Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure

[Giles]

So, it has been tough fishing. The GT’s (primary target species), were just not playing ball. We had a few hits between us (probably about 30), but the fish were very nervous and coming up short, the only one of us to land a few was Szymon.

We had amazing sport on light tackle and caught lots and lots of lots of different species.

Have booked for next year, a month earlier when the weather will be more settled.

[Tago Mago]

@Giles Did you get to see any of Oman or was that not part of the plan?

[Giles]

Saw a lot of Halanyat, it’s a brutal place. Hot, arid and barren. Lots of civil engineering going on, it’s mainly government and military as they try and get on top of people, gun and drug smuggling, Yemen and Somalia being the active in all 3.

Most peoples idea of a desert island will not be this

[Giles]

We have a 4 hour drive to Salalah tomorrow, but the scenery will be mostly, hot arid and brutal

[Tago Mago]

@Giles you make it sound so appealing

[Giles]

I like it like this

[Giles]

came back to mainland Oman yesterday. 10km from home, we saw birds working the water, so we diverted to take a look. The sea was a mass of sardines and busting fish, we pulled a load out, then finished the journey....

Mahi Mahi for dinner.

[Giles]

I thought I may be able to get away without antifouling UKIYO, just dive her a couple of times a year and get the growth of with an abrasive sponge.

WRONG

The weed growth is ridiculous.

So I pulled her out today and started the ultra-shit job of wet and drying the hull, then applying primer and antfoul.

I managed one coat of primer today before my body said - fuck that.

As I said to @goosehd earlier, funny that today, I suddenly had no friends

I also got the "2 MESSY" logo off, so I can apply the UKIYO one.

[Matt]

I would have helped you. She looks great.

[Giles]

Up at Sparrow's and got a 2nd coat of primer on early doors. Then managed do 2 coats of antifoul, weather was complicit. Will lift her off the blocks tomorrow morning and touch up the bits that I could not get to (where the blocks and jacks are holding her upright), then back into the water in time to catch a flight to Hamburg (for Bremen) on Thursday.

I am very pleased, but ache like crap from groveling around in gravel for 2 days

And the 2Messy decal has been removed, will try and get UKIYO decal applied before she gets put back in the water.

[Giles]

I may have mentioned. UKIYO has a rubbish manual windscreen wiper. To drive, I need one hand on the steering wheel and one on the throttle, that leaves me with nothing spare to dick around with a wiper blade. And of course, the more spray on the windscreen, the worse the conditions, the more I need 2 hands to drive the boat...

So I'm fitting an electric wiper. I've never fitted one before and there are a lot of unknowns and variables. So, I rigged up a ply windscreen and did a test install in the garden, I had a 12volt lawnmower battery lying around, so that provided me with the DC. I'm glad I did, there were a number of issues to resolve, which would have been another level of pain, doing it on the boat.

Not least of which is that I installed the motor upside down, took me ages, and a lot of cursing (of the Dutch), to work out why the blade was parking on the left when it should have been parking on the right

[Giles]

Because I am a ham-fisted twat, I bust one of the zipper pulls on the new rear deck awning. I then realised, that if I replaced all the pulls, the irritating metal to metal noises we get from the zips, when the awning catches the wind, would disappear, so zipper pull upgrades being made.

[motojobobo]

Those zipper pulls look awesome!

[Giles]

I really like our zipper pulls, and decided to add similar pulls to the shock-cord tensioners, that will help us a lot getting the shock cord on and off the lacing mushrooms, especially when only one hand is free...

Production line is in full swing

[Bridger]

The boat will go faster with all those additional knots!

[Giles]

Long story short, Paula and I tried to pull the starboard rudder off the transom last Thursday. Rapid, unscheduled disassembly as American space PR people call it......

Damage to transom, rudder and rudder mount, and water coming into the engine room. Not in volume, but enough to be thankful for bilge pumps

Had her pulled out on Friday, first lift out of the day which I was very thankful for....

Today, Matt (a fishing mate) and I removed the rudder assembly to give the glass fibre guys access to the damage and the rudder assembly put in the car, so I can go from engineering firm to engineering firm trying to find someone who can unbend stainless steel, preferably in a hurry.

[tody]

I think 'ouch' is the appropriate comment to that. I‘m sure you‘ll fix it.

[seawolf]

Ouch, indeed.

[ROman]

Double ouch.

[Giles]

Old school light engineering company 5 miles from here, has the rudder assembly and say that fixing the bracket is easy, a little unsure about the rudder stock itself. Will disassemble and let me know. I'm taking that as a moderate win.

Meeting glass fibre guy at the boat at noon to look at work required to transom. He does all the work for David and Alex Thomson and was recommended by them, so names dropped I'm taking that as a win.

Feeling a lot more positive thatn I was at 07:00 this morning....