Ballast, bilges and bugs

So the original plan was to set sail on Saturday (two days ago) at 10 a.m.  This would have been quite a challenge as we had people working on Marelle up to Friday afternoon, and no time to put any food or clothes on board, let alone finish any of the wiring jobs left to do, or try out the new jib etc.

Last week our crew unfortunately fell ill, so as it is now just our own schedule to worry about we decided to stay a few days and get some jobs done.

I cleaned the bilges of lots of smelly stuff and old paint, bits of wood, screws, bolts, sawdust, and pencils.  With some persuasion from hand pumping to prime it, the automatic bilge pump is now working again.

We connected up the new windlass on Saturday and tested it, and finally moved all the anchor chain into the new chain locker next to the mast step.  This is where Marelle was designed to have her anchor chain originally, but what with this and converting the bow from a sail and rope store into a lovely bow cabin, we have taken so much weight out of the bow that she was not floating right, on her waterline.  Martin decided we should use the bottles of Bollinger I stocked up with as ballast, so we now have 15 bottles stowed in the fore peak locker.  Sorted!

Yesterday Martin drew off some fuel from the diesel tank, and it came out with a lot of sludgy muck. We decided this was probably diesel bug, which is worrying as it can block fuel filters and stop the engine.  We haven't had any symptoms from the engine, but as we are about to go on a long trip (if we ever finish all these jobs!) all the diesel would get stirred up in the tank and it could dislodge the slime from the bug and block up the filter.  Today Martin drained the diesel tank, and I spent a few hours cleaning the tank out of black gloopy slime.  We have now refilled the tank with new diesel and treated it with Marine 16, a biocide that should kill off any remaining bug.

Tomorrow we are going to get a few spare fuel filters and then hopefully start on some of the wiring jobs - cabin lights and the new galley sink pump.