Finally onboard!
The last months in Oslo have been busy: our lives had turned into a long to-do list of all the actions to carry out in a predetermined order. Clean up the house and put it up for sale. Pack up all our stuff : the stuff we’ll keep onboard, the stuff we’ll store onshore for a longer period, the stuff we’ll sell or give… then we had friends and family to visit, jobs to hand over, other friends to say goodbye to… four days before the moving truck left, Laure was still on a windpark somewhere in the middle of Brazil… and the house still for sale…
Not sooner had we landed in France than we got swept into the Christmas whirlpool: a train ride, family time, bubbles, another train ride, another family, more bubbles, one more train ride, friends, double bubbles, train again, then a truck packed with boxes… direction: Camille’s family home in Brittany! It’s a cold January morning (equivalent to a Norwegian April so that’s alright!) when we reach Pors Moro shipyard in Pont-l’Abbé, where our boat has been waiting for so long. Together at last!
All our stuff fits in the truck, but will it fit onboard ??
Cordova is still here, now our mission is to turn her into UtPåTur!
A boat doesn’t get any younger on the dry, and we are both excited and anxious when we climb the ladder to the cockpit: what will we find? First, the boat hasn’t received unwanted visits during our absence, good! Nothing seems to be missing from the deck even after the many storms over the last months: the mast is standing with its antennas, and the wind generator has all its blades! Everything seems to be in place outside and inside – although a yucky green layer of slime is carpeting all external surfaces. Let’s have a look at the engine now… mmmm the parts that looked corroded last summer are looking even worse now… and there’s cooling fluid leaking in the bilge… well then, that’s the first item of our new – guess what – to-do list!
Working in the shipyard
We’ve had months to think and dream about what we wanted to improve or customize onboard, and we already have a long list of works in mind. We throw ourselves at it with the focus we are used to, the focus of those whose lives is full of deliveries and who don’t have a minute to waste.
The corroded engine claims priority. Apart from the small leaks on the cooling system, everything seems fine. To be on the safe side, we decide to take apart the cooling system and give it a thorough check and clean. Maybe the o’rings are dry after a year out of the water and it will be enough to replace them? But the inside is ugly : one side is so corroded the sealing surface disappeared… oh well, there’s only so much we can do ourselves! After a few hours scratching and soaking in vinegar, we reach the conclusion that this is a serious issue. The engine is broken, before it even touched water…
Oops…. it was smart to open the heat exchanger to check inside though!
But hey, it’s the best of a bad situation: we are safe in a very friendly shipyard, close to a very competent Yanmar repair shop (Loc Marine Services in Loctudy)… it could have happened by night in the middle of a busy traffic lane crossing in the storm! The lady in charge of the repair shop sounds reassuring: “Yes, there are spare parts of that kind somewhere in the world” good … “three parts actually: one in Holland, and the other two in Japan”… what… uhm… “- then we’ll order the Dutch one please …” The part is ordered, and we just have to pray the gods of the supply chain…
We have spent the last twenty years (or more?) optimizing every day of our lives, so that all commitments and projects would fit. We need to slow down and accept that many events will arise which will be fully out of our control and will throw us off course. We know that about the weather, but the patient waiting is starting earlier than expected. Adventures, even on land :o)
Luckily, we have enough work to keep us busy for many weeks with all that we’ve planned:
Handling a life raft made easy with 2 pulleys and a Harken 56 winch!
Getting the life raft serviced – a full 50 kgs to be carried out of the boat and back in.
Building new shelves in the front cabin for our clothes. This is one of the biggest projects for these weeks: we have just enough wood (left over from the boat’s construction) and absolutely no carpentry skills. We spend days calculating, measuring and making cardboard mock-ups. There is no straight line nor right angle on a boat… but the end product turns out pretty nice! Totally worth the 2 weeks invested in it ;o) (well, it wasn’t full time)
Hoe to build boat furniture in 8 steps!
