“37:04.46N 8:07.35W”

 

1,451 Miles since leaving Sandwich

 

We have a working freezer and have moved to Vilamoura 25 - October 2022

 

As I mentioned last time Lagos marina needed our berth for another yacht that had made a prior booking. This wasn’t too much hassle really and we moved out to the reception berth while we awaited the arrival of the Freezer from Germany. On Thursday 20^th we got the good news from Ricardo that the freezer had arrived at Sopromar the big chandlers in Lagos. We rushed over to Sopromar’s to measure the new freezer just to confirm that it would indeed fit the hole. To be honest I hadn’t quite believed that it was going to turn up and had therefore not started ripping the old freezer out until I was sure I had a replacement in hand so to speak. Thursday afternoon and work began. As always with Spectra things started well and then quickly degenerated into the now standard rip everything apart to get access to the last bolt scenario.

I disconnected the old compressor which is located under the galley floor and removed it completely then connected the two pipes that lead to the seacock cooler making that a closed circuit and therefor no leaks into the boat. I am not getting lifted now so I will see how the new freezer works air cooled and then decide whether to buy a seawater cooler or not. That is a problem for another day. All of that came out easily and only took about an hour. Another hour and I had removed all of the pipework and cables from the compressor back to the freezer on the galley worktop. Next, I removed the wood trim from around the lid which broke into many pieces, that will have to be replaced. The insulation from around the base of the old freezer came out next. Again, this went well and within another hour I was ready to remove the very rusty old freezer cabinet. Three hours in and I began to prise it upwards with a long screwdriver and then work it free of the opening, all going well so far. Snag one, the freezer hit against the towel rail before it came free of the opening. I removed the towel rail, easy job five minutes. This allowed the freezer to be raised another 150mm (6 inches) where it hit against the bottom of the cabinet on the wall. The cabinet would have to be removed, not an easy job. An hour later I was still undoing screws, and nothing was budging.

 

Starting to take the cabinet apart

 

Thirty minutes after that I realised that some of the screws were hidden by the ceiling panels and so they would have to come down as well. In order to get the ceiling panels down I would have to remove both galley lights and the fun just kept on going. Another hour went by, and I had the ceiling down, the last three screws removed from the cabinet, and it still wouldn’t budge.

 

And now the ceiling has to come down

 

At this point Mr Brute and his bedfellow Mr force were pulled from the tool cabinet and with an “oh dear this is really trying my patience, the little tinker” I wrenched the cabinet off the wall, it came away in four pieces of course.

 

Towel rail and cabinet removed old freezer still in place

 

The forward cabin was now stacked with bits of wood and the whole galley was trashed. On the bright side we did manage to get the old freezer out and up into the cockpit on day one. Over 6 hours since I started the job all bright eyed and full of innocence it was now 7 O’clock at night, I was dirty, sweaty, and beginning to use words that would make a vicar blush; therefore, I called it a day.

 

Old freezer awaiting the final journey to the skip in the sky

 

We had a minimal clean-up of the galley, a quick shower and then went into town for an Indian meal. The Indian restaurant produced one of the best meals I have ever had, although aided by the fact that I would have happily eaten a roadkill donkey at that stage, it was honestly excellent.

Next morning, jaded and aching from all of the contortions that I had put myself through to get the galley ceiling down I surveyed the disaster area that was formally known as our galley. We had just about enough room to make a cup of coffee and that was it. This was Friday and Sopromar’s had said they could only deliver the new freezer some time on Monday, there was no way we could live like this for the next three days. I spent the morning ripping out the old shelving as it was rotten and smelly before we walked the 1.5 Km to the local DIY store in glorious sunshine in order to buy paint and plywood to make and then fit new shelves. On the way we took some pictures of a huge Storks nest atop an old chimney stack and watched the resident stork go about his or her business.

 

I think that nest has been there for many a year

 

On the way back however, we were caught out in an absolute monsoon of a downpour which saw us dashing across a road using a sheet of recently purchased plywood as an impromptu umbrella before finding shelter in a café for over an hour while the rain just kept falling. Back on the boat a lot soggier but none the wiser I cut and fitted the shelves before drilling holes in the cabinet base, at the back of the space, into the side walls and into my new shelves in order to improve airflow for the new compressor that would soon be collocated next to the freezer. Norma then painted everything, and we left it to dry.

