Rampage ready for launch. (Note the “scaffolding” at her starboard quarter on which we balanced to fit the new bumper, paint the boot-top and polish her topsides.)
Last night was our first night afloat this season and we are enjoying the utter peace and tranquillity after a very busy winter and a hot, tiring, two weeks living in the yard doing maintenance work. Our time on the hard has not been uneventful as I shall explain.
The first hint of a problem was when D suddenly leapt to his feet at about 11p.m. and let out a string of expletives. He suddenly remembered having started to fill the aft water tank before going to cook supper and had completely forgotten about it. The aft tank generally takes five to ten minutes to fill; the tap had been flowing for approximately two hours, (yes, we ate very late that evening.) Suffice to say we had our very own pond on the ground at the back of the boat, the water tank having long since filled to capacity and beyond. However, having hastily turned off the tap, we thought that was the end of the matter. The yard is very dry and drains quickly, so we retired to bed, feeling guilty for having wasted so much water.
Next morning however, Duncan noticed a reflection through a finger-hold in one of the deck plates and we then discovered that the bilges were filled to capacity and about to overflow. Had we gone to bed the previous evening without turning the tap off, we would probably have been woken at some point by water invading our bunk. We hastily turned on the bilge pump and the water started to pour out of the back of the boat.
Now it so happens that one of the tasks we have done this year is to replace the rubber bumper on the stern which had been much damaged by all the UV. In order to do this, and also some gel coat repairs on the stern, we had scaffolding set up at the back of the boat. This is not scaffolding to conform with U.K. health and safety regs mind you, but a frame on wheels with two layers of planks balanced on it! Anyway, the thing was fiendishly heavy to move so, rather than keep moving it, we had been clambering up and down it whenever we wanted to get on or off the boat. Trust me – it made using the normal 4 metre ladder feel like luxury.
When the bilge pump was turned on, water cascaded down from the exit point to Rampage’s swim platform, down again onto the first (higher) plank, then on to the next layer before finally dropping the final metre or so to the ground. It was impressive – we created our very own water feature – and emptying the bilges went on for ages.
Afterwards, Duncan had a happy time contorted and twisted nearly double identifying the source of the leak and then replacing the breather valve on the water inlet which had come adrift and allowed water to fill the rest of the boat. On the plus side, we do now have extremely clean bilges.
This doesn’t really do our water cascade justice but I wasn’t prepared to try and climb down for a better shot while the water was flowing!
Chaos inside as we empty the bilges.
Rampage is, in fact, looking particularly lovely right now as we made use of the scaffolding and the extra time that we’d given ourselves in the yard in order to polish the topsides. Now, you must understand that we are not “Shiny Boaters” and only do this very occasionally as it is very hard work and the result is largely cosmetic. Still, she does now look very shiny and pretty.
However, as if to prove the point that appearances are not everything, when we were lowered into the water yesterday, the new water pump for cooling the engine refused to work. Since we were blocking the launching berth we were solemnly towed round the pier out of the way and left to sort things out. Duncan spent the next hour or so getting increasingly filthy and oily as he delved into the bowels of the engine bay, taking things apart and putting them back together. Eventually he was successful and with water splurging joyfully from the outlet point, we were finally on our way.
Our adventures, though paled beside those of others in the yard with us. Our Dutch friend, Eelco, stood up into his propeller and gave himself a five centimetre slice in the top of his head which meant a hospital trip and quite a few stitches. On our final day, a friend of his also cut his head, though less dramatically, by walking into the sharp edge of a solar panel. By far the most serious injury however, was suffered by an American lady who fell four metres off her boat, hit their bicycles below, before landing on the steel framework that supports the boat. We get so used to pottering about the deck that it’s easy to forget how high we are or how easy it is to fall. It has been a salutary lesson to all of us who were there.
As we often do, we have decided to spend our first few days in the anchorage near Vonitsa on the Inland Sea. We have now learned that it is called Ormos Agios Markou (St Mark’s Bay) as opposed to the Bay of Pigs or Goat Bay as we have always previously referred to it. The weather forecast for this week was not encouraging – rain and thunderstorms. However so far, apart from an occasional flash of lightening during the night, it has been very pleasant. This morning we bent on the foresail and prepared the halyard and reefing lines etc. for the mainsail. If it is dry and still first thing tomorrow morning, we’ll do the mainsail – and much bigger job & far more likely to cause problems, frankly.
Rampage at anchor today in Ormos Agios Markou (St Mark’s Bay) in the Gulf of Amvrakikos.
Another season of adventure aboard Rampage has begun, albeit we are not yet afloat…
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