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On the very day they were due to finish,
it was discovered that the boat was taking on water.
There was a hole in the hull after
they hit something the previous night
and that led to a leak inside the boat.
The upshot of that is that our repairs
are more extensive beneath the waterline
and on the boat’s ‘nose’.
It is solely the crash box element which has failed
but the repair will still have to be substantial.
We were straight down to business the minute she arrived.
We unstepped the mast and lifted the boat onto the hard
and got down to work that same night.
We found out the extent of the damaged area
and worked on it until late into the night.
We then grabbed a few hours of sleep.
We are doing 2 or 3 shifts of 8-hours at the moment.
We are on schedule at the moment.
It is tight but we just need to link together
the different sequences one after the other
according to the curing and drying times for the glue,
the paint and the resin.
We have to prepare all that in advance for every leg.
We always carry out a meticulous check of the boat.
We are lucky to have the guy with us
who surveys the entire boat.
He spends a lot of his time checking all the areas
which are under a lot of stress when she is sailing.
It is part of the schedule to replace
some of the standard elements.
We have already sailed halfway around the world.
Everyone has their usual list,
added to which we have the damage to the bow
so that changes the tone a bit.
We knew it was a short stopover though.
Late tomorrow afternoon, Tuesday,
the mast will be ready so we can step it
whilst the boat is still on the hard.
In that way we can continue with attaching the boom,
the sails and loading the boat.
All the others things won’t go on hold
because of the work on the bow.
Then on Wednesday we will relaunch her before lunchtime
and then we can get straight back into sailing
as early as possible.
If we manage to pull all that off
we will be pretty happy with ourselves.