After a long pause for big repair works, we are finally back at sea. The new crew has made the decision to not sail so aggressively to start with, so now we are heading south along the Brazilian coast for Rio de Janeiro.
Tonight we stopped outside Morro de Sao Paulo, a popular tourist hangout that was rumoured to be a very nice place. Though we found only a luxurious tourist trap and didn’t like it very much. But the sailing is very nice in light winds and little waves.
Now that the ballast tanks are strong, there are a few other things… :-)
One thing that I clearly did not make strong enough was the anchor arm. It was bent a few times already before we left Sweden. And in the swell in the anchorage outside Ascension it got really destroyed in a big wave. The force of the wave was made worse by the fact that the anchor chain had gotten jammed in some cracks in the lava rocks on the bottom, so the length of chain that was acting as a spring was not at all as long as it should be.
So I gave up on fixing this in aluminium. Here in Salvador I located a stainless steel workshop and gave them a drawing of what a new one should look like. I was slightly apprehensive of the result, since the shop was pretty trashy and the man had only two fingers left on one hand. But today he showed up on the dock with what is actually a pretty good looking piece of work. This is now in 6mm stainless instead of 10mm aluminium, so it is much much stronger.
I remember when the tanks were pressure tested in the yard. As the pressure increased there were plates going “Boooink” as they adapted to the pressure. I should have taken that as a sign that something was wrong, but at the time I was thinking that the tanks would never be exposed to that kind of pressure in real life. Now I know it was a sign of possible movement that I should have listened to.
Today the second tank was completed and pressurized. Silence. Nothing moves. Solid. Good. I’m happy. Now I just need to put the interior back together. And wash my bloodstains from the boat after I cut through half of my finger when a drill bit broke earlier today. No worries, it seems I heal quickly these days. I’ll just put on some groovy music to get into a good mood for interior remount. It feels a lot better to put things together than it did tearing them down!
All sorts of factors are adding themselves on top of the Bahia tempo. The local Military Police are on strike. This totally screws up traffic in the city. Takes hours for my welder to get here in the morning. The army is trying to secure things but they are not very good at it. There has been an increase of murders and robbery in the area according to the newspapers.
Doesn’t feel any different here in the city centre though. But I wonder what will happen if the police are still on strike when the carnival starts…
And then there’s the heat. The equipment thinks it’s hot too. The old-school HF Ignition unit has had its cover taken off, and my small car heater is used as a fan to try to stop it from overheating:
But anyway, the work feels good enough. Now the tank plates are quite solid. They will stop moving, I am pretty sure of that:
Actually I am having a problem with this. Being Swedish and used to efficiency. Here everything takes 100 years by my standards. Over a week ago we got an OK from the Bahia Marina management that we could do the work at a spot on their service dock. I tried to actually go there starting Monday, but bad communication had it so that the spot was still occupied even this morning (Wednesday!) when we got here. After they confirmed yesterday that it should be free :-D !
So, half a day more lost before we could actually move in and start to set up equipment. But now we’re so close! The material is on deck, the boat is in position, the power cables routed and everything! I think we can actually get started today…
By the way, as you can probably see, it is hot. Very hot. Even those who are native are complaining!!
Recent Comments
Finally sailing again! (1)
Norrlandsimporten: Trevlig blogg och jag gillar vad du g?r. Tummen upp...
While we are on the subject of things I designed too weak… (5)
Jesper: Yeah, it starts today :-D
Jesper: Rätt gissat ;-)
Martin: Send a picture to us when the anchor is mounted? I have been waiting...
Tanks done and tested. Time to put things together again. (3)
Peter Bryttne: Det ser ju strålande ut! Vi svetsar också en hel del dessa...
peter: Superdupercongrats!
Stefan: Great news! Sounds good with silent tanks, groovy music and getting...
Tank work coming along. Slowly but surely. (3)
Jesper: Noooo, it’s alumium of course!