Great progress and boat bling
A busy day today for both yard and us. The rudder and steering is now fully reinstated. The gorgeous new propeller (boat bling) is on and all underwater anodes are changed. I did a little fibreglassing where the ground plates used to be whilst Joe anti-fouled the underside of the keel.
Sally dived into the aft, starboard locker which is barely Sally sized and used geometry to sort out the muddle I had made of refitting the steering protector boards. Earlier she had begun her foraging tour of Aasiaat beginning the slow task of provisioning.
Every year we have to jump start the electric furler and unstick the sticky windlass solenoid. This year was no exception but all was accomplished in good speed and without drama.
The electric outhaul winch is a major piece of solid brass that had been back to Denmark for repair. It went back in quickly and easily and worked first time.
By now we were definitely on a roll and so we turned our attention to the bowthruster which had been the scene of many expensive battles in previous years. This time it deployed immediately and did what it was supposed to do without emitting clouds of blue smoke as it did in 2017.
Tentatively we fired up the navigation electronics expecting the worst as they are reputed to be frequent victims to cold temperatures. This time luck was on our side and all worked just as they should.
Never in the history of Shimshal recommissioning has so much gone so smoothly. Let’s hope it lasts.