Lefkas

Lefkas town quay

It's already September and I've been anchored in Lefkas town for about a month. The fuel shutoff cable for the engine broke and in August everything is closed for holidays so the mechanic couldn't reach the parts department for Yanmar in Athens. 

Finally, towards the end of August, he did manage to get through, only to learn that my engine is so old (1980) that some parts for it are no longer available. So, now a new one had to be made and of course, it being middle of the busy season in the yachting world in Greece, I had to wait my turn. Finally, after a month of waiting - the new cable was installed and I can now turn the engine off easily once again. Back to eating rice and beans though!

Shut off cable

So, meanwhile, while waiting, I decided to do something useful and finish the deck caulking job. Each day I did a bit and now am a proud owner of a sailboat that hopefully will not leak ever again - yeah, right...

First, all the grooves had to be cleaned out off the old caulking - my helper, Renee did that in August. Then they had to be taped very carefully.

 Next, I used very expensive caulking and squeezed the goo into the groves between the tape. This goo is like tar and sticks to everything if you're not careful.

Here is the result before I smoothed it out with a gloved finger.

Next, very carefully I removed the tape, leaving a nice straight edge to the caulking being very careful not to get any of the goo on my hands. This is not so easy as you will see later.

 Here is the result - a nicely caulked section of teak deck, hopefully preventing any water from seeping into the boat.

Of course, I got some of the goo on my hands - otherwise how could I prove that I did all that work!

And finally, tie some string around the wet caulking so that I don't accidentally step on it. It takes good two to three days to dry.

 And finally...

Ahhhhh!