Valent

Let me start by saying we were very sorry to hear about the devastation caused by the earthquake in southern Morocco. Our thoughts and prayers are with all the families affected.

As mentioned in our previous post, we were safely in the north of Morocco, in Tangier, when the earthquake happened, and didn’t feel any tremors. We spent a few days there exploring the old town, with its labyrinth of ancient and narrow streets, and the medina with its many small and enticing shops selling everything including spices, multicoloured fabrics, carpets, leather purses and wooden puzzle boxes.

For the girls in particular on their first trip outside Europe, after very British Gibraltar, this was a culture shock – the exotic scent of the spices, Arabic and French spoken everywhere, the call to prayer five times a day, but they are taking it all in and have enjoyed shopping and bartering for goods in the medina. We have also been enjoying the Moroccan food, including delicious tagines with couscous and preserved lemons, and an interesting chicken dish topped with icing sugar, all followed by sweet mint tea. We had a lovely dinner in a rooftop restaurant with our friends from our neighbouring boat in Gibraltar, Willowtarn, who came across with us on the journey from Gibraltar to Tangier.

The marina in Tangier is clean and modern, although we are getting used to a lot of bureaucracy – it takes hours of detailed form-filling to clear in and the boat has to be inspected by both the police and the customs officials before you are allowed into the marina. Having arrived in Tangier at 5.30 pm on our first day it was dark by the time all this had been completed, so we spent our first night on the arrivals pontoon and were only allowed into the marina the following day. However everyone is very friendly and helpful, and they really want us to enjoy our time in Morocco.

The marina has a display of coloured fountains set to classical music each evening, which Sophie enjoyed dancing in, as shown in the photos below. (If you’re reading this on your phone and can’t see the pictures, click on Valent in the top right hand corner to go to the website and you will be able to see the pictures).

After a few days in Tangier, it was time to start our journey south. Yesterday we moved down to the capital, Rabat, which we’ll write about in a few days once we’ve had a chance to explore it.

Just a quick post to say that we are all well and enjoying Tangier. We are several hundred miles away from Marrakesh and we’re oblivious to the earthquake until this morning. However we had planned to do a short excursion to Marrakesh – that is unlikely to happen. Next stop Rabat in few days.

We’ve been living in Queensway Quay marina for nearly two months now, and have become used to life in Gibraltar. We’ve been up the Rock (twice) and seen the macaques, the Great Siege tunnels and St. Michael’s cave with its incredible light show.

The views from the top of the Rock are amazing – you can see Spain, and across to Morocco at the same time.

We’ve enjoyed having English shops like M&S, and have found the best ice cream shop in Gibraltar where we have been their most regular customers – to the point where we even got a lock in when they had to shut early!

There’s plenty to do here – swimming at Europa pool, bouldering, a cinema and even the Gibraltar fair. Everyone is very friendly and we’ve made friends with lots of people on the other boats on our pontoon. We’re now regulars at the Sunday night quiz in the marina (team name: Orcas’ Revenge), and Will has even joined the Gibraltar Manchester City Supporters Club (members including Will: 10).

We’ve had fun in Gibraltar, but now it’s time to move on. The plan is to head over to Morocco, next stop Tangier, and go slowly along the coast to reach the Canary Islands. The orcas seem to be heading north now, so fingers crossed for no more close encounters!

After nearly 2 months in Gibraltar we are finally getting ready to depart. At long last our steering systems are repaired/replaced and all seems to be working. For those interested in the saga we needed to replace the damaged parts of the Hydrovane (wind steering) and repair/replace the hydraulic ram for the auto pilot. Hydrovane provided an excellent service and the Hydrovane repair was completed in a timely manner with a new shaft and rudder being installed. The autopilot proved more challenging.

The first challenge was that no part of the hydraulic system had any markings, serial numbers or other way of identifying the manufacturer or type of system. The practical guys from All Motor Boats and Yacht Services (Steve & Jordan) found a workshop in Spain that managed to repair and refurbish our hydraulic ram. However, when we fitted it and tested the system it became apparent that the steering motor had also suffered significant stress in the Orca attack and would not longer work. After many calls, Jordan could find no-one in Spain able to refurbish or replace the motor and the decision was taken to install a complete new hydraulic steering system.

After discussions with Pantaenius, our very helpful insurance company, a plan of action was agreed and I ordered a new system from the UK. In order to expedite the situation I ended up flying back to the UK 2 weeks ago to collect the new system and take it back. This saved at least a week in terms of logistics and around £150 by not paying any shipping or importation fees in Gibraltar. It also meant that I could spend 36 hours preparing our house in Woking for new tenants, painting, gardening and other minor maintenance jobs. For those of you wondering how flying back could be cheaper, we decided it was a good use of some of my historic air miles, so I had to suffer a business class flight for £1.

