FAMILY REUNION

Yesterday Ngozi, Steven and I returned to Truce at the mooring in Waikawa Bay.  We had planned to go ashore to the Jolly Roger pub in the evening but didn’t make it.  Nobody was really motivated to jump in the dinghy and paddle ashore.  It was good to be together again on the boat, so we just stayed on board, ate, drank, chatted and had a good family reunion.

It was an early start today as Ngozi and Steven are returning to Auckland.  The taxi picked them up from shore at 06:30 to take then to the Ferry Terminal in Picton.  I was alone again.

As it was nice and early and quiet I decided to drop the mooring and head down to the fuel dock in Waikawa Marina.  I topped off with diesel and fresh water and am now ready to go again.  Once back on the mooring I had breakfast and planned out the day.

Lots of little chores to catch up on.  When people are onboard it’s difficult to find time for maintenance and fixing things, I now had a day to myself before I headed out again.

One of my priorities was to clean out the bilge which is normally dry.  The major concern is the diesel that I spilt when changing and messing around with the fuel filters.  Fortunately, it was not as bad as I had anticipated, a couple of cleans with warm water and detergent saw them spotless again and smelling sweet.

I then rigged new boom preventors.  My old set up had too steep an angle from the boom and revised set up didn’t have a very good lead aft.  The old set up worked – but needed improvement.  I thought about the problem for some time before coming up with the solution.  On the bulwark forward I have secured pad eyes, to the pad eyes I have luggage tag secured low friction rings on dynema loops.  The boom preventor line passes through the rings and then back to the cockpit where I can handle them.  I can now keep both port and starboard preventers rigged at all times and available for use.  Each preventer line is attached to the boom with a soft shackle, a lightweight, strong, silent and convenient attachment.

Pleased with my mornings work I had a late lunch and siesta.  Later in the afternoon I changed out the reefing line on the new Harken furler.  The new line I put on is too smaller diameter and hard on the hands when furling in windy conditions.  I have replaced it with the old furling line from the Merriman furler.  Unfortunately this line, while kinder on the hands, appears to be a little too larger diameter.  I will use it and see if it settles in after some serious use.

Now it’s off to an early night, I plan to start my exit from the Marlborough Sounds tomorrow.