After a farewell Dosa Massala dinner at Ashtead the previous
evening John headed out to the boat today via the British Airways flight from
Gatwick. Our great driver Neville handles the transport from St
Johns airport for the 45 minute drive down the Island to Falmouth Harbour. Neville who is part of the
Bailey Clan, is in his seventies and is a wonderful conversationalist. By the
time the Cat Club is reached the passengers are fully briefed on all local
developments and Island politics and are ready
to enter the fray. John has a week to get the boat mobilised and up to scratch
before the real captain in the form of Anita arrives. There is quite a lot to
do as whilst the boat has been idle in Falmouth the bimini has been removed
ashore for remedial work and will need to be reinstalled, the canvas cleaned of
the rust marks and re-fitted and Anita’s tent also need some TLC before
being fitted. The rust problems stem from the poor finish to the construction
of the bimini in Ft Lauderdale which also probably involved a mix of stainless
steel types. The bimini has been completely re-polished and left to sit in the
rain for a month. Any rust that subsequently developed has subsequently been
polished out again. We have a new header tank for the main engine waiting to be
installed as there was a minor leak in the “radiator cap”. The manufacturers
have produced a new tank rather than the parts necessary to repair the old one.
It looks like about a four hour job to replace the tank. There is also a fault
on the echo sounder transducer and we have a replacement on standby if the
tests do not produce a curable fault. We are hoping to strip our some of the
lockers of non essential gear this week so that whilst we are cruising the BVI
the lockers can be given a thorough clean and examination as part of the preparation
for the Atlantic crossing. We are hoping that we can use Lions Whelps storage
locker at the Cat Club whilst we are doing this so that we can “park”
the non essentials and re-stow them on our return. North is producing a new
mainsail but we don’t yet know whether that will be ready before we leave
for the BVI. If not we will have to live with the old one and be careful in the
way we furl it. The sail was re-cut in Ft Lauderdale and has never really
worked properly since. We still have to make a decision on whether or not to
send it back for remedial work and retain it as a spare or to scrap it. Seems a
great shame to do that as although it is elderly in terms of years; it has been
lightly used. Another consideration is the extra space needed for the stowage
if we carry it as a spare – it is not a small sail. Another alternative
is to have it fixed and sent back to Europe where
we could store it ashore as a back up. The boat needs the usual clean up to
deck and topsides and John hopes to recruit a young local assistant to help
with that work during the coming week. Portland Yacht Services have been doing
their usual great support job and the spares for the Atlantic crossing have been
arriving over the past week. Key amongst these is a spare alternator and starter
motor for the main engine. Although both fitted items are less that two years
old we decided it would be prudent to have spares on board – just in
case.
Kind Regards
John