 

New shelves built and everything painted with first coat

 

We had a wash up and then borrowed one of the marina trolleys and walked over to the chandlers to pick up the freezer in order to get things moving along. I must say at this point that the chandlery in Lagos, Sopromar, and in particular Ricardo the project manager have been brilliant throughout. They tried to get the parts through the Spanish Isotherm dealership but hit a brick wall on the timelines (3-month delivery time). Even though I then purchased the new freezer from another chandlery in Germany they didn’t take offence and still allowed me to use their goods inwards bay as a delivery address. They unloaded the freezer and stored it overnight in a secure cabin from where Norma and myself picked it up. The charge for this €0, what more can I say.

The freezer came with the compressor attached to the bottom plate which was no good for our purposes as the cabinet wasn’t deep enough to accommodate that. I removed the compressor and fitted the L shaped wall bracket to it that I had previously removed from the cold compressor under the floor. As the paint was still wet that brought proceedings to an end for Friday and again, as we still didn’t have a working galley, after a quick shower we went out for dinner. This time we went to the restaurant inside the working area of the boat yard outside of the marina complex. Expectations weren’t too high as it looked from the outside like a bit of a transport café but it was close and we were tired. How wrong can you be, it was packed. Good honest food, with friendly service in a noisy but exuberant atmosphere, we enjoyed the experience greatly. I had a plate of grilled squid while Norma had the Secreto pork which has become one of her go to meals in Spain and Portugal. All in with a couple of drinks each it was €35 which was a pleasant surprise I must say.

Saturday morning came around far too early, and it was back at it. I fed the compressor and all of the connected pipework down through the hole in the galley top while Norma manoeuvred the freezer into place. Eventually we got everything down through the hole and would you believe it, it fitted. Very carefully I attached the compressor and bracket to the wall making sure that I didn’t kink any of the thin copper pipes before connecting the electrics and giving it a quick test. The fan spun so connectivity was good, we now started to think about putting the galley back together.

 

New freezer and compressor fitted in the freshly painted cupboard

 

At this point Norma received an email from the marina saying that they were starting work on a pontoon and needed to move long stay boats around. Long story short, they said we would have to leave the next morning by 1200, Sunday. Not impressed by such short notice I stomped over to the marina office and simply said no chance, we will leave on Monday before 12 and not before. We had one of those you must go, I’m not going anywhere until my boat is seaworthy conversations for a while and then they agreed Monday by 12 was ok providing we moved Spectra along the pontoon as soon as the boat behind us moved out the next morning. I agreed and we left it at that. This put us on a tight timeline to get the boat back together again.

The new freezer came with an insulated but thin lightweight and unadorned lid, the idea being that you cover this with your own lid which matches your galley. This is actually a pretty good idea normally but a pain when you haven’t got a lid to fit it to. Again, we walked up to the DIY store and found a large pine cutting board that would work fine as a lid for our new freezer once the insulated tight fitting supplied lid had been glued to the underside. Being 50mm (2 inches) thick and overlapping the hole in the galley surface on all sides this will provide extra insulation plus weight to keep the inner lid sealed to the freezer when we are rocking and a rolling out there. All good apart from the fact that it was heavy, and I had to carry it back to the boat. We did stop at Lidl’s on the way back to buy a couple of Marathon bars and like Scot of the Antarctic reaching one of his food dumps we managed to keep our energy up and push on. That brought Saturday to a close leaving just one day to get Spectra ship shape again.

Sunday bright and early I put the galley ceiling back up, reconnected the lights and reassembled the jigsaw that used to be our galley cupboard. Wonder of wonders it all went back together pretty well and apart from a few deep scratches in the panelling all looks good. Next, we glued the extra polystyrene lagging back all around the freezer before covering everything in thick white plastic tape which will not only hold everything in place but will also stop any small air leaks and will provide a shiny surface that should be easier to keep clean. The last job was to inject two cans worth of expanding foam under the freezer cavity and around the back effectively closing off the air gap between the freezer box and the hull. Of course, I got too keen with the expanding foam and it grew like a living fungi into the cupboard space next door. Nothing could be done except let it do its thing and once it had dried cut it back with the bread knife, (don’t tell Norma I used the bread knife).

 

Insulation in tapes up and excess foam cut back

 

This was interrupted by a nice couple who came over to say hello. They owned a 37ft Taiwanese Yacht in the harbour and were busy refitting it for future world cruises. We had a good chat with them which was interrupted by the yacht behind us moving and so we all pulled Spectra back along the pontoon snug up against the empty Polish yacht behind us. No sooner had we done this than the bridge opened to allow two very large motorboats to come out of the inner marina and moor up in front of us. The marina staff came down and made sure that everyone squeezed up tight. Next a German yacht was moored alongside the motorboat in front of us which is unusual as yacht tend to avoid going alongside motorboats if possible as nothing lines up properly. We asked the question and he told us that the marina had asked him to do that and he will move into our slot when we move out on Monday.

