Working on Saxon Blue

Saxon Blue's Blog
Harvey Jones and Andrea Stokes
Sat 8 Jan 2011 01:34
Friday night, Marigot

We had an early start today as we wanted to get the mainsail down and bagged up ready to have its leach recut next week. We got up at 0700 and got stuck in while the wind was light. We dropped the troublesome battens out, got everything unfastened and then dropped the sail onto the side deck. We pulled it back over the boom so we could flake it down properly, then folded it up and bagged it. I rang the sail loft and told them it was ready and they'll either come and pick it up or we can drop it over there in the tender or a taxi on Monday. When you're messing around with sails, it's worth taking the opportunity of a light wind so we're not really bothered when they pick it up from now - our work is done.

Having got a right sweat on, it was time for breakfast so the three of us trouped over to our regular French cafe for a leisurely breakfast and lots of chat. After that, Andrea set off into Marigot in search of a lightweight sun dress while Kali and I returned to Saxon Blue to get the broken stanchions sorted out. We de-rigged the lifelines and removed the stanchions so that I could get all the old Sikaflex out. It all cleaned up well and then we masked off the teak and rigged up supports fashioned from the now redundant sail battens to hold the stanchions while the epoxy dried. We got it all ready but decided to have lunch before actually glueing anything.

Andrea returned just as we were getting too hungry so we repaired back to the same cafe for lunch on the basis that it's the nearest and we were famished. The lunch was excellent and then Andrea headed back to do more clothes shopping as she hadn't actually found anything yet. Kali and I got the epoxy out and set the stanchions back into their bases with it. By now, the temperature was getting high and I was wilting a bit. We sorted out a few other small jobs and then Kali went into town to get some supplies while I wrestled yet again with the air conditioning.

We've had the same problem recur that we had before Annapolis - the units run for about 5 minutes then turn off complaining of insufficient cooling water. I was told in Annapolis that it was just an air lock and sent a bill for 200 dollars for the priviledge. Well, there might have been an airlock but that's not the only problem and the units still won't run despite there being plenty of water flowing through the system. I cleaned everything again, checked it all and considered wading into the electrical control box but thought better of it. Hopefully, we can get a more effective engineer out next week. It's not that I think we'll use the air-con that much. It cools the boat down but it's very noisy. It's just that I don't like having paid for it and then not having it. One or the other but not both.

By the time Andrea returned having finally found a new dress and shirt, I was thoroughly overheated and it was too late to go for a swim as it was dark. I had a cold shower instead and we're about to have our dinner in the cockpit in the relative cool of the evening. Kali has gone off for the weekend to Tortolla where she's going to hook up with Big Bill on Alerre for some of the time. She's due back on Monday morning. So Andrea and I have the boat to ourselves. It'll be Party Central here, I'm sure.

Harvey

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