Blood, sweat and some tears

My god- these last 30 days have probably been the hardest 30 days in a long loooong while! Anna, me and Jack have been working 15 hours days with the boat since our arrival to Tahiti! Everything from keel to mast-top has been serviced or inspected!

Bay Dreamer is now back into almost perfect condition and it will be a pleasure to navigate her all the way to New Zealand. With a complete brand new sail setup, new trampoline-net, newly serviced engines I seriously hope that she will stay happy and take good care of us!

This last month has been way too intense- even for me! It feels like it was 2 years ago Anna´s father dropped us off at the airport in Stockholm, It seems surreal that it is only 33 days ago we boarded the plane here to Polynesia. Since that day: been on 4 different airplanes, sailed 850 miles, lifted the boat on stilts in a boat yard and done a total facelift/ renovation of the boat + stocked her up with provisions for a 3 month adventure! And all of this with our brand new baby hanging on top of us!

Why are boats in need of so much love?

So why do boats need so much service and maintenance? Well- I have been thinking a lot of this lately? I take extremely good care of our boat and even so- she needs a lot of love from time to time! I I think I come up with the answer to why long distance sailing boats are in constant need of maintenance.

Imagine your self a house, a small house (10 m2). In this house you put 5 motors (2 diesel, 1 outboard, 1 generator + 1 dive compressor), after that you have to put in 6 different electric pumps (bilge pumps, water pressure, shower pumps and water-maker pump). After this you have to top it up with 2 navigation systems, 2 communication systems and 1 computer. Just to be sure you also have to throw in a sat-phone and a couple of transponders into the pot. Oh I forgot about the normal-house- hold electronics, dive equipment plus a couple of sails, 200 meters of rope and of-course an autopilot.

Now you have a very small house with a lot of expensive things and gadgets inside of it. Just to put maximum stress on your little strange house we will now roll it out on a motor-cross-track 24/7 with ALOT of tough weather together with strong winds topped up with an ocean of saltwater all over it- MAYBE IT IS NOT STRANGE that a boat needs some love after all!

Here is a fast list of things we have done in the last 2 weeks:

    •    4 coats of new antifouling paint
    •    Painted sail drives + propps
    •    Changed the major oil-seals in both engines (yes we had to lift the engines)
    •    Serviced the sail drives
    •    Serviced the engines
    •    Repaired the oven
    •    Fixed two leaks in the Saloon
    •    Emptied and cleaned ALL compartments in and around the boat
    •    Fixed a couple of electrical problems
    •    Polished all stainless
    •    Polished the boat
    •    Mounted a new trampoline net
    •    Serviced the toilets
    •    Repaired canvas
    •    Laundered all fabrics onboard
    •    Painted the anchor
    •    Maintained and inspected the anchor chain
    •    Fixed the fridge
    •    New “captains-shair”
    •    Repainted the dive-bottles
    •    Complete overhaul of the dive compressor
    •    Changed the mooring light
    •    Fixed electrical issue up in the mast top
    •    Changed all screws under the boat that have started to corroded
    •    Stocked up the food supply for 7 people and 1 baby for the trip
    •    Changed the sealing of the escape hatches
    •    Changed some water connectors between our 2 water-tanks

Our now very close friend Adrian from Hungary is a magician when it comes to boats and motors and without his help we would never been able to do all of this in time! He has been working almost everyday on Bay Dreamer sense we arrived to Tahiti. We also had help from Alex and Julia that has been putting a lot of effort into making Bay Dreamer shine again!

Ready to set sail again..

The “Tahiti to Fiji crew” will arrive tomorrow and we are just about to get 100% ready- close call huh?! We DO have a few spare parts in transit from the USA but I am sure they will arrive before it is time to clear out from French Polynesia and set sail towards the Cook Islands- fingers crossed!

More to come….

//Daniel, Anna, Vera, Olivia and off course Jacky-boy!