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Despite the fact that it was a bit rolly during the night at our anchorage and Paul had to get up to reset the mooring rope, I had a long and undisturbed sleep at Koh Similan; the rocking actually helps me to sleep. We had our morning coffee in the cockpit enjoying the warmth of the sun and musing on the cause of all the activity on the rocks opposite. People were busy setting up tables and chairs to look like a cafe on the tiny beach below them. Looking through the binoculars, Paul concluded it was a movie set for a film of some kind judging by the cameras, microphones and a megaphone he could see. Later in the day, we watched what were probably stuntmen affecting some clumsy dives and jumps off the top of a high boulder while the director shouted instructions. Since we weren’t too far from the location of the island ‘The Beach’ was filmed on, I couldn’t help searching for famous faces when I looked through the binoculars. We found out later, however, that it was going to be nothing more than a commercial for a national bank.

The crew had relocated to the main beach by the time we dinghied over in the afternoon, and I was mortified to receive another soaking from a wave after my (admittedly) clumsy and ungainly exit as we reached the shallow water. It was in full view of the cameramen and extras on the shore so maybe I’ll be edited into the final cut if the camera was running. The water was so clear and calm, it was a perfect opportunity to test the new snorkels we’d bought in Patong. It had been some time since I had done any snorkelling and as I’m not a natural ‘water baby’, I was a bit apprehensive but it was definitely worth worth it. The water was warm but refreshingly cool after being in the hot sun and there were scores of beautiful fish swimming in and out of the rocks and coral. The coral was stunning in itself and it’s gratifying to know that it is all protected by law. The Similans were one of the first group of islands to be given a national park status. It’s prohibited to fish within a designated area around the islands, and boats are only permitted to anchor well away from the corralled parts. Furthermore, signs on the island inform visitors that it’s forbidden to take plants, wildlife, cuttings, rocks, broken coral or even leaves away from the island. During our second walk up to the clifftop, which we now knew was called ‘Sail Rock’, we noticed several varieties of plants and some gorgeous-looking colourful blossoms and flowers which had once undoubtedly tempted people to pluck for souvenirs.

The sun was about to set when we got to the top and Sister Midnight looked exquisite in the amber glow on the water. Other people up there were taking pictures so she will feature in quite a few holiday snaps I imagine. The only disadvantage of being out in this environment at twilight is the prevalence of mosquitoes. I get bitten a lot by these pesky insects, and judging by the distinctive smell of deet emanating from some of the other walkers we passed, I’m not alone in having delicious blood! We’d neglected to bring any repellent with us so we beat a hasty retreat back down the trail and dinghied back to the boat just as darkness fell. A couple of pics of the walk to Sail Rock and the view of Sister Midnight at her anchorage are below.

26th November 2016

Paul slept in the cockpit for most of the night. It was a dark, clear and starry night and it’s very cool and comfy up there, with the added benefit that he can react quickly to anything that needs sorting out, such as the mooring buoy banging against the bobstay. Waking at 3am I couldn’t resist walking out to the bow to sit and stare at the stars for a while before going back to the V-berth to be rocked back to sleep by the waves. Paul was up and about before me in the morning and told me he had been chatting to some Australian guys who had recommended a visit to Koh Miang because it was such a charming place. They also told him that none of the other Similan Islands matched up to Similan and Miang. After a coffee and a look at the route, we weighed anchor and set off for the two hour trip to Koh Miang. I wouldn’t have thought it possible after the sea at Similan, but the nearer we got to Koh Miang, the clearer the water became. I spotted some pretty blue fish, so close to the surface they looked as if they were swimming right underneath clear glass. The side of the island we approached had a lovely beach but there was already quite a crowd on it and several daytripper boats were taking up the moorings so we decided to check out the other side. I stood at the bow to check for obstacles and swimmers in the shallow water as we motored slowly round until we arrived on the other side. This side was even more appealing; it was smaller and less crowded, with a more secluded beach. We picked up a mooring buoy with no trouble and as it was very hot by then we both had a swim to cool off. After that it was time for a spot of lunch, and a bit of a rest before setting out to explore this new and inviting island.

