READY TO SAIL

What a great day, the wind died down overnight and the sun came out to play all day. The air is cold but nice and warm in the sun.  Dry bilges this morning so no more fresh water coming from somewhere unknown.

The air is cold but nice and warm in the sun.  Dry bilges this morning so no more fresh water coming from somewhere unknown.

The good news today is that finally the EPIRB arrived, some 33 days after leaving New Zealand.  Its now installed, registered and tested OK.

We are now ready to sail but will wait for the early morning tide on Tuesday.  Around here the tides are important if you have a low powered vessel and can represent 50% of the vessels speed, either positive or negative.  So catching and carrying a favourable tide is important to progress.

This afternoon I did some last minute fresh food shopping and found a couple of surprising items.  First I came across Long Clawson Stilton Cheese.  When I was a boy I worked at the Long Clawson Dairy making Stilton Cheese as a weekend and holiday job.

The cheese is in surprisingly good condition so I had to buy a bit.  The second surprise was finding Lemon Hart Rum, I am partial to a tot of Lemon Hart so snapped up a bottle.  Lemon Hart is from Guyana and is 101 years younger than Mount Gay Rum (my usual) which was established around 1703 in Barbados.  International trade is a wonderful thing, Cheese from Leicestershire and rum from Guyana in Port McNeill.

Sitting in the cockpit and buoyed by a couple of beers I decided to take on the outboard motor this afternoon.  Mr Suzuki 2 HP has been sitting on the stern rail for the last month, totally neglected.  He is an early model with nine screws holding on the engine cover.  I took him apart and cleaned, lubed and greased various bits and applied the wonder oil WD40 liberally.

Then I put him back together minus one large spring that doesn’t seem to fit anywhere.  At some stage I will get some petrol and give him a chance to prove himself.

I don’t like outboards and especially don’t like the idea of petrol and 2 stroke mixture on board, just another fuel and inconvenience.  But some of the places I have been and no doubt more coming up need exploring by small boat and an outboard is really needed to get to places beyond the comfortable rowing distance.  Of course if the outboard breaks down you have to row back but you are at least not rowing there and back.  Ideally I would like an electric outboard, clean, quiet and no need for petrol.  Unfortunately the cost of small electric outboards is prohibitive, maybe the cost will come down as more people use them.

In the morning before sailing I will use the last of the WiFi to send off the application to the Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve people.  A permit is required to enter Glacier Bay and only twenty five boats are allowed in at any one time.  The permit can only be applied for 60 days in advance.

An early start tomorrow so will start getting the boat ready this evening.

Logged 9^th may 2016