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| Holding the safety line for the sand diver insde Kiwi-wrap |
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| Beautiful blasted steel on the starport, old paint on the port |
Going through the annual maintenance of Kiwi in a foreign country
turns out to be truly a very interesting part of our voyage. Simply hanging out
on a Portuguese boatyard with local fisherman and fellow stranded sailors would
be. Getting equipment and supplies organized is an adventure of its own : ).
Nazare was chosen as location for lifting up Kiwi because of the cheap price of
the crane. By coincidence, there happens to be a guy living in one of the
boats, who we could rent equipment for sandblasting with an affordable price.
We took the decision to blast everything under waterline down to steel. Anyone
who knows about steel and corrosion understands that this is a rather courageous
and very delicate operation were success is dependent on
-right timing (there should be as little time as possible
between blasting and painting)
-right humidity (prior painting the steel must be clean and
dry)
- good quality of the sand, primer, workforce (more
important than what you do with a steel hull is
how well you do it)
How successful the operation will be, remains to
be seen with time. If nothing else, we have learned a lot! I myself have spent some weeks on
boatyards in Finland and Norway every single year of my life. This year’s
boatyard session is really special for following reasons:
-
-Boat maintenance work makes so much more sense
when the boat is sailed daily and not only for holidays
-
-Temperatures constantly above 15 degrees and lack
of rain makes everything sooo much easier. (It is actually possible to follow the
instructions on a paint jar.)
-
-Having all the time needed for the job makes a
big difference. Some (ex-)sailors seem to have stayed on this boatyard for
several years. If we need one more day to Finnish, it doesn’t really matter
anything.
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