Cushions and mattresses are getting overhauled too! For the cabins, we brought our mattresses from Oslo and slaughter them with a big kitchen knife until they reach the desired shape and size. Camille’s mother is an exceptional seamstress and takes on the challenge: she will sew 18 meters of cushions (1/100th of a nautical mile) in less than 3 weeks… and will use no less than 1km of thread!
“La Mamou” posing in front of her production :o)
Laure presents… our now private front cabin!
The front cabin also needs curtains, which are cut in the curtains we brought from Oslo, plus a little piece of the curtain Laure used to have as a student (with nice boats on it :o) )
We buy a spinnaker and install the corresponding fixtures on the deck and mast. In order to fix the spinlock to the mast, special tools were required, which we off course didn’t have. But as usual, the shipyard workers were super-kind with us and loaned us immediately everything we needed!
Quite a few specific tools are needed to simply fix a spinlock blocker on a mast!
We buy a windvane and get aluminum plates welded on the back to mount it (again, through the wonderful team of Pors Moro shipyard).
We thread the 3rd reef line through the boom.
Activity painting on chain.
We check and mark the anchor chains and check the windlass.
We install a new anemometer.
We make a lid for the heads.
We change the name and decoration on the hull !
Thou shall be named UtPåTur!
And this cunning globe-trotter booby will guide thou behind the horizon!
Deep cleaning under the sun is not so painful, and it’s so rewarding to see the boat becoming clean again.
… and we scrub scrub scrub! Every square inch is returned from green to its original color :o)
Day after day, the boat becomes a little more ours. UtPåTur, our new home, which will soon feel like our true home!
Moving in!
As soon as the front cabin shelves are done, we can hide away most of the tools and turn the boat from a workshop into a livable space. Boxes start to appear, every day a couple of them, hoisted onboard, opened on the table and their content carefully placed in their new home. We keep wondering with a scared look at the pile of boxes remaining: will everything fit onboard?
Starting with kitchenware is easy, their place is clearly in the kitchen. We had already put away a few pots and pans salvaged from Saltimbanque without any noticeable impact on storage space. UtPåTur swallows the rest of our cooking tools without blinking. What’s more: there is so much space left that dishes are lose inside the cupboard and could shake and break in a heavy sea… so, we build a few separations in cardboard and foam.
Food is no issue either, and the slot against the hull destined to jams and preserves is clearly not full yet… we’ll have to step up our jam production! Our hiking gears and water sport stuff take up only half of the rear cabin. UtPåTur’s storage capacity doesn’t cease to amaze us.
A tiny little part of our stuff, now nicely tucked away in the various storage spaces of UtPåTur!
Last test: books and clothes … Yep, everything is in, and by a good margin! Now, this looks like a home :o)
Brrrrrr! Fortunately this is still April-like conditions for us, otherwise we might start complaining about the cold weather like all the French people around!
On the 30th January, after a good dinner with sailing friends from the Atlantic, we spend our first night onboard. Rarely slept so well! In the morning, our eyes open to blue sky shining through the porthole above our heads … but it’s not warm, the porthole is covered with droplets, due to condensation. Weird, the drops are not falling, our duvets are dry… wait, can it be ice? Well, yes it is … iced portholes… what did we leave Norway for :oS
The last sprint
Still no news from the engine’s missing part. Spring tides are fast approaching and high water levels are required to launch the boat from this shipyard. If we miss the end of the week, it will be two more weeks to wait until end of February. One day when we are not onboard, we call the mechanic, prepared for the worst… but to our surprise, not only had they received the part, but the famous Manu (the engine expert) is almost done with the installation. Efficient!
Now that the engine is running smoothly again, the launching date is confirmed and all that is left is to check all primary systems: navigation systems (rigging, engine, mooring lines and fenders, pilot and windlass, mast lights…), electrical systems (wind generator, solar panels, batteries), and “comfort” systems as they’re called (heating and cooking stoves… where does survival stop and comfort start…)
Everything looks shipshape and ready. We install the sails, hoist the flag, and here we go: UtPåTur is ready for the adventure – and so are we!
UtPåTur and the crew are ready for adventure!
So good to see the detail and enjoy following your progress. Hard work, rewarding effort, exciting days!