In this episode of Sailing A B Sea we finally arrive at splash day for A B Sea after 8.5 months on the hard. There are a few hiccups, but we can work with them.

Splash day for A B Sea was a nervous time and of course there were a few hiccups that we had to deal with but we are finally back in the water after 8.5 months on the hard.

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Intro music: Truth of the Legend Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...

Elevators Need Rock Too - Spence

Elevator Music - Vanoss Gaming Background Music

Pedal to the Metal - Chris Haugen

Heart Break - Vibe Tracks

Beneath the Moonlight - Aaron Kenny
Viking - Aakash Gandhi

Audio Hero music\Quietly Confident Outlook

Captions:
That's a [censor bleep] bollocks position. The stern

gland is leaking from the shaft end so

it's like a drip drip drip drip. I think

I can fix it in place so we're going

back onto the hard and then we'll get to

work on that straightaway. Shit

If you cast your minds back to January of this

year we did a really thorough clean of

our dingy. It was absolutely filthy after

tootling around various places in the Med

for two years.

A great big clean was done it looked

fantastic and then of course it sat on

the ground here underneath A B Sea since

then and it's got a little bit more

dirty so before we clean the dingy we're

going to put our 50 metres of rope back

into the anchor locker, our 50 metres of

chain back into the anchor locker and

the anchor back on the bow. And I've just

attached a leading line to help get the

end of the rope up to the bow roller

You happy with that are you?

It's as good as it's gonna get isn't it? It really

is as good as it's gonna get really, yeah.

When we get the Turkey we'll have some

chaps made for it. If you like the

original colour of your dinghy, and you're going to be

in a boat yard for any length of time

get a cover. Yeah!

Okay so let us break for lunch - oh yeah

and what we'll do is, we'll check our work list

and tick off a few things I reckon.

I think we've got a lot to tick off actually.

Cool! I don't think we've got a lot left and I think

most of that can be done in Turkey to be honest

Yay!

Good morning peeps

it's Saturday morning and we're up

relatively early to try and get this job

done while it's still relatively cool

I know I keep saying that in a lot of

videos but the heat here is for real

What we've done is we put a masking tape

stripe around the water line of the boat

and it's already got three coats of

antifoul on the hull and the keel

what we're gonna do now is we're gonna

do a fourth coat of antifoul just

around the waterline because that's

where we get a lot of growth

obviously that's the the main area for

growth so we're gonna do that and we're

gonna put another coat onto the keel and

the rudder just because we can because

we've got paint left and also Xaris has

said that we can actually drop a couple

of these stands because he's over

standed it in case we had

any high winds. He showed me the stands

that we can drop where we can paint

underneath the stands and again that's

just gonna buy us a little bit of time

when we come to splash day which is at

the moment still scheduled for Tuesday

morning so yeah we're getting very excited at the moment. All right lets paint something. Okay

