A hectic day trying to contact all the team who had
work and parts outstanding for the boat. By mid afternoon had given up trying
to do this without a car and made a visit to Mr Big who was happy to oblige
although he only had one of his weekly cars. So have transport for the week
which will make life a lot simpler and enable me to collect Anita on Sunday.
Mohamed brought the Bimini frame back in the morning and it took nearly three
hours to get it back in position. Our friends in Fort Lauderdale had used an incredible mix of
imperial and metric threaded bolts – unbelievable really, and we were
fairly fed up with the whole thing by the time we had finished. By five o’clock
the canvas was cleaned and being refitted and after a couple of false starts
was finally in position by 7. All but one of the parcels has arrived from Portland and the final one
should make it on Tuesday. The components for the leaking header tank on the
engine were a surprise – most pleasant. They have completely replaced the
pressure cap and seating with a new arrangement which includes a header tank.
Once fitted this will solve the present problem of the overflow and expansion
from the header cooling system being deposited in the bilges. It is however a
much bigger job than we initially thought, so Tuesday is going to be dedicated
to it so that we have some time up our sleeves if there are any hiccups. Phin
Sprague has kindly let use his locker here at the Cat Club so we will be able
to empty out some of our lockers for a good clean. Andrew Dove from North Sails
called in this afternoon. The new mainsail has been completed but is
presently in Guadalupe. Hopefully it will get to us by Friday so it is
available for our trip around the BVI. It would be a great opportunity to test
it. It is still quite windy here so we will have a fast trip to the Virgins on
a reach or a run all the way. The Cat Club is full of boats again so the
concerns on the economic climate having an impact have proved false. The boat
is in pretty good shape and Antigua rigging
have done a great job of looking after it.