 

Wednesday, and up early to get some varnish on the new sprit. Below you can see just what a difference a primer and one coat makes, I want to get at least 5 more coats on before we leave.

Soon after this I headed over to another carpenter who has his shop down the road from here, he was cutting a few strips of teak for me that I can use to fix up the cockpit seating area. It’s a small repair, but I thought I would get the teak onboard now while it’s easy to find. The price was about half of what I would pay in the UK, I had expected a better saving, more importantly, I had hoped to work in a ‘doesn’t grow on trees’ kind of joke at this point but had to give up, as it kept turning out too crass.

We had a hire car today, so we headed off on a long provisioning trip, but first we took a coast road we hadn’t been down before and it was very pleasing, lots of foliage on the road and trees that had almost blown down, but some amazing views.

 

We looked at more dinghies, and after lifting a few, whilst imagining dragging said beast up the beach at Bora Bora or Fiji… (add other exotic destinations here ..), decided the one we had chosen would be way to heavy. In fact I tried to lift a 3m rib to look underneath and now I have a very sore back. A big dinghy is great for provisioning, but in reality a smaller one is more practical for most of our needs. So I’m now looking at aluminium floored 2.5m dinghies. I was also humbled by a local fisherman I watched with his home made canoe, he probably spent less on this than I spend on a diet coke each night at the bar, it’s about 6ft long. It even has a storage compartment for his fish. I have ordered a new yacht from him 😉

Off to Rolly Tasker next to hurry up my sail repairs, I spent 20 minutes there helping them find my sails, which were still not repaired. Hopefully they will be fixed by next week when the mainsail should be ready. I picked up 60 metres of 16mm 3 strand nylon rope to use to extend my anchor rode. I can now easily anchor in 20m of water.
Off to Yanui Beach for a swim, then dinner at a beach bar before heading to the supermarket and home.

It was 1AM before we wheeled the last of our goods back to the boat.

Thursday morning and another early get up to put a coat of varnish on and get the rigging attached to the bowsprit. This took forever, the boat must have stretched as the forestay wouldn’t reach by just releasing the tension on the backstay. All sorted in the end and at last I can sleep knowing the mast is fully supported now.

It’s raining now, more flooding is reported for southern Thailand, Varnishing has come to a halt, inside jobs for me today.
Kathy’s posts have been delayed due to her getting a virus on her new windows laptop, I have been on  virus free mac for so many years now I had forgotten how horrible these things are. Still a system restore seems to have fixed it, for now, and she will finish her post shortly I hope.

Paul Collister.

Yes, I got a phone call at 7:30 this morning to say the bowsprit was on its way to me. A week earlier than I expected, I was quite worried that it might have been rushed, but on the contrary, it turned up looking wonderful. None of the holes for the windlass had been drilled as they wanted to make sure they had it right here, which was good I suppose.

So at 8 AM the guys arrived with the sprit on a trolley.The first fitting required a sliver of teak removing from the mortice/tenon joint but looked good. 

It only took about 4 hours to finish the job, most of the work was in drilling the holes for the windlass mounts which pass through the bowsprit to pass through the existing holes in the deck.

 

The cross supports, I have no idea what if any their nautical name is, were replaced, just to match the colour of the new teak. I believe the teak was grown in Thailand, and was fashioned into a sprit by one of the two guys installing it.

You can see below the lamination, 7 pieces of teak were used, I think the original might have had 5 teak and 4 of cedar or similar in between.

The reason I had to do this work was because of the rot and termite damage to the old sprit. I now feel 100% confident in the new sprit, with it off, I was able to check the samson post, that’s the vertical pole of wood behind the sprit that is firmly secured to the deck and hull, and everything else around the area, and all is great.
The teak is in perfect condition without a single blemish, so I think it’s going to look fantastic when it’s varnished. I’m going to take my time building up the layers, I have already sanded it to a very smooth finish, and when the rain came down earlier, I could see it looking a lovely colour. So be warned, there may be more bowsprit pictures on the way.

