Works Progress

Yesterday I visited Ian at Titan sails and We presented him with our starboard rail dodger for replacement of a stainless steel grommet that had been ripped out in the Tasman Sea. An hour later Brenda and I visited him to present him with the specifications of the lee cloth for Arnold's bunk and he handed me the repaired spray dodger. I expressed amazement at his speed and his reply was "It's winter." The board at Arnold's bunk in the port quarter berth is too low to make him secure when the boat heels so we are going to install a lee cloth similar to those in the main cabin.

We took delivery of two more LED "globes" for our lights, making a total of three at $41 NZD each. However, we judge them to be a good investment. Using one quarter of an amp they are much brighter that the 1.5 amp globes that they replace.

We also took delivery of the 406 MHz EPIRB which we will put in the boat's "grab bag".

We also received four cartridges for our inflatable life vests: one to replace the one on my vest which discharged accidentally at about the time we reached NZ, and one spare for each of the three vests on board. That may seem like a lot of spares at $23 per cartridge but we cannot risk having less than our full inventory of life vests in working order.

We also got a visit from the riggers who shortened the two top rails. Today we plan to fasten all of the rails with 4mm cord that I got at the boat shop yesterday, re-install the rail netting near the bow as well as the spray dodgers near the cockpit.

Bruce has done a lot of work in the last two days in fitting the new alternator arrangement to the engine. We spoke with him about our desire to do a 5-day car tour of the North island, but only if it did not impact on his work. It turns out that our absence could work out very well. Before Friday he will visit the boat to discuss the layout of the new batteries and cable paths. We will the leave for five days which will give him a clear run to take the boat apart without us getting in his way.

We hope to depart on Sunday and return on Friday. This will put us close to our planned departure time of 8 September, so we may have to add a few days to our stay in NZ, particularly if there is a delay in receiving our replacement wind charger from UK or our new cooling system diaphragms from Norway.