Today we met our last crew member, Curtis, and it is clear that we are
all going to get on just fine. Curtis and Hannah arrived down at the
boat just in time to help bend on the mainsail. I rushed up to North
Sails and got 18 sail ties but it wasn't enough - I had to go back and
get 6 more.
Ian and Roger went over to Covey and picked up the sail covers and
some of the supplies for the boat that we had ordered such as flares.
We decided where to put the life raft. A bit tricky. It was too big
to go right aft as it would either be in the way for mooring or would
cover up the emergency tiller point. The next most convenient place
was too close to the mainsheet - the mainsheet would have snagged on
it all the time. The next most convenient place was over the lights
in the interior and drilling through the coach roof might have risked
drilling through the cables for the lights. Eventually we found a
place that did not snag anything and was not likely to put a bolt
through any cables.
We also tried a few ways for stowing the dinghy which Ronald from
Covey Island brought over for us. We have ended up putting it athwart
amidships. We must remember to buy some rowlocks - here they call
them oarlocks, although here most boats seem to have what we would
call tholes - ie two straight pins that go through holes in the
gunwales.
Michelle came this afternoon and fitted the dodger. It's a great fit
and the windows mean good visibility. There is a small problem
though. The mainsheet block (the pulley through which you pull in the
mainsail) is fixed in such a way that it can fall from side to side.
This means that it needs a very large slit in the dodger - too large
in fact. Also we noticed that the mainsheet block is banging on the
receiver for our new Garmin plotter. The block could break it and
then we would be without our main GPS (global positioning system).
Not good. We think the solution is to get a different kind of
mainsheet block.
With all the sails bent on and the sail covers over them, Elemiah is
progressively getting more ship shape. I forgot to take any photos
today - i will make up for it tomorrow.
Rosemary and Ian
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