We motored until getting on for 10.00am. The weather was lovely, warm
and sunny. The wind gradually rose and so we decided to take in a
reef - this eases the pressure on the steering which can get very
heavy. We put in the first reef. Then we thought we should put in a
second reef. As we did so, the pin on the shackle keeping the topping
lift attached to the end of the boom decided to throw itself into the
ocean. The weight of the pulley at the other end meant that the end
went soaring up into the sky until the pinless shackle and the rope
with it had ascended to the top of the mast.
Curtis was an absolute hero and went up the mast in the bosun's chair
to retrieve it. Roger and Ian pulled him up and he brought the
topping lift down again. The topping lift itself could be managed
without but we were worried about the end of the line with its shackle
swinging about, damaging the wind vane for example. (A topping lift
keeps up the end of the boom when the sails are down so that the boom
does not clatter around on the decks.)
Ian made some phone calls to John at Covey and we managed to solve the
problem of the squeaking bowsprit. As the jib filled with wind, it
was pulling the bowsprit to one side and it was rubbing against the
caprail - which is so beautifully varnished that we could not allow
anything to mar its shine. It was all a question of tightening
something - which Roger and Curtis duly did and the squeaking
stopped. Not before Hannah as helmsman had got both of them drenched
by arranging for a couple of waves to wash over them.
Roger and Ian also tried to adjust the steering to stop it being so
heavy. This involved scrabbling about in the bilges under the
cockpit. They saw where the relevant nut was but Roger was unsure
about which way it should be adjusted, so after all the excavating
under the drogue, everything was put back in its place. He did
discover and fix a little leak in the drain pipe for the cockpit and
so he fixed that whilst he was down there.
We saw a school of dolphins charging around in circles leaping out of
the water but they did not come to see us. They seemed to be busy
rounding up fish for their dinner.
Curtis did a lovely dinner of fajitas. We all got too much sun,
especially Hannah.
Rosemary and Ian
|
