Maintenance Week 1.. 

Carl to Oram’s yard… Sorry where did you say the gap was for the hoist?’

And afterwards… phew!!

Sunday 10^th    January

The crews of Discoverer, Adventure and Challenger from Leg 7 were kindly escorted to Auckland airport after a couple of days of RNR, where crew meal send offs and typical NZ activities, such a sky diving and visiting the Auckland Tower for civilised evening cocktails were encountered. We must initially thank the very kind hospitality of Lt Commander R Saynor of the New Zealand Navy who, at their HQ Auckland barracks in Devonport, fed, watered and accommodated the crew with a chance to sit by the pool in the glorious NZ sunshine for 2 nights before departing back to the snowy UK.

 Incoming Challenger Skipper Mike Symes, and out going Skippers and Mates Paul, Vaughan, Neil, Nikki and Carl cracked on with compiling the defect lists in Orams yard, where the boats were taking a well earned rest.  The maintenance crews would be working along side Chris Brown, Naval overseer, who would be co-ordinating the contractors the IRAMS yard.    A plan of attack was agreed and set to making the boats ready for the next leg. Arguably the hardest leg of Exercise Translgobe, departing in two weeks, Auckland to Montevideo. With already 7 legs complete and many miles under the belt since last maintenance there was a lot to do. Many thanks must go to the IPT  crew of Martin Hawkins, BASS Team Leader,   Gary Trowbridge refit and repair manager and Jack Anderson Deck officer for their amazing financial support.

Monday 11^TH January

Initially the main battens were measured and spare battens restowed. The split ones, which seemed to be unanimously the top 2 , would be replaced before departing for the long leg of the Southern Ocean. Subsequently the famous square blue spares boxes were brought, one by one up into the pit of each boat into the glaring sun and parts from impellers to gas isolator valves were found and not found.

The idea was parts would be counted against the inventory so the skippers could compile a list of ‘what they had’ against what they should have per the inventory, to enable spares to be shared around sensibly. This would ensure all boats had working spares, before any gaps were filled by flying spares out from the UK. Of course all ensured they had a Uruguay flag! Generator checks were initiated by the contractors and Tim started on the assessing on the rigging on all three boats.

Tuesday 12^th January.

A busy day at the yard in the sunny land of Auckland began with an early start  to enable all three Challenge yachts to be lifted by a hoist which looked severly underload. The tyres were fit to burst but we were reassured the crane was able to lift 60 tons. Adventure was first up, and by 11am all three boats were lifted and crew aboard back into the blue box mode. The heat was tiring and the awnings helped to break the heat and maintain the work rate. Scott and the other electricians were aboard like busy bees, discovering and sorting the various ailments including misconnecting flood lights on Adventure. Whilst the bunk head bulbs that needed 24v 5w or 10w, well lets just say the debate started. Tim was still working on the rigging and the engineers started working on the steering on Adventure which had been causing problems for a while, as those on leg 6 will remember. Lots of work in progress, long hours at the yard..

Wednesday 13^th January

Another busy day at the yard where, with all spares boxes checked, tidied and inventory taken, skippers began negotiating and trading spares. 2 fuel pumps to Disco from Adv, 10 M6 20 ALU screws from Adv to Disco, one clew strop from Disco to Adv,  2 rolls of masking tape from Challenger to Adv. This provided much amusement, with a little bit of I will give you this if you can give me this type of affair.  With Becky trying to get rid of 300 black bin liners that Challenger seemed to have collated.  But in all fairness there was a serious side,  skippers collectively tried to ensure all boats had enough of what we needed per the inventory. Tactics to avoid excess weight and create more space weren’t employed. Mean while, Chippies were aboard running through their list of chores and the boats were becoming fast hives of contract men, Tim was still on rigging, Sean was still on the diesel leak on Disco and a man was assessing a crack in Adventures boom. Then there was the steering which was still being pulled apart.

In the afternoon, Vaughan, Becky, Nikki and Chris headed off down route14 motorway over to the Sail loft at Doyles, which is in Rosebank on the NW side of town. The place was simply amazing. The main work area was big as a football pitch and clearly a motivated and professional team lived here. We arrived to see all three main sails laid out,  details were soon discussed as to essential repairs on these and subsequently the other sails. After long discussions on the damage to leech lines, luff boxes, sliders, patches, battens, logos, cringles, tell tells,  we managed a quick peak at how Doyles make their the stratus sails… no cameras allowed. Meanwhile back at the yard  spares agreed and negotiated  we being exchanged from boat to boat up and down the ladders.  This day also saw the disembarkation of poorly Pete the spinnaker pole from Adventure who was lowered from the rocky heights of the deck to the ground beneath her. This was a parting ceremony on two accounts, one for Neil and Nikki but also for the pole itself as it fell into two parts following the removal of the famous first aid unsharpiness treatment of gaffa tape and a few old rags. 

Vaughan, as ever in his crocks, went home with very blue feet. Even the shower cubicle is still blue.. no guessing what colour the antifoul is on all three boats!! 

Thursday 14^th January

The rudder would need to be off Adventure today so already on stilts, Adventure was lifted again in situ to enable the rudder to be dropped.  On Discovery, Mike and Carl lead the way in chores and clearly had too much time on their hands. When they were asked to assist Tim to replace main and trysail track. They spent at least 20 minutes cleaning their halyards that really should have had just a sheet over. Meanwhile the galley inventory raised a question…just how many egg cups do you need going through the Southern ocean? Vaughan, as ever provided a sensible and straight forward answer ‘well it depends on leeway, so you can get a straight loaf of bread made.. simply the more leeway the more egg cups needed’

Friday 15^th January

Today concluded five hard days of work on the yard and the end of week one of maintenance.  Water chemicals were put in the water tanks and workmen continued to busy themselves fixing door latches and making emergency wash boards fit. Life jackets were serviced and Vaughan appeared with emergency supplies of goodies including exciting items such buckets and brushes, and electrical tape of all sorted colours.  Logan from Doyles called by to talk about how the sails were coming on and progress with the hanks and batten materials. It was made official Adventure’s rudder - pitting and erosion had caused the bearing to bind. Challenger’s shaft is now straight and the propeller has gone away for balancing and the engine needs a slight re alignment. The Raymarine expert confirmed and mended Adventures radar, which was out by a few too many degrees  and Challengers heading issues. On a cosmetic front, under cabin bungy and netting was freshened up on Adv.

Skipper of Adventure, Nick Trundle arrives tomorrow and with a busy programme next week, to name a few jobs, sorting the famous issues of Adventures’ rudder out, compass swings on all three,  fix sections of broken main and tri track, sails back from Doyles, put the main sails back on, sourcing food for the six week leg this will keep us busy. Then we aim to splash the boats on Wednesday…watch this space!  

Yours truly,

Vaughan, Paul, Becky, Mike, Carl, Neil and Nikki.