Tomorrow we have a car and will be out getting more bits, picking up the repaired sails from Rolly Taskers and doing the weekly shop, but I will be up early sanding then getting the primer coat on the sprit, before it can even think about going grey.

Tonight we had a torrential downpour while we sat in the deck bar, but just before then, the light was amazing, I have attached another hi res picture, click to see it in its full glory.

Paul Collister

 

We’re still busy doing nothing…or, that is, Paul is busier than me at doing it ;).  It was hot and sultry last week, and despite a weather forecast promising rain and cooler conditions, it seems set to continue into this week.  Anything involving strenuous activity, therefore, needs to be done before midday. Paul has been getting up early to do preparatory work for varnishing and other outside tasks before coming back down below to ponder on existentialism for a while (really – we have some stimulating in-depth discussions about it until I conclude that I’m a little out of my depth and sidle away with my book :)). I now have my own laptop so I’ve been busy learning how to use that (bonding with it, I call it) and if I need help Paul is pleased to assist, if only because it confirms how much he hates Microsoft: it provides him with great opportunities to scoff at the various ‘stupid’ commands that come up. Apparently, Apple devices are much more user-friendly, to put it politely (his vitriol knows no bounds when it comes to describing Microsoft’s many faults ;)).

We’ve spent a bit of time looking at various types and models of dinghies before making a firm decision on any particular one.  They are very expensive brand new, and that’s without the added cost of an outboard engine, so it’s definitely not a purchase to rush into.  The only other thing of note to occur last week was that we almost got hit by a yacht leaving the marina. We were in the cabin having breakfast when we heard an alarmingly loud scraping noise followed by some shouts from the workers on the boat next to us on our port side. Paul dashed up to the cockpit and I saw him jump across to the boat on our starboard side. The yacht trying to leave was being pushed onto it by the wind and strong current and the guy at the helm was having trouble trying to steer away. Luckily it had missed our stern but was colliding with our neighbour’s and Paul was using a fender to prevent any serious damage.  Other people soon came to help and someone called the marina office to send a dinghy to help the poor guy. If anyone else was onboard with him they were all hiding below so he must have felt terribly embarrassed. I know what it’s like when an incident occurs and people come out to watch the drama unfold.

Below are a few pictures from last week, followed by a continuation of my description of our trip to the Similan Islands last November.

 

November 24th 2016 – Arrival at Donald Duck Bay                                           After a trouble-free departure from the busy anchorage at Ban Thrap Lamu we motored away at 7am on a sea as calm as a millpond.  The sun was hot by 9am, and for the rest of the way we saw several day-tripper boats carrying passengers (we guessed) to the islands we were heading for. We hoped they would be heading back by the time we got there. Meanwhile, Paul tried various tempting-looking baits on his line in an attempt to bag a fish for dinner – the area we were in being ‘one of the richest fishing grounds in The Indian Ocean’ – but as it didn’t happen for him he had pasta and pesto to look forward to instead!

I spent most of the afternoon on the starboard beam reading, keeping watch and looking for marine life. We watched Koh Similan get nearer and nearer and by 3:30 we arrived at the beautiful bay known as Donald Duck, due to the rock formation’s striking resemblance to that character at the entrance to the bay. Paul thought we might be approached by a ranger to show us to a mooring buoy and we motored around for a while, checking out likely-looking spots.  The beach looked very inviting, and wasn’t as crowded as we’d feared. There were a few dozen passengers sunbathing from the day-tripper boats that were moored in the bay; others were swimming or snorkelling in the crystal clear water. We also spotted people at the summit of the huge boulder-like cliffs on the island’s western side and I resolved to get up there too if it was at all possible. Since no ranger approached us, we decided to moor ourselves to a buoy, and I was extremely chuffed to pick up the loop with the boat hook fairly quickly after shouting instructions to Paul such as ‘bit more to the right’, ‘slower’, ‘now to the left’ until it was within reach.

