Jobs on Vega in 2018

Well, even if we didn’t sail that far in 2018, Vega still managed to keep us on our toes with a seemingly endless list of jobs. Some small, some large. All infuriating at some point, but then somehow satisfying once completed. The 2018 jobs roll call looks something like this….

• We stripped and varnished Vegas floor boards
• Sanded and Varnished port and starboard sides of saloon
• Stripped and varnished the companion way steps
• Our windlass motor burnt out. So we got a new windlass. Then new chain. The chain, should have fitted the windlass gypsy as we measured it and double and triple checked. But it didnt. So we then got a new gypsy. Sigh.
• Our Rocna anchor has seen some use, and the galvanising had worn in a number of areas, so we ground out the surface rust and repainted it.
• Heather designed and 3D Printed an awesome bracket to hold our AIS aerial off the transom arch
• We extended our bimini legs to give us a little more headroom in the cockpit
• We installed a new primary and secondary fuel filters to the engine. Re-priming with the finger pump below the fuel pump was taking a long time with the fuel system completely drained…so we fitted a hand bulb in the in the fuel system and this made initial bleed much quicker. We removed and cleaned the heat exchanger tubes,  and installed a new raw water impeller.
• We’ve resealed all the deck hatches, this time with the correct primers, so hopefully no more leaks!
• Installed fancy new shelves in the forward cabin and passage cabin wardrobes
• Installed an insulated divider to reduce the size of the fridge for weekend sailing, this way we are not cooling down such a big space, saving power and wear and tear on the fridge compessor.
• Reinstated our old depth sounder and managed to revive our FLS Echopilot after it got water logged. This involved Heather meticulously drying out the instrument circuit boards in rice over 5 days and then removing corrosion from a number of the connections, her tenacity came up trumps saving us $3000!

Who says boats are high maintenance !!