and closer . . .

Where Next?
Bob Williams
Wed 6 Jan 2010 23:13

Alongside Mar Del Plata, Argentina.
Weather: Sunny, hot and windy.

Yesterday was depressing, the shipping agent was going to charge a bomb to ship the blown out headsail back to the US but this morning things have turned around, after a little negotiation with the sail broker he has agreed to pay me a partial refund. While in the lond run I might be a little worse of financially, in the shorter term I can now go ahead and buy a replacement headsail locally and with any luck have it ready for when I need it, well I really need it now but at least this is much better.

Also this morning the parts arrived from Australia. Hooray! Thank you Norman Longworth, supplier of “Windslyce” batten car systems for providing warranty replacement parts free of charge after 10 years of hard service (second attempt at delivery as well). I reckon this level of service definitely deserves a plug.

This afternoon Pato and I cut the old jib up so as to be able to send some sample pieces to the sail broker so they can take any follow up action with the cloth supplier they think appropriate. I really do not know what went wrong with this sail but the cloth is incredibly weak everywhere and in hindsight I reckon we have been lucky that it made it this far. So now my only problem is ordering a replacement mainsail and headsail and organizing them for delivery to Ushuaia. Hopefully that will all be sorted tomorrow and I will be able to continue my voyage with the peace of mind of a reliable sail wardrobe.

All is well.

Bob Cat:

Sails - they may be important but lets get down to some real basics, how about some decent food? I have been patient, pretending to be the poor long suffering kitten, but I’ve had enough, the time is coming . . .  in the meantime I had better store up some strength . . . Zzzzzzz.