We had a swim straight away to cool off from the searing heat, and then Paul pumped up the dinghy so that we could visit the beach before it got dark. It was a wet ride across, with water splashing inside, covering the floor (which doesn’t inflate) and just as we got to the shore a big wave broke and soaked us-thus cementing my ongoing mistrust and dislike of this particular dinghy. It didn’t take long to dry off! The beach consisted of warm, white, powdery sand and the water was so clear it was possible to see all kinds of colourful fish. There was a holiday resort in the wooded area behind the beach, complete with camping facilities, a cafe, barbecue area and play-park.  Various signs were pointing to recommended walks and viewpoints so we chose the path leading to the clifftop we’d seen from the boat. It was marvellous – not too arduous or insect-laden and the views from the top were stunning.

I bought a thing called the speedy stitcher, I expect “other stitchers are available” (BBC joke), as it has become apparent that here in the tropics stitching is going to be a big part of keeping the boat shipshape.The sun is brutal on canvas, and it seems that it’s the stitching that is failing first, so lots of canvas in good nick is falling apart as the stitching dissolves in the UV light. This handy little device is brilliant, I managed to repair the mainsail cover and it actually looks the part now. I had considered getting a new one made, but that would cost about £500, I think my repairs should be good for a few years. Anyway this device allows you to sew lock stitches, just like a real sewing machine, just a lot slower. I recommend it as an essential item for any offshore sailor. I included a link below, which seems to have embedded itself as a video.

The sun has stayed out and it’s blazing hot here everyday. I have decided to buy a new dinghy/RIB this week, it’s very expensive, but they don’t seem that much worse than in the UK, we are getting a 2.9m fiberglass bottom dinghy made out of a tough material called Hypalon, it’s much better with the UV than a normal PVC dinghy that would be fine in Europe. We will also need to buy a new Outboard motor for it as our 2.5hp one won’t cut it. I’m also going to buy a kayak just as soon as I can find one for a decent price. So once I have paid for the Bowsprit, Mainsail, Dinghy, liferaft & OB plus the Kayak the cheque book will be closed, if not permanently broken.
The plan now is still to head off from Phuket at the end of this month, February will be spent exploring Phang Na bay, the Hongs in particular, March will see us head down to Singapore. I still haven’t worked out what to do there yet, but I’m leaning towards another year in this region, perhaps exploring Vietnam, Cambodia and  Borneo during the SW monsoon season (May – Oct), then popping back here for the NW Monsoon in September and checking out Indonesia and more of Malaysia/Thailand.

Another mega yacht turned up yesterday, MV Titania, a massive big charter motor boat, available to hire at a mere €600,000 / week!

Here’s a hi res picture of the posh end of the marina now, to give it some perspective, there is a yacht in the foreground with a couple of people on it, much the same size as sister midnight. Click on the image (and wait) for a hi res image to download, click again to zoom in (assuming your browser works like mine).

I bet those super-yachts probably have their own sewing machine.

Paul Collister

 

Well I was impressed when we pulled up alongside one of Roman Abramovitch’s motor yachts in Dublin City marina some years ago, but today I noticed a mega yacht had arrived in the marina, on the outside pontoon across from us. I looked up on the AIS and found M5 at the correct bearing from us so had a look and discovered It’s called M5, previously known as Mirabella 5.It’s the biggest sloop in the world, and number 6 in the biggest yacht list overall.  We saw her from a distance once in the med where she famously went aground after dragging her anchor. She seems to get around a bit.

Despite being the largest single masted yacht ever made, she only has room for twelve guests, only 6 more than we can handle, however I expect they might have a little more room, and probably a butler or two each.

