Haul out May 2019

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Haul out

We have been planning this haul out for quite some time. We knew we wanted to check on some things and plus there were some things that we needed to fix according to the survey that we had done when we bought the boat. We originally wanting to haul out in the middle of April but then decided that we would do it the first weekend in May, which we then pushed back to the 17th. All in hopes of having a week without rain. After talking with the boat yard (Yacht Care Öresund), they told us that they were very busy and that they would not be able to do any of the work we wanted done. This was fine since we wanted to do the work ourselves anyways. But since I needed to change the cutlass bearing and change a thru-hull, having professional help on such tough jobs is always a plus. They did however tell us that they would be able to guide us and give us advice on some things. We were glad to hear this and starting preping for the haul out. This meant buying the tools and supplies we would need to tackle the list of jobs we want to finish.

Everything was now set for us to haul out on the 17th of May. Anna and I had both taken a week of vacation so that we could work full time on the boat while our home was sitting on dry land. We had all the tools we needed plus the supplies. We kept jokine about us taking vacation from work so that we could work full time at another job.

We sailed down to Landskrona after work on the evening of the 16th so that we would be ready first thing on the next morning. One good thing about living in Sweden at these higher latitudes, is that it is does not get dark until late evening this time of the year. It was a nice evening but not a lot of wind so we had to motor and it took us about 3 hours to get down to Landskrona.

It is a little tricky to sail into Landskrona if you really do not pay attention to the charts since the straight in approach is only about .5m to 1m deep. So you have to follow the channel into Landkrona if your draft is deeper than .5m Since our draft is 1.8m we followed the channel. The channel is fairly wide and it kind of snakes you around between the city and an island, passing a ship building yard, their dry docks and cranes, and then as you curve past the last part of the boat yard, the marina appears. Everything opens up, you have a depth of 3-5m and there are no worries about running aground.

When we arrived it was about 20:00 and moored up in front of Yacht Care Öresunds since they have a haul in and out dock right in front of their office. We were all ready to be hauled out the next day so we grabbed some food and settled in for the night.

We had been watching the weather report all week hoping that we would get a good weather window for our haul out. As luck would have it, it rained on the day we hauled out. Luckily it did die down a little when it was time for our boat to come out of the water.

Once on the stands, the work for us begain and we had some pleasant surprises. The changing of the cutlass bearing that I was dreading, turned out to be in really good condition. I checked it and the yard workers checked it. The prop shaft did not move at all. I am not sure what the guy doing the survey found and thought he saw but the cutlass bearing did not need changing. The thru-hull for the refrigerator and galley sink did not need replacement either. Upon further inspection, we just needed to change out the zinc. We were both really happy that we cutlass bearing and thru-hull were in better condition that what we thought. This how ever allowed us to add more things to our list :(

Since Friday was raining, and we could not get started on the polishing of the boat. We used that day to gather some supplies that we still needed for the other jobs we were going to do now that we did not need to change the cutlass bearing or the thru-hull.

Here is the list of the jobs that we did during the week.

  • Polish and wax the hull
  • Repaint the hull
  • Change zinc on bow thruster, propeller, refrigerator thru-hull
  • Add zinc to prop shaft
  • Install sonihull
  • Wire up electrical for Sonihull
  • Install UV water filter
  • Wire up electrical connection for UV Filter
  • Clean the propeller
  • Grease the propeller
  • Cleaned out the anchor locker
  • Inspected anchor chain
  • Installed a protection block on bow so that the tip of the anchor does not dig into the stainless steel bow protector
  • Installed vent cover for the fan to our toilet
  • New decals on the boat, name and helmet

We had some long hot days (the sun did come out the following days) but we were able to get ever thing done. Thursday around lunch time, the yard said they had a time slot to splash us, so we tidy up some things and let them hook up the crane to our boat. I got the chance to lower Viking Goddess into the water. It was pretty fun to operate heavy machinery and splash our own boat/home. We spent the rest of the afternoon finishing up one last job and then cleaned the boat. You would not believe how dirty and messy a boat gets when it goes to the yard.

The weather report stated that it was going to rain on Friday so we thought it would be nice to sleep in and catch up on some sleep. Plus with a better weather window on Saturday,we planned to sail back to Helsingborg on Saturday.

Sailing back was uneventful and it was calm and relaxing 4 hour sail back to marina where Viking Goddess calls home.