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Last summer I finally got round to trying to cure a leak into the forward starboard locker by re-sealing the D-bolt.

I applied a ring spanner to the first nut and pulled. It was initially very stiff which I attributed to the coats of paint on it, but on the second quarter revolution there was a big bang, and the nut fell in two halves. The second nut came off normally. The corrosion pattern on the fractured faces suggested that there had been a crack present on opposite sides for some time and my straw had just broken the camel’s back. Perhaps this had even been responsible for the deck leak developing.

Sensitive to stories of D-bolts failing under stress I sent for a complete set of six D-bolts from Jeremy Rogers at what seemed tremendous expense, but cost a lot less than a new mast would. The new cap shroud bolts were considerably longer and required a new hole to be cut in the fibreglass web between hull and deck. This seemed a better engineering solution and well worth the cost of the hole saw I should have bought years ago instead of those feeble Black and Decker ones that recoil in horror at the mere sight of fibreglass.

The sealing job was a great success, and I now felt much more secure when sheeted in hard on starboard tack, but the mess and my aversion to fibreglass dust encouraged me to give a low priority to the rest of the job. (How do people who work with glass fibre for a living get on? I only have to take a quick trip into the rafters to retrieve a sail or something and I’m itching for days).

Cut to this summer, motoring up the Geirangerfjord in flat calm. I’d finally run out of more pressingly urgent tasks, like re-binding pan handles with new string, and decided, with the memory of my last return passage from Norway prominent in my thoughts, that the port cap-shroud D-bolt should be done now. I’d even brought the hole saw with me to do it.

All seemed to go well, using a socket this time, until I came to knock the second nut out of the socket and, you’ve guessed it, two halves fell out! (photo herewith)

Beyond that things went relatively uneventfully, if you discount an exciting fuelling stop on a lee shore of boulders "subject to swell" from passing cruise liners, following which I almost made the mistake of flying the spinnaker from an unstayed mast. Funny how filling up with Diesel makes the wind come back.

I must get round to completing the job on the lowers – soon.

Andrew Hothersall - Lady Hysteria - CO431 - Stornoway.