The leak from the stern gland is now much reduced. Yiannis from IBA looked at it last Friday and greased it – there’s a suspicion that it wasn’t greased when it was fitted in the spring.
He mopped all the water out from the groove under the stern tube and also from a well below the engine room floor, that we didn’t know was there! In total, John reckons we had about 1.5 litres. It’s possible that this was the accumulation since lift in on 2 May (minus evaporation.)
We monitored it closely and seemed to be getting about 150ml in 24 hours. It was further tested as we started 3 days of pontoon Hokey Cokey! On Saturday, Sunday and Monday we motored a short distance each day as IBA needed to move around on (and off) the pontoon so as to accommodate different size boats that were booked in or arrived, like us, for emergency repairs. Motoring showed that the leak was indeed slow. And it even seemed to improve things – perhaps as the grease and seawater moved around the lip seal?
On Saturday we had to leave the pontoon, which was fully booked. Unfortunate as there were strong gusts forecast for most of the night. We anchored opposite in Tranquil Bay and sat watching the boats near us as the wind shifted and we all changed position. Also clearly visible were 4 empty spaces on the IBA pontoon! At about 7.30pm, Andreas from IBA came out to us in the RIB and asked if we wanted to go back on the pontoon because some of the bookings hadn’t turned up. As the anchorage was very full and we were closer to some boats than we would’ve liked, we accepted. There were stong gusts, but we were being blown off and it went OK. Yiannis came onboard for a quick check of the stern gland and confirmed that the grease seemed to be working. We relaxed and went for a simple meal ashore.
On Sunday just before 7pm we were asked to move to the other side of the pontoon on an inner berth, to make way for a large yacht coming in for repairs. There was a crosswind with strong gusts and a buoy to dodge directly off the berth and Andreas offered to stay on the boat with us. It seemed to be going OK until we were just reversing into the gap when, wham, the boat slewed nearly 90° to port across the bow of the next door boat. It was a shock – I hadn’t even felt a gust or sensed the wind take the bow. Everyone was fending off; I could do nothing with the engine because we were now across the other boat’s lazyline. In fact, what seems to have happened is that it wasn’t a gust that slewed us round, but the lazyline round the keel. Some of the lazylines on this part of the pontoon were rearranged while we were there on Friday and it seems that some were crossed, so not leading straight out from the berth. But none of this was obvious at the time – I just felt an idiot, bemused, and very embarrassed, however nice everyone was being about it.
Richard came round in the RIB, trying to push our bow round to ease us back into the gap. To starboard was our sister boat Green Selene and Jean fended off while Pete was also trying to pull LouLouDitsi round with a line attached to our bow. John and Andreas were fending off to port, helpers from other boats had our stern lines on the pontoon. The other boat’s lazyline was stuck round the back of our keel and was stopping us moving round and back into our berth, no matter how much the RIB tried to motor us off.
In the end, another lazyline was attached to our neighbour’s bow, so the one behind our keel could be dropped. And finally, we were moored up safely again. Some minor damage to our portside genny car track, which we should be able to file down. There’s been a bit too much drama the last few days!
Jean and Pete came onboard for drinks and we put the mooring mayhem behind us as we chatted happily and asked them various questions about the boat. It’s very helpful having our sister boats Green Selene and Jade cruising in the same area, whose owners know the boats very well after many years.
Although we’d been told that there should be no problem with us staying on Monday night, which wasn’t very full, it turned out that we had to leave. Over to Tranquil Bay again, planning to dinghy ashore for provisions before heading to Meganissi.
The reality was that we were exhausted and spent 2 nights at anchor eating onboard before we summoned up the energy to launch the dinghy and hoist the outboard onto it! We continue to check the stern gland, and are reassured that it should get us through the season without us having to lift out of the water. We’re in email contact with Cleopatra who fitted it and will talk to them about replacing it next winter. If it was fitted without grease, then the lip seal may have burnt. It will certainly need looking at. Current leak is about 10ml per day.
Despite the pontoon Hokey Cokey, we’re very grateful to IBA for being there for us when we didn’t know the cause or scale of the problem and were just plain scared. That’s worth a lot.