Watusi Woman - Splash Down Sailor

Splash down! At last! Watusi 2 is back in the water.
Not without a couple of hiccups unfortunately. First up, we were in the water supported by the sealift, Captain Hubby cranked the motor, put her in gear and... nothing happened. No gears. Great. That was one part of the boat that hadn't actually needed repairs.
So, a tow job by 2 dinghies to pull and push us into a berth. A check of the gear cable and whatever other working parts there were and it was an easy fix. The little red button you push to engage the gears was stuck. A short spray of WD40 and ta-da... a working gear stick. Cheapest bit of maintenance to date.

Tow job!

a mechanical stow away

A test run out into the bay seemed like all was going well. And then there was a water leak. No biggie. A tighter clamp should sort that out. The boiling hot propeller shaft, so hot it burnt Hubby's finger, was a different story. Some brainstorming was going on to figure out the cause of this big issue.

In the meantime, here's a re-cap of the work done on Watusi 2. First mention has to be the fabulous new cockpit cushions that I've been hanging out for in what feels like forever. Add to that, the new dodger, some homemade pillows and side weather covers and she's looking pretty in the cockpit.
The saloon has also benefitted from my sewing endeavours, with a spruce up of cushions and a revived lee cloth.

a mess, then a clean slate

all prettied up

There was the new antifoul paint job on the hull that first entailed sanding back the original antifoul and grinding off the barnacles and rust spots. And my fingertips. 'Dirty job' is an understatement, I can tell you. Black yuck that stuck to everything. Like clothes, skin, hair and nails. Took some scrubbing just to get semi clean each day. For some reason I always managed to smear a good portion of black on my face 🤔.

Then the was the painting of the hull with the same awful black antifoul paint. And I thought it was hard to get off your body when it was just dust. The paint itself needs either a scraper or a good dose of thinner to remove it, especially when you get it in your hair. Yep, who else but me would manage to get a huge patch of paint in my hair. I had to soak it and rub it with paint thinner to work it out of my blonde hair. Either that or dye it all black. I only smelt like paint thinner for a few days after. And the hull looks fabulous.

There was the prop shaft that was removed to fit new bearings. The rudder also had to be removed and that involved digging a two foot deep hole under the rudder to drop it down into so that the prop shaft could be removed.
Bearings ordered, installed, well... 2 out of 3 installed. 3rd one needed to be re-ordered. And the days ticked by. Finally it too was installed, shaft put back on only to find out our prop shaft had a slight bend to it. So it was off to some workshop somewhere to get that straightened. Then Chinese New Year hit. Workshop shut down for a week. The rush job on our shaft was no rush job at all.

New waterpumps were ordered from China, modified at an engineering workshop, one successfully installed and the other stashed as a back up. This means no more hand pumping water out of the bilge for this 1st mate.

Hubby got stuck into the rust spots on the deck while I cleaned the teak trims and polished stainless steel. So many rust spots, so much stainless steel.

our spruced up cockpit

cleaning stainless steel rails

undercoating the under hull

a prop shaft and a rudder back on

We pushed back the launch date by 4 days. Then another couple of days. Then the tide was wrong for 4 days. Then the sealift was booked up for 5 days. Patience is a virtue apparently. I've certainly being forced to learn that lesson.

Finally, after a second sea trial, all seems well. No leaks, no overheated engine or prop shaft, and the boat still floats. So, sails up and away we go, further north and into the beautiful waters of Thailand.

Until next time, Watusi Woman - virtuous sailor, out.

our last sunset at the pangkor marina