Vega - Hugh Lucas is Away

Hugh Lucas is Away

Vega

Hugh and Annie

Tue 9 Oct 2018 04:25

Apropos my previous post Annie showed me a Facebook video from another yacht of a small heron like bird on the back of the boat. The bird was picking up insects from the deck, walking down a mooring line and dropping the insects onto the water. When a fish rose to eat the insect the bird would pluck the fish from the water and eat it. It repeated this several times. There is definitely more going on inside a bird’s head than we might, on the face of it, give them credit for.
Since writing my last post we have also learnt that until 1966 the native Australian Aboriginal people were officially classified under the constitution as “fauna”. I’m not sure what is more shocking, the fact that these people were classified as animals i.e. not human or the fact that it took until 1966 to officially recognise them as fellow human beings. Of course for most Australians nowadays this is equally as shocking (and for the yachting friend who told us this, is doubly so for her because her grandfather had been involved in drawing up the constitution). For some, like the guy whose conversation I was privileged to overhear in the cafe (see my previous post), it will be less of a shock. This is not a commentary on the Australian nation, just another example of how far the world has to go in developing a sense of common humanity.
For the last three days we have been up to our wrists in polish trying to get rid of the rust and oxidation on Vega before she stands in the Australian sunshine while we are away. Bundaberg hasn’t experienced a cyclone for 40 years and we keep our fingers crossed that this may continue. Vega will be in a tethered cradle should the wind get up. After a long drought here the forecast for our last two days was rain and thunderstorms - fortunately this turned out to be no worse than a couple of heavy showers.
Vega was lifted out of the water this morning after we moved berths yesterday. There are spring tides at the moment and our depth gauge was showing 1.2m at low tide - confirmed by our lead line. Vega draws 1.8m from the bottom of the keel and although it was quite snug with half the keel down in the soft mud we weren’t going to be able to get out of the berth in a hurry at low tide. We moved to a deeper berth for our last night and discovered the difficulty of manoeuvring at low speed facing the wind with four knots of tide from behind. We don't have a bow thruster and it took three attempts to get into the new berth. Good practice though! When we came out of the water we were shocked to discover our prop well and truly wrapped up in rope. With the sails taken down any loss of propulsion could have been a bit of a problem and we were so relieved to have ignored the advice given in NZ to remove the rope cutter when we were having problems with its alignment and bearings.
We fly home on Friday and plan to be in the UK for around four months. It will be really good to catch up with family and friends. Neither of us would wish to complete our circumnavigation without an annual trip home; this allows us to stay for longer in the various places we visit with less pressure to get on and finish the trip.
It will be next March before we are likely to be resuming our blogs. We wish you all at home a happy winter and all out here a cyclone free summer. In the meantime I have listed all the jobs that need completing on Vega before we resume sailing - for the benefit of all those with insomnia or an interest in the level of maintenance required at this stage in our journey.

* Replace the windlass fuse with a circuit breaker (one ordered)
* Push for a warranty replacement of the new nav light (ongoing)
* Pickle the water maker (done)
* New stitching and telltales on the genoa (with sailmaker)
* Enlarge the anchor sail (with sailmaker)
* Replace the Duogen cable and water turbine hub and re-grease the wind turbine drive gear (parts on board)
* Remove the damaged new bow roller and repair the deck (done)
* Replace the anchor chain with a single 80m length
* Replace the worn chain locker roller
* Rig a new anchor snubbing line bridle
* Service the engine (done)
* Check and adjust the standing rigging tension
* Replace the rigging split pins
* Put a new rubbing strip along the keel of the dinghy
* Replace the light bulb in the cockpit wind instrument
* Replace the hull and prop anodes (may not be required but replacement anodes on board)
* Replace the electrical regulator with a higher spec one for better battery charging
* Re-align the hydrovane rudder
* Check the weight of the chain weight for the drogue and adjust if required
* Unblock the seawater intake for the heads (in hand with plumber)
* Re-bed the screws for the cockpit awning track
* Source and fit an additional double plug socket from the inverter
* Fit an additional 12V socket for a portable freezer
* Clean and polish the hull, coachroof and metalwork (done)