Birthday Celebrations Complete
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Alongside RSAYS, Outer Harbor,
Adelaide It has been a big weekend celebrating Jenny's sixtieth birthday. The main event was in the city with Jenny's friends and family on Saturday evening, and a smaller informal gathering was held at her place yesterday with family members for lunch. It was wonderful to be able to celebrate this milestone in my sister's life and to catch up with my brothers and other family members who made the trek to Adelaide for the event. Happy birthday, Jenny. In between catching up with family and friends I have of course made use of the RSAYS's facilities doing a bit of boat maintenance. The main job completed was replacing the aft starboard lower shroud which has been nursing a broken wire since the Sydney to Hobart race (noticed up by Chris during the race). Sylph now has three of her lower shrouds replaced with Dyneema (or, more properly, ultra high molecular weight polyethylene rope). I have sufficient rope to replace the remaining lower shroud but need to purchase two more thimbles to complete the job, so this last shroud will have to wait until our next port call. On Saturday I also had the privilege of presenting friend and fellow Cape Horner, Rob Large, with his Cape Horn burgee. Rob recently rounded Cape Horn as a watch leader in Explorer (skipper Mark Sinclair), having sailed with her from Auckland, New Zealand to Punta del Este, Montevideo, a distance of some 6,500 nautical miles - so a well earned burgee. Congratulations Rob. Now that all the festivities are over, I have one more important task to complete before returning to our east coast mission, namely to complete a health check for the ship's cat. Oli is booked in with his favourite vet, Dr Ken, for an appointment on Wednesday. Assuming he is pronounced fit for duty we will aim to depart Adelaide on Thursday morning. All is well. |