Of course, having purchased the various items we needed from the chandlery and the Car Care Centre in Gibraltar, that meant the associated work had to be completed on Paw Paw yesterday and today.
So, while Elaine sorted out all our flares and updated the expiry dates on our Emergency Equipment List, as well as checked the grab bag, then updated her medical notes, after getting her latest blood test results and having a chat to the doctor, Roy got busy with replacing the starboard engine coolant after flushing the engine. Since he hadn’t completed a few other items on that engine, like adjusting the v-belt, lubricating the water pump and cleaning the engine, he completed those tasks too, as well as replaced the head (aka toilet) in the port forward head (aka bathroom), after fixing the leak yesterday. Since he was busy with heads, he decided to take another look at the port aft head to, at least, slow the leak to a drip, so that Elaine could use her head until we return from Ireland with the spares needed. Doing this precluded her from having to trundle over to one of the heads on the starboard side in the middle of the night, when she needed the loo.
Besides getting close to the end of this particular To Do List ie tasks to be completed before we move Paw Paw to Gibraltar, Roy also met the cruisers on the dock opposite us, learning that they had recently splashed after getting their rudder repaired, following an orca attack here in the Bay of Gibraltar; the first and only attack inside the bay thus far. What are the chances and what bad luck! More enlightening, though, was the fact that the boatyard here has at least five other yachts currently on the hard getting their rudders replaced / repaired after orca attacks and it is believed that the number of incidents is being significantly underreported. Definitely not the kind of news we wanted to hear!
It took Roy all day to complete his tasks on the starboard engine, but we still enjoyed a barbecue dinner onboard; pork riblets. Delicious!
This morning was spent flushing the port engine and replacing the coolant; a simpler task, given his previous efforts on this engine. We, however, woke to the sound of numerous foghorns this morning and the temperature was definitely cooler, with a dense fog hanging over the Rock of Gibraltar. Bizarrely enough, though, we had clear skies to the west.
A chat to Elaine’s sister, then her folks, was enjoyed either side of a walk to town, enjoying some sightseeing along the way, particularly the lovely parks and the town square, then stopped in at the Okay Café again for a coffee and baked delight. On our walk back from town, we stopped at the beach to collect sand; supposedly a deterrent when scattered around the rudders in the event of an orca attack. Let’s hope we don’t have to find out either way!
Roy’s last tasks of the day, which completed the To Do List for La Linea de la Concepción, was to fill the one water tank and flush the watermaker with the other and to touch up the black paint around one of the portholes on the starboard side, before we packed everything away. It was lovely to see that the cockpit table was no longer a workbench and we were able to enjoy a meal outside again.
While enjoying dinner, we had a bird’s eye view of the fun run / walk starting line, which involved hundreds of people of all ages and sizes and included people being pushed in wheelchairs, babies pushed in prams and dogs on leashes; it was very festive.
We also had a stroke of luck in selling a rope we’d purchased for Med mooring and never used; it was sold within an hour of advertising it on one of the sailing Facebook groups. The cruisers who bought it happened to be a few docks down in the same marina as ourselves! Hopefully that luck continues when we advertise Paw Paw for sale next week.
