Order to chaos and back again - Porto Roma

We sailed over to Zákinthos from Katakólon on 10 July and anchored in Porto Roma, a small bay on the southeast tip of Zákinthos. At just over 18nm it was not a long passage but it got us back to Zákinthos so that we would be close to the airport and can easily meet my daughter and her friend on Monday 14 July when they fly in to spend a couple of weeks with us.

Porto Roma is like a lot of Mediterranean bays, it has Porto in the title but, at best, has a small quay in it for fishing boats. Back in the UK ‘port’ tends to suggest a much larger commercial affair but here it can be anything from a small bay right up to a huge containership port. Fortunately Porto Roma is right at the smaller end of the scale; perfect for us to relax in for a few days and tackle a little BV maintenance.

The problem with doing maintenance on BV is that everything is tucked away neatly and so to achieve anything you have to go through a stage when the saloon is in absolute chaos. It’s not a pretty sight but when the work is done everything goes back into its allotted space and order is once more restored.

We had a few jobs we wanted to tackle. The main engine was due an oil change so whilst the oil was still warm from the passage across, we dug out the Pella extractor and sucked the old oil out through the dipstick pipe. It makes doing an oil change very quick, easy and clean. The messiest bit is replacing the oil filter but we wrap a plastic bag around that to catch any drips. The new oil was put in and the old oil decanted into the plastic containers so that we can dispose of it properly when we get into a harbour. That oil change should do us until our winter stop.

The next job was a bit of plumbing. As fitted, our watermaker fed fresh water into the aft tanks but had not been plumbed in to feed the keel tank as well. However, since we started living on board and primarily using the watermaker to provide us with fresh water, rather than taking it from potentially questionable sources ashore, we have found this rather inconvenient and have wanted to be able to fill the keel water tank too if we need to. To date I have not managed to get the valve I need for the permanent fix but we decided to run the new pipe and work an interim fix. There was a spare connection on the keel water tank that we could feed water into, so it was case of lifting the floorboards and drilling through a low bulkhead so that we were able to run the new pipe from the tank to the underside of the galley sink where the watermaker output valves are located. For the time being we have left the pipe over long so that we can uncoil it and connect it to the ‘taster’ tap which feeds into the sink. When we get the proper valve it will all be tucked away under the sink and we’ll be able to select between the ‘taster’ tap and the two tank groups by just moving a couple of valves. However, what we have done works and we are now able to fill either set of tanks from the watermaker.

With 2 guests on board the aft heads shower is likely to get some serious use over the next couple of weeks and so it was time to tackle a couple of lines of sealant which had caught my eye. Some of it was just cosmetic with the old sealant discoloured but there were definitely some small gaps. The old sealant was raked out and the area cleaned and degreased and then masking tape was applied to help make a neat finish.

Once the silicon sealant had been applied and smoothed to a good corner bead we carefully lifted the masking tape before the sealant dried to leave neat straight lines. It now looks very smart and, more importantly, completely seals the shower floor area again.

One of the ‘delights’ of yacht ownership is dealing with marine toilets. We make a habit of servicing and lubricating ours regularly to minimise the chance of their failing at the most inopportune moment. So far, our policy has worked but changing all of the seals and valves is never going to be one of our favourite jobs so we take it in turns to do it. In Porto Roma it was my turn so the aft toilet was duly taken apart, cleaned and the selection of new seals pictured above fitted. Everything was checked to make sure there were no leaks and the heads area then given a mega-clean. I think I fully justified a relaxing swim after that job!

With all of our industry we had definitely built up an appetite and so also spent some time making nice meals. We slow roasted a Greek briam (layers of potato, garlic, courgette, aubergine, peppers and tomatoes) and ate it with some spicy kofta kebabs we had also made. They aren’t quite so Greek but the two go very well together and, with good robust flavours, were an excellent excuse to share a bottle of the local red wine.