After 8 months of sitting on the hard and we're

just now what maybe 24 / 36 hours away

from being splashed back into the water I

think it's a good time to check the

lighting system on the outside of the

boat which is quite an important feature

if we want other ships and vessels to be

able to see us and understand our

intentions. So the first thing we're

going to switch on are our

navigation lights and if we come out

into the cockpit and there is our white

stern light, that's working good. Now

let's go forward and we can probably see

already that our port and starboard

navigation lights are on red and green

but let's just check their intensity

starboard - port - that's a good start

now here's a contentious one our

steaming light. As far as we know it

doesn't work so let's switch it on and

have a look see. Yeah as we look up the

mast we can see that we have no steaming

light but we don't have any plans to

motor at night so it shouldn't be an

issue but let's switch our anchor light

on and see if we've got one of those

that's very important I'm not sure if

this camera's gonna pick it up but as I

stand here at the bow hanging off a

couple of lines and leaning over the

side I can actually see there is light

up there so that does mean we do have an

anchor light so that's good

Deck floodlights usually kind of important if

you want to be doing stuff on the deck

in the dark so let's check those out. Oh

yes definitely working, now the fore deck

is very much floodlit and of course you

can see there that our cockpit

entertainment lights are on so we're all

good for entertaining

It's Sunday morning and things are going to plan

we've got Evangelis here just getting

the trailer ready to be slid underneath

the hull of A B Sea then

we can take all the hard stand props

away and then we can start antifouling

under where the props have been and I can

finally get underneath the two parts of

the keel that have been sitting on the

blocks and get those ground down because

there's a lot of shellfish growth on

there then we can prime it, then we can

antifoul it and then we've got two

days to complete the antifouling and the

keel and then we splash around about

6 o'clock on Tuesday morning so as I said

things are at the moment going to plan

Very slow. Yep

Now that we've got our beautiful lady loaded up

on the sled or trailer we are able to

get around and do all the patches of

anti foul that were underneath the

hard stand props and also I put a first

coat of primer underneath the keel where

it was resting on the wooden blocks so

it's now just a question of time waiting

for each layer to dry and then we apply

another layer and another layer ... as many

as we can in the time that we've got

given to us because Xaris has said that

he really wants to try and splash us into

the water at around about 6:00 a.m. on

Tuesday morning so really if we can get

another coat of anti foul on before

darkness tonight and maybe even a second

coat of primer on the underneath of the

keel before darkness tonight then that

will give us a whole day then to put

maybe another third layer on the on hull

and hopefully get at least two, maybe

three layers of anti foul underneath the

keel bulb. So that's where we're at, we're

moving forward. I told you it was gonna

be a race to the finish line.

The babies have discovered food

This is the last time that we'll see the

boatyard cats because after this I'll

say goodbye and then we're leaving and

lovely Eilco is going to feed them, we

hope we hope. We hope. He will.

It's good to see

that they're all healthy and eating and

Bobby is hoping to get something.

But he's not!

So bye bye! Bye bye

This big yellow beast is in position ready to

push our lovely lady back into the water

it's all happening tomorrow, Tuesday

morning at 6 a.m. Yes 6 o'clock

silly hour. So we've done all the

antifouling, we've loaded up with 600

litres of fresh water, we've got most of

the things inside

stowed away in shipshape fashion and all

that remains to be done now is to have a

little bit of a drinky-poos on deck with

one of the guys in the boat yard who's

bringing over some sparkling wine as a

little bit of a celebration and if we do

get up a little bit early tomorrow we'll

try and get a third and final coat of

the anti foul underneath the keel bulb

so there she is

even at this position in the yard right

next to the gates we've still got your

power and we've still got access to

fresh water so whatever we use fresh

water tonight we will top off tomorrow

so we do leave with exactly 600 litres

of fresh and we head out there

and turn right

Well its departure day

and the guys are here at the yard, it's

probably around about quarter past six

now. The wind strangely enough is up and

normally to sell in the morning

there's no wind at all so Xaris is a

bit a bit concerned about the wind it is

blowing offshore for us so it would be

blowing us off the trailer when we do

decide to launch

A bit nervous, well a lot nervous really

you know we haven't been in the water

for eight and a half months and also you

know we've done jobs that are below the

water line so I just want to know that

we've got no leaks when we do get back

in the water

you know obviously I've tightened up

everything and checked it twice but you

still think you know what if I put it in

the water and the stern gland's

leaking or something like that. Still

connected to shore power that's the last

thing to be disconnected and we'll fire

up the systems and we'll get back into the water

so yes just a question of sitting and

waiting until Xaris feels that the wind

has dropped sufficiently

Well we've just put

the outboard engine on to the transom

with the dinghy and hooked up the fuel

tank and squeezed the bulb that squeezes

fuel through to the system and noticed

fuel leaking out of the outboard

cowling. So I've taking the cowling off and it

looks like the gasket on the carburetor

has deteriorated over time so it's too

early to call the mechanic in Limni

town at the moment so Xaris is going

to call in at 8 o'clock which probably

Xaris is quite happy about because the

wind and water seems to be getting a

little bit worse. It's too windy and

the waves are really quite strong. So

yeah so it's just deteriorated over time

and obviously we didn't check it before today

so we will wait and see at 8 o'clock

what the mechanic can do

so we're just sitting

in a holding pattern at the moment. I

mean if the weather doesn't clear up

then you know we could be here for

another night on the hard.

