Broken Propshaft!

12th July – Repairs and Ready to Go

Next morning was a bit of a post mortem. We all agreed we had coped pretty well but confidence was low because what else could go wrong? We seemed to be going backwards rather than forwards.

Chris and I spent the next couple of days with our heads in the bilges, dismantling, finding parts and rebuilding. Chris was just great – full of engineering common sense and practical ideas – without him we would have had a much harder time. He and I took the dingy up the river back to Bluewater marine again to ask them to make us some new studs and within 15 minutes Geoff had made the parts and we had the makings of a solution to the problem. Chris was still full of enthusiasm despite all the problems - considering he had come out for a holiday and he still seemed to have confidence in the whole escapade.

Finally it was finished and we started up the engine again. A bit of a rattle but not too bad. One of the engine mount bolts kept coming loose though and Gill was not happy about leaving until Bluewater had taken a look. But we took Petronella for a test motor round the anchorage then anchored and had a swim before going back into the marina for the last night.

9th July – Oops, there goes a Universal Joint
An early start saw me to the top of the mast for the first time. A combined bosun’s chair main halyard plus foot loop topping lift worked well and I managed to find the problem and effect a temporary repair though the radio may be impaired as the aerial now touches the radar reflector.

Sea trials today. Motored out into the Atlantic and tried out the new bowthruster. It’s great except that when you press the port button we move to starboard and vice versa – still never mind. Practiced picking up man overboard buoys and then put up the sails and had a couple of hours of increasingly good sailing as the wind got up. But as we put the engine on at the mouth of the river ….. CLONK, CLONK, CLONK. What the hell is that? A quick look in the engine proved the worst. The studs joining the gearbox to the forward prop shaft universal joint had worked loose and we had no drive. Instead the prop shaft was being turned by the prop itself and bouncing loose all over the place. Not good.

Chris and I then spent two or three hours upside down in the bilges trying to determine whether we could bodge things up sufficiently to return to the anchorage whilst Gill kept the boat sailing well away from the shore. But the wind blew up to force 6/7 and as evening approached we decided that the most sensible thing was to call the marina and ask for a tow in. They sent 2 macho men in a powerful rib to tow us in and we ended up on the visitors’ pontoon for the night. All together not a very auspicious start.

Absolutely knackered but not too downhearted we went for a rip off Pizza before crashing out.

8th July – Launch Day
We turned the workshop of a boat into a vessel reasonably set up for sailing this morning before the tractor arrived to pull us out. All went smoothly and as we were rechocked to wait for the travel lift we said goodbye to Fernanda, Claudia, Mario and little Bruno grinning whilst his tracheostomy kept him breathing. Even the usually dour Senor managed a smile for Gill.

The big travel lift arrived, lifted us up and moved down the road towards the river, plastic protectors in place to protect Petronella’s hull. We were chased down by the small lift also with a boat slung below it. As we were turned one of the unused slings got caught in the wheel of the lift and 14 tons of Petronella swung and vibrated. All seemed well though and we got back on board and were swung into the water. Petronella was back in her element.

We motored gently down to the anchorage and the anchor held at the second attempt. Who should be there but Peter on Stella Marais.

Unfortunately we discovered the VHF aerial had come adrift from the main mast at some stage during the day so that was another thing to fix.

7th July – Holding Tank Installed and Liferaft Serviced

Two days of graft and the holding tank is installed. Amazingly by measuring up about 26 times when we were last out I managed to get the dimensions and fitting locations correct. Chris and I deliberated a lot on the best fixing mechanism then went and bought wood etc from Bluewater for the job. Some parts though needed a trip into Portimao. The ratchet straps were a special challenge so we got a taxi out to MaxMat where we were indeed successful. We needed petrol too so walked and found a filling station and then struggled back to the boat via the exhibition stadium, Portimao station and back over the bridge.

Finally too NaveDiesel got round to servicing the liferaft. Gill watched as they did it and although it is a good raft it does not have many provisions with it – so the grab bag contents are about to swell further with food and medical supplies. Let’s just hope we never need them.

At the same time Gill was provisioning with daily visits to E LeClerc and Lidl. We intend to eat well but on the boat most days as eating out and marinas are the most expensive avoidable expenses. Gill also finished the paint work, both green and white.