Quest Nº 3 Drop the keel ... ( literally 🤣 )

After realizing there is no way to fix our boat without dropping her keel, we successfully completed two quests no one of removing the diesel engine and the second of dropping the rudder.

The last piece of preparation before Quest no 3, was to check if we are actually able to unscrew the nuts of the keel bolts.

Taught by experience we wanted to check that before hand, as we know already all too well that something seemingly as simple as unscrewing a couple of nuts can quickly become a quest in its self.

Fortunately for us this time all went smooth and after checking each bolt we were ready for

Quest no 3 Drop our keel.

As we had to wait a couple of days for the lift to be available for this potentially lengthy procedure we did some other jobs including analysis of the state of our keel, sanding the area around the keel, shopping for materials and other minor things that of course we forgot to document.

Finally the big day came, the forklift arrived and the quest commenced.

At this point it was the 5th time we saw our boat being maneuvered on the hard and though we had trust and faith in the skills of our crane operator it never gets easier. Every time I see our boat out of it's natural habitat my cortisol levels spike significantly.

As Oiysh hung on the slings, we had a bit more space so Bartek could take out the shaft.

And it also made the crack around the stern tube nicely visible,

no wonder we were taking on so much water!

Next Oiysh was moved more to the front so the cradle on which it would sit after the keel was detached could be prepared. Then the keel cradle was aligned with the boat and the keel positioned inside the cradle. Finally the keel was secured to the cradle which was supposed to hold it upright after it was separated from Oiysh.

If it's looking sketchy well that's because it was but we were aware of that.

Dropping the keel is not a task from the standard maintenance list and this marina was the only one that had any kind of cradle and experience with performing such a job as well as being one of only 2 marinas on this side of the Panama able to lift a boat with 2.4m draft.

Oiysh is not your typical cruising vessel nor does its' keel tick the standard checkbox. It's high and narrow and its' center of gravity is very high not too mention it's shape. So from the start we knew that this approach is not ideal but we decided to try anyway. This was the easier part after all and at least we would know how unrealistic it would be to try to land the boat back on the keel after all the repairs.

So everything was set and it was time for lunch brake, as our stomachs where to squeezed to eat anything at this point we used this time to unscrew the knots. I thought I will use the brake to take care of couple of things and as I came back after 15min turns out the action was already in full swing.

Fortunately turns out I didn't miss that much as the keel decided it likes being attached to Oiysh and is not going anywhere. And so true to the theme of wiggling and hammer action we tried to convince it that it's actually a good idea to let go. Bartek went inside to check if the bolts are not stuck on the backing plates and support the persuasion from the top.

Finally it did let go it and it did it in a spectacular manner.

Yep we were right this setup was sketchy but no worries it's solid lead with a bit of fairing so all that happened to it was one little dent. The most fragile part which are the bolts where not harmed in the process.

With the keel down it was time to move Oiysh back to our little corner and place her in her new cradle. This part went smoothly, she got positioned over the concrete slabs the stands where put in place and it was time for the belts to be lowered.

We could now have a closer look at the bottom. there were a lot of black spots from oil and diesel grime that was inside but managed to seep through the cracks. Did I mention we never want to have anything to do with diesel ever again?

With the major goal of the operation completed all that was left was to move the keel itself closer to the boat. At the end it all turned out better for us as we didn't have to pay for using the cradle so we had a bit more chill working on the repairs.

And thus quest no 3 was completed we could take a deep breath, eat something and relax a bit before the upcoming archeological extravaganza.