She was also responsible for saving a crew in the ARC which I think was in 2006 the same year as us, details here and quite an interesting read

Will pop over tomorrow to see if they have any spare sikaflex as I just ran out, I’m sure they will help out 😉

More details here

Paul Collister

 

 

Waking up in the cockpit at Koh Lon early in the morning of the 22nd November was a delightful experience.  It was cool, and the silence was only broken by the calls coming from birds in the tall trees on the island, and by the ‘plopping’ of fish breaking the surface of the water in their attempts to escape predators. I watched the sunrise at 6 30 as I drank my coffee, and then a few ‘longtail’ fishing boats emerged from the beaches, chugging noisily out for the early morning catch.  The outboard engines they use on the stern of these boats are particularly noisy due to the fact they are uncased and are mostly old car, or even tractor engines.  They tend to look a bit incongruous perched on the back of the otherwise elegant-looking boats.

Once Paul was up we prepared to move on. We were both at the bow – Paul was showing me how to weigh anchor – when we heard a loud thud from the back of the boat.  It created quite a jolt and we thought something must have hit us or we’d gone aground.  Close investigation revealed nothing untoward, however so we concluded it must have been a heavy sea creature bumping into the hull (shame we didn’t see it).  Back at the anchor, we had the job of washing off the thick mud that had accumulated on the chain as it came up from the seabed.  Normally the electric water pump (the deckwash) would make this job easier but as it’s currently out of action we made do with a broom and buckets of sea water. At 8am we motored off and once on course, the autohelm took over the steering which allowed us to enjoy a breakfast of the fresh pineapple we’d brought with us. We only intended to have a few slices but it was so sweet and refreshing we finished the whole fruit.

Our destination was a place called Bang Tao, a large open bay on the northwest side of Phuket and the site of one of its longest beaches.  We arrived there around 1:30, and the first thing Paul did after we safely anchored was to swim around the boat with the snorkel on to check for any damage from the morning’s jolt (none thankfully). The rest of the day was lazy and relaxing.  Paul put up the handmade hammocks we’d bought from a roadside vendor a few days before to test the best location for them.  They will be put to good use during our travels around the Pacific Islands.

We had skipped lunch so for an early dinner we had veggie sausages with broccoli, carrots, potatoes, fried onions and a peanut sauce I’d bought in Malaysia.  After sunset we spotted lightning flickering in the sky but although the sea was a bit choppy, no storm occurred to disturb us during the night.

Wednesday 23rd November                                                                                 This morning’s dawn chorus came from the bow of the boat where a line of small black and white birds were perched on the bowsprit, unaware that I was fairly close to them as I watched through the hatch in the V berth.  I have no idea what they were. I think I need to brush up on my knowledge of bird breeds (and on other sea life for that matter).  By 7am we were up and ready to go.  It was a cool, fresh morning; cloudy but pleasant.  I helped get the anchor up, which wasn’t clogged with mud this time but it did have several small crabs dropping from the chain links onto the deck of the bow, so I quickly pushed them back overboard.  The cooler weather was accompanied by wind at long last, so Paul put the sails up in the hope that it would increase enough to use them.  At 10am we had reached the opposite side of the Sarasin Bridge, the very spot we’d set off from! It’s not possible to go underneath the bridge as it’s not high enough so we had to do almost a complete circumnavigation of Phuket to get to the other side. The wind picked up at lunchtime and the sails worked well for a couple of hours. Paul took them down when it became clear that bad weather was on the way and by the time we motored up the river into Ban Thap Lamu it was raining so hard it was difficult to spot the marker buoys.  Ban Thap Lamu isn’t the most picturesque of places, especially on a grey drizzly afternoon. The Thai Navy Base is situated in the north of the estuary and a bit further down from  it, the public jetty was very busy with sea traffic: longtail fishing boats, speedboats and diving excursion crafts were all jostling for space. We didn’t fancy going ashore, choosing instead to anchor opposite the jetty and watch the activity going on there while the rain fell and lightning flashed. When it got dark, and the shoreline was lit up with twinkling lights and the rain stopped, it looked a lot more appealing :).

