However, waking to a terrible chemical smell overnight, forcing us to close all the hatches, left us both feeling groggy with headaches on Wednesday morning; not a good start to our day and something we could have done without, not to mention the fact that some tasks grew in size and expense.
One such task included our galley tap that decided to start wobbling around the evening before we departed for Ireland. To access the broken part, the entire sink had to be removed, but then we couldn’t get the replacement plumbing piece we needed and, instead, an entire new tap had to be purchased and fitted.
Reestablishing our Iridium-Go service wasn’t a simple task either, after discovering that we couldn’t reactivate our existing sim card. Deciding to buy a new one instead, to keep matters simpler, or so we thought, Roy set off to the satellite shop in town, but encountered numerous issues with the provider and was ultimately unable to get a new card; first they ran out of printer paper and Roy was asked to return in an hour. When he returned, they had problems with their computer system and he was informed that they would contact him later in the day by phone. When we eventually received that phone call it was a day later and the price had mysteriously increased significantly. That was our cue to go through the hassle of reactivating our existing card!
The issue, however, in reactivating our existing card, although we’d originally purchased it through PredictWind, was that they claimed it wasn’t one of their sim cards. That meant tracking down the actual provider. Fortunately we managed to find out, through Iridium-Go, which service provider the sim card belonged to. After contacting them, completing the PDF form they sent us and a number of followup phone calls later, we eventually had a working system again by yesterday. Testing it took a bit of time, though, given that we were both a little rusty on its use, but by yesterday evening we could send and receive emails and text messages, post a blog, make and receive a phone call and download weather, the latter after having to pay PredictWind an astronomical fee for their weather forecasts, an increase of 30%. Regardless, it was all working! Thankfully, activating our Immarsat service was a lot easier.
While Roy was busy with all that, Elaine was delighted to discover that the laundry service at the marina was a self-service facility as well, with a number of large washing machines and dryers. Two washing machine loads later and the use of a large dryer, a month’s worth of laundry was completed, with the exception of a few items that needed to be dried on the wash-lines. Although very expensive compared to other parts of the world, at last, something was simple and easy!
After fitting the new galley tap, Roy finished his efforts on the engine control panels, which then just need to be fitted, a task he left until yesterday, but one that made a huge difference to the aesthetics of the helmstation. Of course, finding a loose wire in the process, required some troubleshooting today, before reconnecting it and explained why the ammeter suddenly stopped working en route to Gibraltar.
It was 1700, after turning over both engines and starting the generator to ensure these were all in working condition, by the time we called it a day. We were both exhausted and our headaches were exacerbated by the constant banging and grinding that took place all day by a marina staff member, who was working on the little boat next to us.
Dealing with an individual who was not empowered to make a common sense decision at Bank of Ireland was the last straw for Elaine, however. This person, no matter what proof was provided, would not accept the only document we have onboard that showed Elaine’s full name and our residential address together, while all the other documents they requested showed a combination of her names and initials. Fedup and frustrated, she informed the individual to proceed with Roys details alone. Anything to get this particular task finalised.
Detailed research on counties Donegal, Leitrim and Roscommon brought our day to a close.
Yesterday we continued with the rest of our tasks that we needed to complete, including replacing the base of the port aft head (aka toilet) that had started to leak a few weeks ago, check our provisioning supplies we still had onboard to finalise our provisioning list for our Atlantic Ocean crossing and then take a phone call from a yacht broker in the US while we were enjoying a morning coffee. This call resulted in yet another task being added to our list and had Elaine knee deep in contracts for the remainder of the day, something we weren’t expecting to be doing until we reached the Caribbean.
The good news of the day was that our Yellowbrick tracker had arrived safe and sound at Justine and Paul’s.
Our last task of the day was to visit noonsite so Elaine had an idea of the entry procedures into Morocco.
Today, while Elaine walked to the marina office to get our key back, get details on a taxi service and notify the office staff of our intended departure date, Roy attended to the aft port head again, since there was still a small leak in a diffferent part of the contraption, but easily rectified thankfully. Next up was a walk to the COVID-19 clinic at the hospital. Unfortunately, though, the vaccines had not arrived yet in Gibraltar and we’ll be long gone before they do. The same situation applied to the flu shot. Since we were close to Morrison’s anyway, we popped in to get a few top up provisions, in particular, meat to start filling our freezer again slowly for our passage to the Canary Islands and our time there until we set sail for the Caribbean. Given that Justine and Paul have particular dietary requirements, we’ve decided to only prepare vegetarian meals for the crossing, so as not to be preparing different meals, thus keeping matters simpler. That means we won’t be stocking up on too much meat.
On our return to the marina, we stopped in at the paint shop for a few supplies, before enjoying a coffee and continuing with our tasks for the day. These included rigging our pinger to help deter any orcas, cleaning the RACOR filters on each engine, completing the prearrival forms for Morocco, completing the Bank of Ireland telephone application process, after it was subsequently determined that the documents Elaine had submitted were acceptable after all and completing all the checklists provided by ARC 2023 to ensure we met all their requirements, bringing yet another hectic day to a close.
