Droopy Bottom

After a few weeks identifying the problem and consulting with the experts.....we have now decided that at the grand age of 47, Meriva needs corrective surgery to her bottom.


I flew back to the UK to see my beautiful daughters, granddaughters and Mum, and to collect the necessary parts to restore our boat to its former glory.

Every night Tristan would Skype to say he had just ordered something that was 'really essential'!  In the mean time, poor Lucy's house was filling up and I was having nightmares as to how I was going to get back with over 40kg of bronze bolts, white lead and white microfibres.....not to mention the electrical components, English tea, and  a years supply of contact lens.

I had to email the airlines and double check they were happy with the goods for our 'boat in transit'.  I must say Easyjet  were brilliant, but I had to fly back via Tenerife as  the airline that flies  into La Palma wouldn't let me take excess baggage.

It was a  opportunity for me to catch up with a good friend, Ed  at the Atlantic Whale Foundation in Tenerife, who fortunately arrived the day before me. I spent three days there and sat on the Enterprise board.....a scheme to support budding young entrepreneurs.

I caught the ferry from Tenerife back to La Palma and Tristan hired a car to get me and the excessive baggage back to Tazacorte.
I would thoroughly recommend the ferry crossings to anyone... its a fun way of getting around the islands.....and as far as I am aware their boats don't leak!

We had resisted hiring a car, insisting on using buses, but you can't get to the 'best bits' of the island.  We gave ourselves a 'day off'  before the hard work and toured the island.

The highest part of La Palma is Roque de los  Munchachos,  2423m......overlooking the Caldera de Taburiente.....absolutely stunning views across the Cumbre Vieja, Los Llanos and Tazacorte and  over to the islands of Tenerife, La Gomera and El Hierro.

The flora was spectacular and fragrant, with  several  varieties of Echium.

At the top of the mountain you have some of the best  observatories in the world including Galileo.

Remote controlled travel hoist

We took Meriva out of the water a week ago......our priority being to create shade to stop any planks opening up in the heat. I have used up all our towels, spare sheets and duvet covers.

Banana netting seems to work well, but we are aware that wooden boats and sunshine don't mix.

Tristan has managed to remove part of the wooden keel below the garboard and scarf joint.

Some of the bolts had sheered but we have replacements. The aim is to reinforce the keel to reduce movement and put in extra throat bolts for the strap floors, replace all bronze bolts and put in the white lead between the scarf joint and keel using our specially manufactured hollow screw with grease nipple!

This is a lot of work but its part and parcel of having a beautiful wooden boat......and a wooden boat builder for a husband!

The keel was successfully removed without any damage to the wood which saves some time.








Tristan has spent a few days pumping the white lead into  holes drilled carefully into the  keel....and it has worked brilliantly.

His only problem was the white lead contained red lead crystals and they blocked the grease nipple so it has been time consuming and a lot of bad language emanated out of the heads!













Our plans for the next few days.......making patterns for the new floors to strengthen the boat for and aft of the mast, cut and shape the wood (easily obtainable in La Palma), rebolt on the keel and repair the garboard. May take a bit longer than a few days....depends on how much sleep Tristan gets!

Before  Meriva is launched we will need to recaulk more seams but this is going to be ongoing and hopefully once we get sailing again this should begin to stabilise.

Some people go sailing, mainly those with fibreglass boats.....we spend more time in boat yards!   We are the yardies!

Somewhere on our travels we came across 'dinner' feeding on fennel!