Lloyd is forty years a welder and he dropped by to work his magic on our Achilles heel. The skeg rudder bearing that we broke in Greenland got crudely welded up in Aasiaat but that fix did not survive the Davis Strait. A robustly engineered solution was called for so welderman Lloyd was summonsed.
His day job was welding stainless pipes on the giant hydroelectric schemes in Labrador so a dodgy rudder bearing presented few probems for him. The parts of the bracket he could take to his workshop he welded from both sides using top of the range ‘all position stainless steel rods. He finished it off in situ ensuring that the weld penetrated between plate and bearing. Finally he welded a transverse plate across the back of the bearing.
The result looks a lot better and he now assured me it’s the ‘strongest part of the ship’. At least I think that is what he said given that the whole operation was narrated in Newfie with a smattering of rust belt thrown in.
