The weekend is here and we are going to test the new dinghy out today with a little motor around the bay.
I was up early for another coat of varnish, but as it was still dark I setup the webcam to catch the sunrise, I’m not sure this is the best I can do, but it was an interesting experiment. The GoPro is set to take a pic every 5 seconds.
On Thursday I put the two new headsails back on the furlers, I noticed the yankee was sticking as it turned, not a lot, but it indicated a problem, and experience has shown me that a small niggling ‘indication of a problem’ generally turns into a major headache at just the wrong time. Anyway, investigate I did, I climbed the mast and found the top part of the furling gear to be chafing on the halyard, so much so, that maybe a quarter of the halyard was damaged. Dropping the sail, trimming the halyard and then fitting a ‘pendant’ I think it’s called, a short line at the Tack/bottom of the sail, meant I could hoist the sail 6 inches higher, this made the halyard leave the top furling bearing at a better angle, wouldn’t chafe or snag and I was able to grease the bearing while it was down. With the sail back up, the furler was working much better. I have to say that I don’t think I would like to have to manhandle anything bigger than these sails, I’m getting too old.
The staysail inner stay was too loose, I couldn’t get to the turnbuckle as it’s inside the furling case and this wouldn’t come apart, I spent an age drilling out the screw that had corroded, but to no avail, it was seized on solid. I guessed the rigger must have had ‘a cunning plan’ when he changed the stay, as I couldn’t see that he had had it off either. Anyway after a lot of flapping, I was back up the mast to remove a halyard guide, that allowed me to slide the whole kit up the stay in order to reach the turnbuckle below. (Twice up the mast in fact, the second time with Allen keys instead of screwdrivers! Duh). This worked, and now I feel much happier that I have the correct tension in the mast stays and halyards. The mast also has a slight but pleasant curve to it.
More tidying up and little chores like replacing the blown panel light bulbs on the electric supply panel with new led lights, not really needed but a very nice feeling that they all work like new now. Also I have managed to get a bread starter going, the trick seemed to be water related, or just luck, but I suspected the water here tap or bottled is heavily treated, so I used some rain water I collected, and Voila, instant starter. So today is also bread baking day so we can have nice toast with our ‘Jamie Oliver style’ poached eggs tomorrow. Wish me luck on that one!.
Above is our favourite local restaurant, Papa Mama, just around the corner, you can see the marina in the background across the water.
Hi-res pic of the marina lit by the setting sun
Paul Collister.
You could well be right about the water for the starter Paul. If it is heavily chlorinated it can kill off the delicate yeasts. Another trick is to leave a bowl of water in the open for 30 mins or so. The bad stuff will evaporate.
Good luck with the baking!
BTW Lovely sunrise.
I don’t need to rise early to see it here 🙂
When I read Cormac McCathy’s ‘Border Trilogy I kept a Spanish dictionary at hand. Need to do the same sort of thing reading these posts.
The rainwater, in addition to being untreated, likely had some built-in yeastie beasties.