Back below a final coat of paint was given to the new shelves by Norma while I cut the remaining plywood and glued it to the lid of the freezer. This will in turn be glued to our big chopping block once it has had some joinery work done to it, more on that in the future.

 

Freezer in position. It still needs the trim around the edge.

 

We then had an official turn the freezer on ceremony celebrated with a beer before Norma went to the big supermarket with our granny trolley to stock up for our next leg while I started putting all of the tools away. By five O’clock we had food in the freezer, a couple of ice bags were added for good measure and to test that it did indeed keep things frozen. The boat was looking a lot cleaner and life was getting back to normal.

 

All looking ship shape again just the butchers block to fit

 

The young couple (sorry I have forgotten their names) came back over to share a beer and have a look at Spectra down below. They said all of the right things and were very complimentary about the old girl. We settled down and talked boat stuff for an hour or two before they headed back to their boat leaving Norma and myself to pay the marina fees at the office then take the old freezer over to the big skip in the boat yard. After that we couldn’t face the thought of cooking and so for the third night running (this has to stop) we ate ashore. After eating a rather nice Chinese meal overlooking the Lagos canal we collapsed into bed completely shattered. That was a very busy few days! Monday, we were setting sail again and I hadn’t even looked at a chart.

0730 Monday morning and we were up and about doing yachty stuff again. Engine checks, windows shut, sail covers off, Instrument covers stowed, Steering working, bow thruster working, engine running, etc, etc. By 0830 we were ready to go and after just one more cup of coffee we slipped the lines just before 0900 and departed Lagos. Definitely a Velcro harbour, but we had managed to rip ourselves free and were on the move again.

It was actually a bit chilly at sea as the low clouds kept the suns warmth at bay. I even had to wear my bomber jacket to keep the damp air out. We had the sea to ourselves until after lunch and I made productive use of the time as we motored along in a force 1 on the nose by testing the water maker. It worked absolutely fine producing 50 litres of sweet(ish) fresh water in the hour that I had it switched on. As we passed Albefueira we saw our first day trip boats milling around, a couple came over to say hello before speeding on their way. Shortly after four yachts in a convoy passed us going the other way and that was it until we approached Vilamoura shortly after 1300. Several day trip fast RIBs buzzed by, and a parasail boat cut in front of us towing a customer as we approached the marina entrance. To be honest it was no drama they were just giving the paying guests something to wave at which was fine with us.

The approach to Vilamoura was straight forward and with no answer on the VHF we went straight in and were soon alongside the arrival’s pontoon. They saw us coming as a very helpful chap was waving us in when we approached before ably assisting Norma getting the lines ashore. After booking in and paying for a couple of nights at €25 per night including VAT, you’ve got to love winter rates this place is €75 plus VAT per night in peak season! We then moved onto the adjacent fuel berth and broke the bank putting 281 Litres of liquid gold into the diesel tanks.   

We are now in Vilamoura home of the Irish bar and the full English breakfast. Yesterday we contacted Brian at B&B carpentry who came down this morning to pick up our butchers block / Freezer lid. He is going to cut it down by about 50mm lengthwise and then rout a finger slot into each end. After that we will varnish it to within an inch of its life before sticking it to the Freezer cover and that will be one job completed. I say completed but I still have to rub down and revarnish the cupboard to remove the battle damage from earlier in this blog and fit the wooden trim that I broke from around the inner lid.

Bad news this morning, Tangiers marina is fully booked and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. We have emailed Rabat to see if we can get in there, still waiting for a reply. If we don’t get a reply today, we will call them tomorrow or at least try to as reports on the interweb all say that they are not very good at picking up the phone or responding to mails which is pretty frustrating. As you can imagine that was the main topic of conversation when we had a full Irish breakfast at one of the Irish bars overlooking the marina. I assume that this was an Irish breakfast and not an English one because we paid in Euros? I couldn’t see any other difference and Norma was disappointed that there was no soda or potato bread on offer let alone any vegetable roll.   

That’s it for this one, we will be here at least for another day but probably two and then we will see where we go to next. My 60 days in Schengen is ticking away and although I have a get out of jail free card via Norma’s Irish passport, I don’t want to test that theory unless I have to.

 

Problems for another day are not to be worried about in the present. I’m going to have a beer with Norma on the aft deck and watch the sun go down over Micky McFinns Irish bar and sports emporium.