thurs 11th

Catmojo
Matt
Thu 11 Jun 2020 13:01
34:23N 36:17W full sails in bright morning sunshine at 4kts in genteel style at 100cog into 6-7knots of wind, calm sea and Ampi made lemon cake at 6am this morning. Anna's awake, Ampi and Sam snoozing and sadly the lemon cake is already half gone.

Sheesh these winds still not making things at all easy, and the Fuel Police are watching things. Normally I would motor into this but it's rather lovely sailing this creaky 3-bed apartment in a twinkling sea in motorless peaceful breeze. Actually not much creaking with full sails - no reeflines in use, and which can groan on the pulley wheels through the boom. The mainsail (big triangle behind the mast) is loose-footed, attached only at mast end, boom end, and then at the mast with a series of "cars" which can run up and down the mast as it's raised or lowered. These can jam from time to time, so I spray them with silicon lubricant and have rigged a so-called "downhaul" to drag the sail down if needed.

We had an hour of rope-fiddling on the hardtop yesterday evening, Anna surgically sewing the end of a new line onto the end of the old one temporarily, to pull through with the old one for the first reef. I changed the knot holding the reefline on the boom from from bowline to round turn and four half hitches, with the final few hitches being sacrificial and stopperish - the big metal reef pulleys can grind into the knots if set overtight, so no more putting reeflines on the winch to tighten things up I think - the boom end reefs have to be set/jammed a bit loose and everything tightened on mainsheet below and halliard above, not by winding in the reefline. No damage except to lines.
So we fixed that reef line and although it wasn't super-critical, Simon Said we'd need it over the next day or so as winds increase from NE. Yes, north East, NOT north west so if I accidentally said west when I meant east in earlier blogs, sorry but Oh you know what I meant, that way, whatever. Simon is being very gentle and telling us to point towards the sunrise and pull the flappy things (sails I think they're called) on short strings. Also not to go below 30N or else dragons and monsters and (mainly) no wind at all.

TV Pam wonders what has gone wrong with the boat, and any repairs needed? Hm. I can't think of too many. There's the reefline pulley issues but they all work now, albeit with some groaning.
The home-made ceiling in the First Class (aft stbd cabin) is slightly coming down after some heavy thumping sea miles. This and the Steerage cabin stbd forward were all done by the somewhat cost-conscious previous too-skinflintish first owner, who took delivery of the boat and then fitted out the stbd cabins himself, and they're a Bit Rough and need re-doing. That's why it took him so long to sell the boat I think - the stbd interior cosmetic stuff was a bit too scary for most buyers. But the showers, fridges, loos are factory fitted and fine, could do with taps/faucets replacing to look New again. The fridge and freezer need better shelving made, and the new custom-fit Seafrost cold panels fitted last year have a water-pump cooler which seems to have stopped or much reduced flow.
I think the main "saloon" interior a bit dark and would look brighter with some of the ceiling wood panels painted off-white.
The cockpit is somewhat sun-beaten and needs oxidised gelcoat rubbing down with fine 1500-2000 wet and dry, then machine polished to bring it back. Likewise some areas of the deck would benefit from a machine brushing with fine compound. The trampoline attachment system isn't 100% as I mentioned earlier and needs rethinking, reworking. Extra fuel tanks and maybe a fuel "polishing" system would let Mojo carry more fuel, and for bunker fuel to be cycled through filters first before sending to the day tank and motors. Rigger needed to replace ageing s/s shrouds and forestay, and a guardrail wire. The coppercoated hull needs another coat - or maybe covering with primer and I try that new slimey-look siliconish hull paint that leaves an oily sheen and shrugs off all growth - it appears liquid to them. The galvanic protection for the props needs renewing - even with extra 40mm shaft anodes the Brunton Varifold (i think) blades look pinkish, hm. The 2 new solar panels needs connecting up sometime to make over 1.8kw max solar charging.
None of these are even slightly holding us back from getting to Lanzarote, and some of them are reasons to GO there, to get them sorted over summer before another jaunt to LasPalmas in late October and transat to the Carib in November.

TV Pam also asked about emotional stuff amongst the crew, and although all is fine, the mood is highly competitive as far international ND card gaming with pressure on all sides and the final week at sea approaching fast.
Over to the Sports Desk, a bad night for Anna but a GREAT night for Sam who stormed back to form with a tight win in the first race-to five-games set. With four players the maximum number of games per set is 17 which has happened just once with all on set point. Sam's win last night came in the fifteenth game. Second set taken by Matt in the 11th with others all on 2 games. Anna still leads June set and game totals at 4 and 40, Ampi 2/34, Matt 3/38, Sam 2/28.
Ampi went for a snooze and I suggested we play the Least Likely ocean-crusing parlour game - what's that then? - but the others couldn't guess. Jenga, obviously. Anna didn't cause any collapses at all, matt and sam caused 3 each due to too much laughing at the swaying towers, and Anna telling us to take it a bit more seriously for crissakes, tsk haha.

Up to 6knots now, wind increasing just as Simon Said and first reef needed sometime today, maybe quite soon. It's only 9knots but sailing into that wind at 6+knots makes it an apparent wind of 14 knots, ooh now 16...

Sam's brother Max(?) has sent him LOADS of messages - but then didn't even get a mention in Sam's blog! Huh! Keep sending messages Max, he loves you really. I think Mandie texted me about it being dangerous and probably like Oblivion at night - Hi Mandie xxxx, it's all fine really.

James says we need 13knots for Sam's wakeboarding off the back, Max thinks it's doable at 10-11 but either way we will leave this for the moment, erk.