Roccella Ionica

14 Oct

After a peaceful night's sleep, with the exception of the bilge alarm, we had breakfast, cleaned the boat, as she was caked in salt and then the crew went into town for some RnR and I stayed behind to fix the bilge pump and the vent in the fore cabin as it leaked slightly.

Safely at dock in Roccella - not quite summer!

 After disassembling the bilge pump, the reason for it not working was pretty obvious...  So off to town to get a new impeller..

One pooched impeller

After fitting the pump and verifying it worked, I spent a bit of time investigating the source of the water as by this point the assumption that it had come from the wave breaking over the boat was not valid.. What I noticed was water weeping in from a section in the hull, far from any through fitting, which was *NOT GOOD*. I contacted the insurance company and was informed that they would be sending someone to take a look.. The someone arrived and confirmed that it was not good, until they had the boat on the hard, they could not truly how bad it was but it did not look promising...

The crack in between the bolts - the source of the water

Lifting her out of the water was not an option as the wind was blowing pretty well.. Today was also not an option as the weather was not overly pretty and just as well we are on a boat because there was enough rain to consider rounding up the animals..

In short the sailing adventure to exit the Med is on hold for now till we ascertain the extent of the damage... I will keep updating as more info becomes available.. I have informed the crew and they are looking for another boat...

Update - I have just been told that Roccella will not be able to get me out of the water till next Thurs, so I am awaiting instructions on where to go....

17 Oct

The bilge pump has stopped functioning - so after checking it and seeing nothing was wrong, the next culprit - the one-way valve... It turns out that that is also broken, so that has also been repaired..

18 Oct

The last of the crew, Gunnar has left. The other two crew, Tim and Evan left the day before. A big thanks to them for the help in getting us this far. I am waiting for Tuesday, when I am told I will get lifted out the water and I will have a better understanding of the challenge I am facing..

20 Oct

We were lifted out the water and after some preliminary inspection, it seems there is good news as  there seems to be no obvious damage. The source of the leak is the joint between the keel and the hull. The rear part of the joint, was "repaired" by me in Cogolin Marina - the original was a rubber a sticky mess and had already separated from the joint.. 

It might not be an insurance job as this might fall under bad repair from previous bunch or regular wear and tear. The keel bolts are all tightly fastened - except where there are two nuts - the top one doesn't seem to be too tight...

On the hard again..

Apparent source of leak

All the top nuts were just hand tightened

After lunch we have had another look, turns out the repair after the anchor drag was not of the best quality.. The pictures below show the gap between the keel and the hull. The locals are discussing the options and will come back with possible solutions..

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