It’s been a good day at the shop – initially it was a little disappointing as we set out to test the mechanical steering system and in doing so found that the engine controls at the aft steering position were very stiff. They are mounted under the binnacle which makes them somewhat inaccessible so initially we attacked all the linkages in the engine room by disconnecting all the control cables and making sure the items they moved were all free and working. This was the case but we anyway greased them all whilst we had them on pieces. So - it was back to dismantling the binnacle so that we could access the after controls. This proved somewhat of an exercise as all the joints (and there were many) had been well sealed with silicon. When we got down to the controls we quickly found that the throttle and gear shift levers had simply started to seize in their bushing. It was then a simple job to take the controls off the control rods, dismantle the levers then clean with emery cloth, grease and reassemble. The change was almost miraculous and we wondered that we had not noticed the stiffness in the controls before because they were now so free and manageable. Whilst we had the binnacle in pieces we had access to the chain that operates the steering quadrant – so we gave that a good clean and lubrication. The binnacle then got the same treatment and we then reassembled it – using silicon to waterproof the joints as before. Interestingly – having removed the magnetic compass and all its mountings we then had the problem of realigning the ships head marker on it. We used a slight of hand by starting the boats gyro compass and then making the two ships heads match up. John was not sure this is a recognised was of removing deviation but it certainly works for the direction the boat was pointed when we did it and the ships head marker looked pretty much on the centre line! (Any compass adjusters reading this need not either respond or apply for a job). It took about 5 hours to get everything cleaned and reassembled and in the middle of this Jay turned up with the cover for the cockpit instruments which he had taken away to repair. He had done a good job – made a trial fit and went back to the shop to complete the assembly. It should all be back tomorrow. We then stripped out the sail locker in the cockpit and transported all the sails up to Phin Sprague’s locker – which he has kindly allowed us to use. We will leave them there for a few day so we have clear access to get into the lazarette and the hydraulic steering systems and bring them all back when Charles is here so he knows where everything is stowed. We would have liked to take the Gale Rider rode up to the locker as well but it was beyond John’s ability to lift the 1000 ft of 2” out of the locker in its bag. The alternative is to do what we do in a storm and pay out the end – out onto the quay rather than the water. However we would have caused congestion on an M25 scale at the cat club if we had done that. Mike Smith turned up in the middle of all this having just arrived for Maine. He dropped of a parcel from Joe then head across the dock to a yacht called First Light where he has some work to do. To complete the day we mounted the EPIB and tested it then moved on to the MOB strobe which had to be dismantled and a new battery fitted. We caused a minor sensation by attaching the reassembled strobe to a line and throwing it in the water to make sure it worked. All the adjacent yacht crews thought we were mad and wanted to know why we did it. We explained that if the wrong type (construction) of batteries were installed the thing would not float and we were testing as it was the only way to be sure. Five other yachts decided to do the same test and three of their strobes floated with their lights below the surface – not a great help to finding your crewmember in the water! The word seems to have got around as at the time of writing this there are flashing strobes floating all around the marina – some up and some down! To top out the day the girl who supplied us with boneless Roti’s (Rotli’s) was seen on the pier and John asked her is she could handle bulk orders. Not from men was her instant response which if nothing else was to the point. John explained that Kuki would be arriving on Thursday so an appointment has been made for them to meet – on asking for a name we were told she is called Sue Roti and famous in the islands for her products. They are certainly good and one is more than most people could handle as a meal. Phin Sprague sent us a message today saying that our local life raft agent her now has fuel bladders and recommended that we have one for the crossing. These are military style flexible tanks that they usually drop from aircraft to re-supply troops. They are really just very very strong plastic bags. It would certainly be a great comfort to have another 80 gallons but we have yet to figure out where it would fit and how we would secure the additional 800 odd pounds of weight and what it would do to our stability – definitely a work in progress and at over $1,000 needs a lot of thought.