeller assembly and other feedback on the drive unit and keel. It was a fun way to use the internet for some very practical advice and to connect again with the crew that gave us so much help in the preparation for the trip. We send many thanks to you, Eric, Scott and the rest. The picture shows the Cascais yard master giving me some opinions.

As an aside, both of us get creeped-out and our legs get a little shaky when standing on the deck and seeing concrete below instead of water. I think it actually makes us even more careful, with an immobile deck, than we are when we are bouncing around on the waves. In our minds, there is a significant difference between the sound of a splash and the sound of a splat. We are much more at ease now that we are floating.

To see an edited video that we shot during these heavy machinery episodes check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQU-fHcCla4