BOAT SWUNG - COMPASS ADJUSTED
Aquila
Alan and Sarah Bennett
Thu 17 Apr 2008 00:11
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What a day! 2degC first thing, but with eggy bake's in the pan (and I will
admit, the oven on in 'heating' mode) the cabin was soon warm. Breakfast
with Radio 4 'Today' via the internet, steaming coffee, the sun rising in a
clear and rapidly warming sky.........surely a good omen. The first part
of the moring was spent tidying ship, then 2 hours on the upper decks cleaning
out the remnants of the winter - with special attention to the hatch seatings,
as two of them had been showing signs of leakings. My efforts were
rewarded with them then all passing the 'high pressure hose' test - but not sure
how this equates to Atlantic gophers!
By
this time it was 1130, and hot enough to change into shorts. On time, the
compass adjuster (c.80?) and his 'youngster' (c.65?) had turned up.
Compass adjuster only just managed to get his legs over the guardrail, and
almost went overboard half way along the deck - this had me reaching for my
insurance policy and placing 'beware tripping hazard' signs ahead of him on a
step by step basis!!! Once settled in the cockpit, he declared that the
compass would have to come out of its binnacle. For a time this looked
like defeating us, but it's amazing what a bigger hammer, judiciously placed,
can achieve - that Manadon training always comes in useful! Then it was
time to get undeway, and for over an hour we did pirouettes in the pool just off
our berth - think the CA almost had a heart attack when he saw how close to
other boats we were going! But it all worked out fine, and by the end
we had ZERO deviation on the main compass on all points! Fantastic.
Only trouble is, if we end up in Iceland as opposed to Cornwall, I won't be
able to blame the compass! Just wish one of the crew were aboard - could
then at least have captured some of it on film!
After a
late lunch, it was foraging for provisions, then back on board to crack on with
items on 'the list' - which is ruling my life at the moment. For every
item I tick off, 3 more seem to get added. But the big ones are coming
down in number - although badly need to get up the mast now. Maybe one of
my fresher pairs of socks could haul me up...........
Rounded off an excellent day with a pasta and lots of je ne sais quoi (including
the remnants of that onion) and Mozart doing his thing. Hurry up crew -
you're missing plenty!
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