A Winter in Finike

It’s been a while since my last post but the winter seems to have flown by. We have had a couple of trips back to the UK to catch up with friends and family with the rest of the time onboard in Finike marina, busy trying to prepare ZigZag for the summer season.

A continually growing list of jobs comes with living on a sailboat. Having filled our flight bags with boat parts from the UK we had plenty to keep us busy. We are pleased to have managed to tick a few more jobs off the list this winter.

There was a slow start to work commencing as Paul was suffering from a bad back, he believed it to be caused by our mattress which was original to the boat and getting very saggy. It’s not easy to get new mattresses as they are bespoke shapes to fit into dedicated spaces. After speaking to some fellow liveaboards a good upholsterer in the town was recommended, so we paid him a visit and selected some suitable foam for the job. That same day he came to Ziggy and took away our mattresses saying that he would return in a few hours with new ones.

We were a little apprehensive as we had heard many stories of other tradespeople here taking days or even weeks to complete work. However, we were very happy that he did what he said he would and returned on time with good firm mattresses.

Having received such a professional service and good workmanship, we sent him off with our sofa and cockpit cushions which again were completed and returned quickly.

He also supplied good fabrics and accessories so I was able to make new cushion covers and replace the vinyl in the sprayhood which had gone slightly opaque, with a long awaited opening window in the front, something that I had been putting off as I’d never done it before. The whole sprayhood needs to be replaced so it was good practice before making a new one in the future.

Paul’s back soon recovered with the new mattress and there were no excuses to start working now! His favourite job is definitely in the electrical cupboard and there always seems to be some electrical cables that need updating or tidying up so this was his first job to tackle. I normally keep out of the way while he’s doing this, just incase sparks start flying!

The major task this winter was to fit the water maker into its permanent home. You may recall that last summer we had it working but it was a temporary installation and on display (in the way) on the floor in the saloon!

With limited space, we decided that the best place to fix it was under the bed in the front cabin, this is a large storage locker which has always been full and so it all had to be removed, where will we put everything!

Paul spent days/weeks scratching his head working out where he could run pipes behind the cabinetry and under floorboards to the pumps and filters, to our water tank and connection to the seacocks for water inlet and outlet. Also to run electrical cables to the batteries at the other end of the boat.

Once this was done he built a shelf in the locker to fix the main water maker unit onto, I could hear a lot of swearing while he was trying to cut a plank of wood to fit into a triangular space with sloping sides. He decided that pipes and cables are much more his forte.

Finally with the unit fixed to the shelf and with all pipes connected, we were up and running with a fully functioning fresh water making system. Now with less space in the locker, we’ve just got to find somewhere to store some of the things that used to live in there. A few items have been donated to the regular marina liveaboards charity boat jumble sale.

Woodwork has normally been my job and finally I have fitted a new teak inlay into the transom step. The old teak was rotten and I removed it back to the gel coat at the end of last winter. The new teak has to be laid in dry conditions and as we were constantly using it through the summer for access into the water, the job couldn’t be finished.

We bought the new teak readymade to size so it just needed some epoxy to glue it in then caulking….or so I thought. I obviously used too much epoxy which oozed out around the edges, unfortunately I didn’t remove it before it dried hard. It then took me several days to try to cut it all out to enable me to caulk around the edges. We covered it to keep it dry, it was hard work but with a big reveal, I think it turned out rather well!

The teak cockpit table also required some TLC, it has been several years since it was last sanded and treated so I set to work. Two sanding machines later (I broke the first) we had a nice smooth table again and with a little oil looked good as new.

There’s always something that breaks on a boat and when we returned after Christmas it was the fridge. After a few days fault finding we (Paul) were more knowledgeable about how the fridge operates but without the right tools our only option was to call an engineer in to re-gas it.

Since then, it has been working well however, we have recently noticed some deterioration in its performance, the wine and beer is not so cold……watch this space!

Along with general engine maintenance, oil, impeller and filter changes, there was a leak from the water pump which had to be replaced. It still had the 22 year old original which was removed and kept for future spare parts.

With all the tools laid out, we eventually managed to separate the pump from the mounting bracket (should have got the big hammer out), it was then a like for like replacement so fairly straight forward.

This is all starting to sound like we spent the whole time working however, that’s far from true, apart from the many social events in the marina, we did also manage to escape for a few trips out which I will tell you about next week.