On our list of to-do’s (that’s not getting any shorter) we needed to hoist our new-to-us number one genoa and so last Saturday we went sailing in Galveston Bay. This is something we have done many times but not recently aboard Melos. Everything went well with the sail and we were able to make an important decision about our genoa sheet cleats. Several years ago we removed all of the deck hardware on Melos in order to have both topsides and deck painted. And in so doing we had many holes filled that were no longer being used including the fixture holes for the genoa sheet cleats. While perfectly sited for the primary winches they took up a space on the cockpit coaming where we liked to sit. Indeed, in the past we found ourselves sitting atop the cleats despite it not being very comfortable.

Now we had to decide what to do about the cleats. On our trial last Saturday we found that we could use the forward pair of mooring cleats when at sea and this is what we decided we will do, at least for our Gulf of Mexico crossing. Though a little more inconvenient, we were happy with the decision and on our sail back to the dock we found that we were both sitting on the cockpit coaming where our cleats had previously been located. However it has added one more job top the list: the port sheet leads across the corner of the coaming and will need a chafing strip installed.

I have placed a cleat on the starboard side to show where they used to be located

Four and a half weeks to go. I am well on the way to completing the installation of our new electronics including the Class B AIS I had to order from England. Hopefully all of these will be finished and functional in the next ten days. The only other significant items on my list (so far) are to install a new cleat on the mast and to arrange for Melos to be quick-hauled and pressure washed. Oh, and find out where all the water in the bilge is coming from!

Jeremy