 

Wednesday saw the weather change for the better, we have had 2 straight days of sunshine now, it was 36 in the cabin this morning, I put the awnings up and the temp dropped a few degrees. We are taking it easy at the moment, Kathy has started typing up her blog. She has a Laptop running a strange operating system, it has a wavy flag and lots of confusing icons, I accidentally found a way to make it look like an old fashioned windows computer, but it keeps changing back to a weird thing where it has lots of blocky square icons over the screen, none of which seem to be much use. Also whenever you get a program open like the photo-manager, none of the buttons do what you would expect, plus it spends a lot of time throwing up boxes reminding you to update this and that, can’t see how it will ever catch on 😉

The bow sprit was collected on Monday and work is under way to replicate it, Tuesday we headed off for a drive to replenish stores, and also to drop off the mainsail with the sailmakers so that can be replicated too. We popped into Cholomark, a local company that makes RIBs (Rigid bottomed Inflatable Dinghies), our current dinghy is just a bit too small and flimsy. I’m expecting that once we get out into the pacific islands, we will need to be ferrying food, water and fuel to and from the shore to our boat via dinghy, so it’s worth getting something decent.

Sadly that means a few thousand pounds flying out the door, plus I think our 2.5hp motor will be too small, so another whack for a 5-8hp replacement.

Today was spent doing small jobs around the boat, not a lot is going to happen now until the bowsprit returns, as we can’t take the boat out without it. So on Monday I baked some bread, which worked out quite well, will do a bit more over the weekend.

On a closing note, you can always hear a snack, crackle and pop sound when in the boat, it’s coming from the hull outside under the water, and can be quite loud at night. I’m not precisely sure what causes it, but I’m sure it’s related to the marine growth on the hull. It’s either the growth growing or the fish nibbling on it, or both. There’s no shortage of nibbling fish here as the video clip below shows.

I am having trouble getting video clips to upload, so I have done this in a roundabout way, hopefully it still works.

 

Paul Collister

 

We’ve been back in Phuket almost a week now, and are just about recovering our equilibrium. Today (Wednesday) has been the first hot, dry day since our return. Like much of Thailand, we experienced continual rain for several days, although thankfully we haven’t had the disastrous floods that southern Thailand has been suffering from. The accompanying cooler temperature was a bonus while we were working to get the boat shipshape again, and a welcome contrast to the minus 9&10 temperatures we experienced in Germany.

This first week has been all about unpacking, cleaning, tidying and generally sorting stuff out, as well as shopping for provisions and new equipment for the boat.  We’ll be in Yacht Haven Marina for the next three weeks while the bowsprit is replaced and other essential maintenance tasks are carried out. Our month long Christmas break in the UK and Italy with friends and family was great fun and also provided an opportunity to gather up items such as food and tools that are unobtainable or expensive here. Paul’s luggage consisted of various replacement parts and objects for the boat, while mine held several blocks of Sainsbury’s new range of vegan cheese, packets of veggie sausage and burger mixes, a few lightweight clothes and several (heavier) toiletry items and books. We were both just on the maximum 23kg weight allowance, but apart from the fact that four packets of Alta Rica coffee refills aroused suspicion in the Xray machine at Phuket Airport, we were successful in transporting it all from England, on to Germany and through to Thailand.

Before we left in early December, we enjoyed a fabulous ten-day trip exploring the Similan Islands, a group of eleven small islands in The Andaman Sea (part of the Phang Nga Province).  Paul described it in his blog entries, along with some pics of the beautiful places we visited. My intention was to publish my blog and pics once I got back to the UK, naively assuming I would have time to do it in between the shopping, planning and preparation associated with Christmas (not to mention the socialising ;)).  So since there is nothing much to report on here at the moment as we relax in the luxury of Yacht Haven Marina, I’m going to go back to last year for my next few blogs and describe my impressions of the picturesque Similan Islands.

Monday 21st November                                                     We left the marina on a beautifully clear, calm and sunny morning which made departing from the berth extremely easy. The downside of course was that there was no wind, so we motored out and used the engine for the whole journey to Koh Lon. It was a very relaxing six hours: no squalls, not many other boats, a calm sea and a warm sun. We were able to doze and read for pretty much the whole way. Paul put a line out after spotting several fishing buoys in the area but still had no takers.  Koh Lon, seen in the pics below, provided a nice anchorage. We sat in the cockpit watching darkness fall and several fishing boats motoring in and out of the island’s small beaches, before eating dinner and turning in for the night.