Installing a new system is never as straightforward as you think it should be, and this was no exception. We ended up having to remake a fixing bracket and fit it further back to accommodate the different ram operation. The motor is a little larger and this system also includes an oil tank. Once installed we could not get the thing to work, try and try as we did. I even bled the system, but other than a few tiny movements we were flummoxed. After a chat with the manufacturer, the helpful suggestion was made to power the new hydraulic ram but bypass the Raymarine steering controls (i.e. directly link it to Valent’s 12v battery bank). And the system worked perfectly. This meant our problem was one of voltage and commands from the control unit and not the new hydraulic system. After much thinking the issue was annoyingly simple – I just need to change the input setting in the onboard Raymarine computer to the new type 3 hydraulic drive. Once that was done, hey presto the autopilot and new hydraulic ram worked exactly as expected.

During this time some other maintenance jobs have been successfully completed. There was time to send the Watt&Sea controller for the Hydrogenerator (a towed system that produces electricity whilst we are sailing) back to the manufacturers for repair and a software update. Hopefully this will now work correctly and stop trying to charge the batteries once they are full. I managed to get a few bits and bobs sent out from the UK/collected on my return trip and now we have a 20A fuse from the generator, a new turbo heat shield on the engine, new radiator cap and jubilee clip for the air filter. At the other end of the spectrum we have a lovely new shower curtain and snazzy lights in the cockpit.

When we arrived in Gibraltar we intended to spend a few days. I certainly did not expect to be here for the start of the new football season. Unfortunately, we no longer have time to explore the Med as we need to be in the Canary Islands by mid October, and there is no point in rushing towards somewhere, only to have to turn round, rush back and then find yourself trapped by an Autumn Westerly. I will get the girls to write an updated tourist guide to Gibraltar – suffice to say it feels like we have been here long enough to qualify for residency!

The good news is that we have escaped quite lightly. It would appear that our damage is limited to items that can be repaired whilst we are still in the water.

Opening up the steering quadrant on the Monday revealed the reason for most of the steering issues. The Orca attack had bent the hydraulic steering ram ninety degrees and the steering wires had been forced off the quadrant. The wires were easily fixed and subsequently I removed the hydraulic ram.

The hydraulic ram should be linear so that the arm can fully extend and retract to steer the boat. The wires over the brass quadrant should not be cutting the corner.

Following my initial assessment and communication with our insurance company, Pantaenius, it was agreed that we would have a lift out and inspection at the earliest opportunity. A surveyor was also appointed by the insurance company and came round with us for the lift.

We managed to get a lift at the next door marina, Alcaidesa in La Linea, Spain on Wednesday, and other than needing to remove the backstay everything went smoothly. It transpired that the vibration noise we were hearing from the shaft area at lower revs was due to a combination of a broken rope cutter and some rope around the shaft. We cut the rope away and removed the offending part of the rope cutter. The rest of the underneath of the boat was good. No issue with the bearings or brackets, and as the surveyor put it, no teeth marks or bites on the rudder. Whilst we were lifted out, 4 other boats were pointed out to us on the hard, each one requiring a new rudder to be built following Orca attacks.

Brackets and bearings were checked. Offending bit of rope cut away and the loose part of the rope cutter removed.

After returning to our berth in Queensway Quay we set about fixing the issues. Dismantling the Hydrovane took some work and assistance as it turns out the top collar had been damaged by the force of the Orca attack. Once dismantled, we found that we still cannot separate the rudder from the shaft. The pin has been bent in 2 directions and is well and truly locking the shaft to the runner. Despite hammers, drifts, drills, angle grinder the 2 parts will not separate. Almost certainly academic as both parts need replacing.

The damaged Hydrovane – the black collar on the right should be smooth. The damage was caused by the locking pin being forced out and around by the Orcas.

So the good news is that repairs are very straightforward. The bad news is that we just have to sit here waiting for parts to arrive (Hydrovane) or be sourced/found (Hydraulic Ram). In the meantime we continue to explore Gibraltar. It would almost feel like home now we have found a M&S, a fully stocked Morrisons, Waitrose products stocked in the Eroski supermarket and the currency is Pounds Sterling – it’s just the 40 degree heat that is a little different, and the fact that we can walk over to Spain whenever we fancy a little tapas.