21st November
Osprey
John Bowering
Wed 21 Nov 2007 21:21
The broken autopilot link bar has been replaced with a much stronger unit and the system realigned. Looks good and we will see how it performs on the voyage south. The bearing in the main furling system were replace last week as was the damaged foil section. As we have been stuck here waiting for weather we have also had the Goose neck enlarged to give the main furling system more room to breath! We will complely re-evaluate the main sail arrangement whilst in Antigua - the current system is no longer made and is anyway not man enough for the sort of work we intend giving it.
We have made lots of friends in Bermuda including Shiela and Sinclair Ried who are supplying us with Apple pies and meat pies for the voyage. A woderful pair who are both 72 and don't look a day over 60! Jerry Cox has given us great support and Bernie has kept us on a great berth so we have a shower available and were able to finish our repairs. Charlie, our rigger is also a great character - he is 65 - and has helped us re-assemble the foils on the furling gear.
Finally we were able to commission the water maker today and after some hiccups seems to work. There is some question as to the size of electrical wiring that has been used for the installation as the unit does throw the breaker off the board occasionally. We manged to keep it going for an hour at last and hope that air in the system may have been part of the trouble. With 200+ gallons in the tanks we will be OK for the seven days to Antigua when we can address it further.