Yeah it depends on the weather

but I mean obviously we

don't want Xaris to try and put us in the water

if it's dangerous for him yeah

because he's the one that has to swim

around under the boat

So. But you know if we had this

delay we might not have noticed the

fuel leak so and we've got to get

that fixed because the dinghy is the car

We'll update you as soon as we know something

Well Harris the boatyard owner has just

taken me and the outboard engine into

Limni to the guy who fixes outboard

engines and he took one look at it and

said yeah the gasket is gone he said the

whole job will take about three hours

he's got to remove the exhaust system to

remove the carburetor and replace the

gasket but the thing is he's an

authorized Mercury technician so he

services a lot of them the where the

exhaust attaches to the main engine block

there was a gasket there that has to be

replaced and of course that means we

need to order a gasket kit and that

gasket kit must come from Athens and he

said it can take anything up to three

days to get the kit couriered from

Athens to Limni and we all know about couriers

so you know there's potentially three

days where we are stuck basically and of

course we're now kind of first in the

queue and a lot of other people in the

yard want to go and we're

I mean we could be moved to another

position in the yard but I think they

need to they want to use this sled as

well so it's a bit of an unknown yet

whether we will go in the water toda, it

still looks a bit rough so Xaris is not

happy about that. We might go in the

water tomorrow. If so then we'll have

to duck into the harbour port little

thing at Limni - we've just driven past

that and there is a space there for us

so yeah it's it's an unknown at the

moment so that's the latest update

You can hear the sound of the waves

crashing onto the pebbly shore here

behind me and the conditions are better

than yesterday, the wind is - has dropped

somewhat, the waves are smaller and

Xaris seems to be quite happy this

morning that we can safely launch so

today is Wednesday I'm trying to think I

think it might be Wednesday could be

Thursday. It's probably Wednesday so we're

going to launch today so

it's time to prep the boat

All right we are going, we are

now being reversed back

out of the boat yard

to the shoreline and have to say I'm

very nervous. Just hope that everything

down below is watertight. We will of

course check before they release us from

the sled

It seems so surreal, it's really weird it's

like after eight and a half months

cutting an umbilical cord to water and

electricity and toilet and shower

facilities back to self survival and

self-sufficiency

So Aannsha's at the bow ready to release

the line that's holding us tight onto

the trailer. Okay I think we're now

chocked on this trailer

and now the tractor will go back into

the yard and bring out the really long

skinny arm and connect that to the

trailer and then we'll finally be in the water

and I can go around and check all the through

hulls and most importantly burp that

stern gland and make sure there's no

water coming through there

I've watched them launch boats I don't

know maybe a dozen times or more so I

know basically what's going on at the

front but I just can't see, I don't have

any visual from here. Aannsha's on the bow

with tears ... yes

all right

lift up, chocks away

we're going in

There's a sound I haven't

heard for a long time

the slap of a wave against the stern

Barry, decide!

Okay! All right let's check inside

All right well that's a [censor bleep] excuse my French

bollocks position. The stern gland is

leaking from the shaft end so it's like

a drip drip drip drip. I think I can fix

it in place. Yeah so we're going back

onto the hard and then we'll get to work

on that straightaway. Shit

Well I've just put an extra piece

of rubber in between

the collar and the rubber stern gland

and we will go back in the water and see

if that holds. If not and it's still

leaking there is a plan B using this

stuff because it's leaking from the back

end of the collar of the stern gland so

there's actually no rotating propeller

at that point so I would be able to pack

this stuff into the the holes if any and

just make a seal around there using this

stuff. This will work while it's wet so

that's Plan B because we don't have any other plans

Just got to wait for Aannsha to get back

from the loo then we get the tractor

hooked up to us again and give it a

second go. All right let's try part two

my stomach is in absolute knots

Talk about splashus interruptus

Okay so that's a huge relief

I ... thinking too much about the stern gland I

burped the stern gland and heard the air

hiss out of it and then felt water

coming out so that's good, there's no

leak from the other end of the stern

gland now but thinking about the stern

gland too much

I completely forgot open the frigging

seacock for the raw water intake for the

engine but that's open now and we've got

heaps of water coming out of the exhaust

All systems are on

we have a GPS fix

Aannsha's just taking the lines off at the front

rudder is dead straight

our only part of debris is over off the

starboard

Okay bye bye

Bye bye Xaris, thank you

Bye bye boat yard

Next week in Sailing A B Sea we spend a

couple of nights at Limni town harbour

waiting for the outboard to be repaired

before island hopping in a south easterly

direction towards Turkey

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