Eric was back at Customs at 0715, as told. He checked in with no problems. Then he walked to the tourist police, up a steep hill and four flights of stairs, to be told that the officers were all out checking in a cruise ship. They said to come back later. Grrr. Today is not starting out any better than yesterday!

After the unsuccessful trip to the tourist police, Eric went to the boat store next to the marina to ask about the gasket material, which comes as a board that you cut to the proper size and shape. They didn’t have it, but they could get it quickly. Great! He added a second supporting rope from the boom to the passarelle, which did the trick to make the passarelle stable. Here is a shot of our beautiful new passarelle. You can see what we mean about the angle being awkward against the sea wall.

It is a fairly long walk to the tourist police from the marina, so Eric decided to rent a scooter for the trip back. Yesterday, he had managed to strain a muscle in his torso, and walking was a little harder than normal with the muscle discomfort. The scooter turned out to make him very happy. He had a fun time zipping around town on it. The rest of the check in process was smooth. The day was looking up.

The gasket material didn’t come in until noon. He had already talked to Nordhavn and gotten directions as to how to make the repairs. It sounded straight forward. Once he got to work, he saw that the bolts were somewhat corroded. Getting them off was tough, and he almost gave up a few times, but he eventually managed to get them all off. Some lubricate (Boeshield) did the trick. As it had been for the last few weeks, it was a hot day, making the work that much harder. There is no air conditioning in the engine room.

Then he worked on making a gasket. He took the pieces of the dead gasket and placed them on board, and traced an outline. He took out a special cutting tool that are kind of like a big pair of scissors and started cutting. The tool did not cut through the dense material very easily. Hmmm. He tried a dremmel, which is similar to a hand drill that has a cutting attachment. That didn’t work either. He tried a circular saw. Success! Cutting a circular shape with the saw was tricky. He had to make many angled cuts, taking off small pieces at a time, until the shape was close enough. The he used the big shear like tool to get it round.

Once he got the outer shape right, he needed to drill a bunch of holes in the middle for the 4 bolts and the exhaust pipe. The holes for the bolts weren’t too bad, but the large hole in the middle for the exhaust was tough. He made lots of little holes in the middle and used the shears to cut from hole to hole, then refine until the shape right. Did we mention how hot it was today? And how dense and hard to cut through the gasket material is?

While Eric worked on the gasket, Christi feverishly scrubbed the rust off the bolts and nuts so that they could be reused. There was corrosion so the nuts wouldn’t go back on the bolts very easily. That was a harder project than she had expected.

The moment of truth was here. Eric put the gasket in place. Darn. The holes for the bolts were off slightly. He measured carefully and re-drilled the holes. OK, moment of truth number two was here. This time the gasket fit almost exactly, just shy by a little bit in one spot, but definitely close enough to work. And the nuts slid right on the bolts with no problems. Praise the Lord. Eric would have been distraught if it didn’t work!

As you can see, getting the gasket made was quite the project. On the one hand, he is beating himself up for not having the pre-made gasket in his collection of spares. On the other hand, he is proud of himself for today’s accomplishment. This is one of the more tricky boat projects he has had to undertake.

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