May 2022 – Part 1
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Having arrived at SRF on Thursday, excited for the works to begin, by lunchtime Shensi was in a sling and being lifted out of the water and we were able to see the bottom of our very own iceberg! Surprisingly she didn’t look to have suffered as much as we’d expected – there were naturally a lot of (tiny) mussels below the waterline, and a few dings and dents, but nothing too major thank goodness, and I was pleased to see that the rope cutter on the prop had been doing its job.
The anodes looked in pretty good order too, not as depleted as I’d expected them to be by any means, and there was some debris in the thrusters.
Power washing was the next job and took a couple of hours in all, after which it was time to transport her into a boat shed for the next stage.
Unfortunately progress quickly came to a temporary halt as the tractor broke down within a few feet, and once up and running there was some difficulty manoeuvring Shensi along and around a corner, but finally she was inside and we were able to settle into our ‘land-based’ home for the duration.
Sadly though she then just sat there for several days whilst discussions were had as to what to do and how to progress, and the initial assessment of the paintwork was not good news as the general agreement was that all the paint below the waterline needed to be totally removed. Expensive.
Whilst all this was going on Nicki and the dogs (mostly) and I made a few forays around the area and into Harlingen, and found a few little gems – street art, walking routes along the dyke and the beach plus a good sized green area for the dogs to enjoy, and cafes (of course).
From then on though, everything seemed to grind to a halt for several days, partly because of the weekend followed by a national holiday for Remembrance Day, but mainly an apparent lack of planning, until finally an engineer turned up to start work on the prop shaft and then to sort out installation of the new batteries – it felt like progress was on the cards.
As regards the paintwork, because there was concern over rusting of the hull, Klaas and his team informed us that Shensi would need to be sand blasted above the waterline, following which she would be moved out of the shed to be hydro-blasted below the waterline, and all that before any painting could begin. So it seems likely we’ll be in the boatyard for somewhat longer than we’d planned.
Once again, it was a few days until anything was started, but then the sand blasting was underway and completed. A few more days then passed before we were moved outside again and the hydro-blasting was carried out (two men over the next two days).
Unfortunately two weeks in, Nicki was hit with a nasty bout of sciatica and was out of action for quite a while, so, partly because of this and also because we could see we’d be in the boatyard for some while longer, we decided to return to Groningen to collect the car to give us more flexibility, which turned out to be a godsend (not to mention a day away from the boatyard).
By this point we were midway through May, and a lovely, fine weekend gave me the opportunity to power wash the decks etc after the sand- and hydro-blasting had left the exterior in a filthy state.
