It’s a Shit Show!
Tuesday 14 January
What a lovely surprise when we woke up after such a great sleep. Geoff opened the cover to check the starboard engine which sits under the bunk in the starboard aft cabin, and guess what, it had 5 inches of shitty water floating around the bottom of it. Then he opened the bilge in front of it, and yep you guessed it – the same deal, with the added attraction of all the hoses and tools stored in there being coated in it and floating around as well.
A couple of days ago the toilet on the starboard side had got blocked and was not smelling particularly rosy. I cleaned all the casing in front of the holding tank which sits in the wardrobe of the aft cabin. There was a little bit of brownish water in the bottom of the cupboard which I sponged out and cleaned and then we closed it all up and stopped using that toilet (fortunately we have two bathrooms on the boat) leaving it until we got to Oban to try and fix. Somehow that holding tank has completely emptied out into the bottom of the engine and the bilge. At this stage we don’t know how.
A strong coffee and a cup of tea first before we both stripped off, put on rubber gloves and got stuck into it, pretty much literally. What a job! It was absolutely gross. If you want to hear any more of the finer details, feel free to read on……..Geoff bailed out the engine locker and bilge and I cleaned all the hoses, funnels, toolbox and all sorts of things that were stored in there and were now covered in a delightful layer of greasy, speckled brown (Pantone shade around PMS 7565C for those of you who are interested in the finer points!). It was disgusting, all the hoses were leaking brown liquid, but I was able to give these a good wash by spraying and wiping them in all-purpose cleaner and then leaning over the side of the boat and swishing them around till the water was clear. The big rubbish bag on the side was quickly filling up with used cloths, paper towels and stuff that we couldn’t keep. What a job! Unfortunately, the Watermaker is also not working, so we are having to conserve water at the moment which means we can’t use fresh water to hose over all of the items that have been washed in salt water. Another job to be tackled in Oban. Finally, all done and smelling a heck of a lot better, I then went over all the handrails, doors, floors and walls with spray and wipe and tossed all those cloths into the rubbish bag too – along with Geoff’s t-shirt and the two towels that he had on the floor whilst he was bailing – no way are we keeping those! That hot shower never felt so good!
A few photos for you……have to say, the bucket-emptying ones look quite elegant with their waves of shit, it almost looks like silk!
And you all thought we were just cruising around here drinking gin & tonics and admiring the scenery! To add insult to injury, we now also have a problem with the port engine which has been overheating for some days, with the alarm going off to alert us. Geoff has been checking the oil constantly, but now has spoken to a mechanic in Auckland and it’s not looking good. Not sure if there will be anyone in Oban who can help as it’s such a small community and probably most of their mechanical work is done in Bluff. I’ll keep you posted!