 

                                                                                         

 

What a productive day, up at 6:30, just as it was light, but feeling tired I decided I could sleep another hour, but I quickly checked the weather grib for today. It showed me that we could expect 20 knt winds for several days, and that right now we are in the middle of a depression. That meant I needed to take advantage of the current calm wind, so up and out I went.
First off I needed to get the headsail off, I pulled the sail out, let go of the halyard, and it shot down, just a little too quickly, I think it might have been better to leave the pulpit on for this, as some of the luff shot over the side and just dipped into the sea. Still it was raining anyway, so no big deal. I rolled up the sail on the pontoon, I hadn’t realised that the wet teak pontoon would leave marks on the sail, I’m hoping they will wash out.
Next up I needed to haul the mainsail up so I could check the boom angle for the sailmaker. I also wanted some pictures of it. That went very well and I could haul the sail nearly all the way up without the winch. I think my shoulder is healing well now.

Down with the mainsail and flaked ready to slide out of the boom bag and into a sail bag. Next was the bit I dreaded, getting the furling gear/stays off. I slackened the backstay and rear intermediaries (the ones that support the staysail stay), Then I took the spinnaker halyard and tied it to the end of the bowsprit and winched it very tight. Then the forestay was slack enough to remove from the cranse iron (The metal thing at the front of the bowsprit where all the stays connect). The furler was carefully moved along side the boat and secured.

The Staysail stay/furler was next and this was even easier. I tied this on the other side of the boat. Next the whisker and bobstays all came off. I tied them all together with a bit of rope which I brought back to the Samson post, just to keep the stays out of the water. Now all we had left was the metal plate holding the sprit down, this came off a relatively easily, but did require Kathy to go into the chain locker and hold a spanner on the nuts underneath. Together we managed to undo all 4 bolts, I had to tape the spanner to a length of wood so Kathy could reach the nuts, and a couple of the nuts are somewhere amongst the rope and chain in the locker, and need retrieving later.
Finally the sprit was free to come out, however I expected it to be glued down to the deck with the 3M sealant used liberally on these boats during production. I increased the tension on the spinnaker halyard and was amazed to see the sprit lift clear of the deck.  Jumping ashore I was able to wiggle the sprit out of the Samson post, I did try to lift it ashore but got half way there and realised it was too heavy, this was the only awkward point, I’m holding the bowsprit on the dock, it’s no longer connect to the boat and I’m struggling to stop it sliding into the sea. I had attached a line to it just in case it fell over. Over the years, with the help of Davey Jones, I have learnt to tie a line to anything I value when working on the boat. Despite this, I have lost two split pins and a small spanner to the aforesaid mans locker since yesterday.

I managed to push the bowsprit back onto the boat and then I could lower it onto the pontoon over the side.

Next was the moment of truth, how bad was the rot, I expected it to be worse underneath, which had previously been hidden. Flipping the sprit over I could see that all the soft wood was rotted, I haven’t inspected it too closely, as it was now pouring down, but I could see enough damage to satisfy me that this exercise was worth it.

I suspect the sprit might have been strong enough for some time, but I will sell this boat one day and will need to have the sprit replaced before then, so while here, it seems sensible to get it sorted now. It’s now 4PM and I have cleaned up, washed the sprit and the deck down and called the carpenter to make sure they come early to take the sprit away.
Most of all I’m very pleased at how easy it all went, I’m reminded that even the most daunting tasks are quite manageable if you take a bit of time planning and thinking it all through.

On another note, I’m shocked at how quickly things rust out here. I think perhaps the reduced ventilation while we have been away may have helped, but for example, just look at our oven lighter after just 4 weeks

We need to go shopping today, meals so far have been comprised mainly of a loaf we bought in Cologne airport, a healthy branny thing that was hard as rocks when we bought it, and hasn’t changed much since ;-), just need the rain to abate a little.

Paul Collister