Fuelling, Boat Orientation, Laptops

Pachuca Pointed to the Exit

Saturday

I completed the refuelling of the boat today.

In the morning I found that the caps that I had epoxied over the vents of the last two containers were firm and airtight under pressure.  I had them filled with 43 litres of diesel.  I then spent the afternoon carefully tying down the cylinders to the wooden rails secure enough for the coming voyage. 

The fuelling job isn't quite over.  I plan to draw  fuel from the bottom of the internal tanks to remove any water or debris.

The next two tasks that came to mind were to turn the boat around and to put two anchors on the deck.

At the moment the boat is tied side on to the jetty facing the shore.  It is going to be a lot easier and safer for me to turn the boat by hand ahead of time rather than using the engine at departure time, when I'll have other things to worry about.  The boat is at a corner with the jetty on the starboard side then running across the bow about 20 meters ahead.  My plan has been to wait for a gentle northerly wind blowing the boat away from the jetty then use the wind and ropes to make the turn.  That opportunity presented itself late yesterday afternoon. I passed my longest rope, what was the topping lift, from the aft port cleat across the water to the end of the section of jetty ahead of the boat.  I tide a long and supple line off the bow.  The idea was to release all lines but the bow line, let the  boat swing square to the jetty then pull the stern toward the other section of the jetty.  I would then pull the bow along the side jetty to where the stern used to be then tie the boat up.  After transferring fenders to the port side I disconnected the power then released all but the bow rope and waited for the boat to move.  To my surprise it didn't.  I then went to the cross jetty and pulled on the stern line, but the boat wouldn't budge.  I looked over to the shore wall and saw that we were at low tide.  Duh!  The boat had been floating in a trench that it had gouged at the bottom with its keel, but it would certainly not move from there.  So now I must wait for both the correct wind and the correct tide (medium to high).   I'll also have to factor in the tide for my exit.

Sunday

I returned to the boat at 11 AM after an Internet session at Club Nautico to find that the tide was high and there was a  gentle breezed off the starboard quarter of the boat – perfect conditions for swinging the boat around.  I executed the plan described above with no trouble.  As I was pulling the boat along the jetty by the bow Jorge showed up with his friend Marta and helped me with the stern line.  After a long and pleasant chat  with them I secured the boat in her new orientation.  I should have no trouble casting off by myself when the wind is gentle and the tide is high.

I've been doing a lot of work with the laptop computers for the last week or so. 

I have installed of David Miller's Questor Software MarinePlotter v1.0.15.0.  This is a successor to his GpsPlotter which was so useful to me in my passage from La Paz.  With MP I've been able to incorporate the free electronic Raster Nautical Charts (RNC) covering all of  Brazil so that now I will be able to see the progress of Pachuca in either a Google satellite image or RNC or both.   (The new system also handles the newer Electronic Nautical Chart (ENC) vector charts.)  I've spent a lot of time gathering Google close up images of the parts of Brazil that I expect to be visiting. 

For a week my Windows 7 machine had not been able to receive Microsoft updates because the service was not running on the machine.  This worried me because it could mean a virus.  Yesterday I telephoned Stephen in Australia about it and he solved the problem in about 2 minutes.  Today he helped me install the Avast! anti-virus package. With this and other upgrades that I've performed over the last few weeks all 3 laptops on board are ready for sea.