Boat Jobs

We left the UK and returned back to Malta, and ZigZag, in the spring with our bags full of boat parts and a long list of jobs to do. As Ziggy was still out of the water we had an apartment, which was a luxury, rather than staying in the dusty, dirty boat yard.

The first job we tackled was one that we had been putting off for months, and that was to change the toilet pipe….again! It is a pipe of approximately five meters and runs from the toilet, up behind the shower enclosure, behind the oven and kitchen cabinets, down under the floor boards into the bilge and out through the seacock on the other side of the boat, all areas that you cannot easily get to, and through holes that seem too small! It took us several days of trying to push and pull the pipe through. At one point, we almost gave up and considered taking it all back out and buying a slightly thinner pipe, but persevered and eventually it finally popped through to huge relief and celebrations.

As Ziggy was out of the water, we needed to concentrate on ‘under the waterline’ jobs. The Coppercoat on the keel had failed and parts had rusted off, which was highlighted after the high pressure power wash when she was lifted. We arranged for the workmen in the yard to sandblast the remains off back to clean iron, treat it, fill it, seal and prime it and reapply five coats of new Coppercoat.

The rest of the hull ‘just’ needed completely sanding to reactivate the current Coppercoat which is a job we had to do ourselves. We set to work with our two sanding machines on this backbreaking task. It took me a day just to do all around the rudder, while Paul started at the bow. It’s jobs like this that remind me I should be grateful that we can’t afford my dream ‘bigger’ boat!

Making the most of his new sanding machine, Paul got polishing pads and polished the topsides until they were sparkling.

We needed a break from all this work so went to Valetta for a walk around the city and meet up with friends for lunch.

The Grand Masters Palace in the main square had recently opened up for visitors. The palace was constructed by the order of St. John in the 1560’s as a residence and office for the grand master. Over the centuries it underwent many additions and modifications and grew from a modest house to a palace.

The decorative corridors had marbled floors and were originally open loggias decorated with potted plants. The arches were later glazed and at the beginning of the 18th century, the walls and ceilings were elaborately painted by an Italian decorator. The pot plants have been replaced with armoured statues.

We were able to look around a large room full of weapons and armour. The statues had spooky eyes that watched you as you walked past them.

There was also access to some of the state rooms, including a chapel, the Grand Masters sala, the ambassadors room and the council hall.

Stormy weather was on its way, the map shows lightening all over Malta.

However, we still had plenty of inside jobs to keep us busy, the hot water tank had been leaking so fittings needed replacing and the autopilot was re-wired. Ziggy had a spring clean, I had made good use of the washing machine in the apartment, and washed everything on board, curtains, cushions, bedding, towels and clothes. Ziggy has never been so clean.

Once the stormy weather had passed, we were ready to be launched and the lifting cradle came to pick us up.

When we had the gear box repaired back in January, a fuel leak was also detected, but the engineer said that he would come aboard when we were launched to check that the engine was all working OK and investigate the leak. We were only going a short distance to the yard pontoon so that this last repair could be done. Once in the water, with everything crossed, we fired up the engine and the gears were tested, we were relieved to see that forward gear engaged nicely. We were good to go, and motored over to the pontoon hoping for a quick fix on the fuel leak.

Obviously the whole of Malta were celebrating with us that evening with an impressive firework display.

We should hopefully be on our way within a couple of days….