being prepared

Heerenxvii
Wed 17 Nov 2010 19:17

A.

Yep, we are spending endless time and effort on getting to be prepared. We failed the safety check, and we have until this friday morning to get the (small) issues solved. They range from mounting a knife in the cockpit to ensuring the oven does not fall out of its infrastructure if the boat would be up side down... Nice :)

E arrived yesterday, and as always, E is overly enthusiast and eager to do whatever is needed in relation to sailing! So first a beer for this dude!

We fix a few things, like adding Jackstays on each side of the boat, so that we can safely attach our harness with a line to these Jackstays, allowing us to move forward without being falling overboard.We cut a line, moved a handful and then discovered we needed to take the Job down, as A and G lost 2 batten while sailing from Tenerife to GranCanaria 10 days ago.

We roll the jib out, and take the sail down. Than we see the sail is damaged, so much that we get concerned. A quickly goes to the local sail repair shop, but they have no time until end December! A returns on board and calls Moody. Moody guys arrive an hour later on board. What a difference, these guys, they have been almost every day on board to solve all the (usually small) problems we have had in the last 3 months. And, interesting, for free! Even a few extra's have been thrown in, just pay the material, no labor costs. But they also do not know we can get the sail fixed. One of the engineers shouts to a man on a boat on the other side of the pontoon, also a german. He comes running to our boat. This dud is a professional sail maker himself, but he states he has no time to do the job, as it will take 6 to 8 hours according to him. He explains me what my backup plan is (drill holes in the sail and use lots of lines and needles to strengthen it to hopefully make it to St Lucia. I then ask the other local sail maker if there is another sailmaker, and there is. I call him up, he speaks english, and states immediately he has no time. But, as he understands I am doing the ARC, continues stating I can come by and drop the sail!!! We immediately start packing the sail, probably 25 kilos, and start half jogging to the city centre, as suggested by the sailmaker. In a dark, cool underground 'base', we find an english dude and a spanish dude, they are very helpful, and, promise to have the sail ready LATEST saturday, which should be fine with a sunday departure :)

So, all in all, things are starting to be prepared. Tomorrow we get the other defective sail back, a Parasailor. It apparently was stitched the wrong way and ripped on a few places. The engine has also been serviced, the thrusters are working, so, uh, what do we still need? Ah! Food and drinks....