Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure
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@Madame-Buttonfly and I took advantage of light winds and blue skies to pop around to Chichester for a night with friends. an excellent couple of days.
SAKURA approaching the lock gates (Chichester Marina is a locked marina) this morning on the way home to Gosport. Although it was approx high tide and the locks were working free-flow, SAKURA was on the large size for the lock and just the 2 of us on board, so I had agreed with the lock keeper, Alfie, in advance that he would shut the outer gates, we would then approach those gates and hold SAKURA in position on the engines and the thrusters, the inner gates were shut and once the water had settled down the outer gates would be opened and we could proceed out of the lock. Got a bit hairy in the eddies, but we got out with no chips in the gel coat or dents in the fenders. I'd discussed what we should do today with Alfie last night when I went up to thank him for letting us through free flow when we arrived. Again we got through unscathed, but it was touch and go, so I wanted some advice for today
About 5 miles from Gosport this afternoon...
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We lifted SAKURA out of the water today. A few things we needed to check/clean.
Needed to jet wash the crud off
Check the anodes - 1 we suspected as not working (proved right)
Plan some hole cutting to put in some access hatches to instal cleats on the swim platform
Check if there were any remnants of the rope/net we fouled on Boxing Day
Plan for a new application of anti-foul
The (sacrificial) anode we did not think was working, is the round one above the stern thruster tube. It is not corroded at all, so it is not doing its job! We checked for correct bonding etc and all looks OK.
This is what an anode that is doing its job should look like:
I replaced the one that is not working with a new one. Seems silly, but sometimes they just do not work....
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Some (well most) of the components I need to install the diesel purification system I'm putting onto SAKURA.
Modern diesel is a lot kinder to the planet than old-fashioned diesel but is a fucking dirty, festering, bug-ridden recipe that is bad for engines. Long story short, if you are going to use it infrequently (boats, agricultural machinery), you need to keep it clean, otherwise, your engines WILL fail on you......
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Also, lovely golden color on the dog-bones.
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@Giles I may be piling on info too quickly in my head in this thread, but it seems like you are adding a ton of custom equipment to Sakura. Is any of it offered aftermarket or in original build spec options from the dealer? Or where are you getting the idea for all of these little "fixes" or "conveniences" that seems to be modifying and hopefully improving many parts of the boat?
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I think the only thing that I am considering adding that was a costed option during the build is a watermaker. Mainly because I can install one for half the price of going with the yards option.
The diesel purification system I am currently adding was not an option, and frankly it is so important to me, that I wanted to be in 100% control.
The window demister system is not a requirement in the Med, which is where most of the Sasgas are used. So that is not offered as an option.
And I'm adding a lot of electrical systems/devices that will just make my life a lot easier.
I think, on the whole, most of what I am doing is stuff that I knew I wanted and knew that I would add sooner or later. And, I am an inveterate fiddler.
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Today's job is the continuation of the Diesel Purifier install. At the weekend I put holes through the partition between the engine room and the "tank room". I lined those with rubber radiator hose (I could not find grommets of the correct size) to protect the fuel hose. Today I cut out the insulation so that I could mount the backing plate onto a hard surface, then installed and piped up the purifier itself. The hoses go through to the tank room, but I need to cut some wood out of the way, as I can't get my arse through the narrow access panel. So attaching them to the tank will have to wait a day or two...
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when I saw the first pic it looked like you were making a cannibis farm
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