Deck Light Working, More Preparation Work

I made good progress working my way down today's task list

At 8.30 AM I dropped off a 2-machine load of laundry which I will pick up tomorrow before departing for Angra.  On the way back to the boat I saw Ricardo and shared my misgivings about motoring out of the slip with the mooring line and float in front of the boat.  No problem.  We walked to one of the nearby marina staff, Ricardo explained the problem, and the fellow had no hesitation in agreeing to help. Someone will arrive in a dinghy on Thursday morning between 9 and 10 AM  to hold the mooring tackle out of the way while I motor by.  I need to make a quick left turn in order to head out of the fairway, and if I can't turn the boat fast enough I'll have to use reverse which will pull my stern to the left and swing the bow back to the right.  If I get into this sort of trouble I'll have no qualms about asking for a tow.

The I had in internet session where I Skype called Australia, wrote an Adios note to Jorge in Mar del  Plata, and translated thank you notes to the staff of the marina and condominium offices.  I also prepared a note for Immigration requesting clearance from Brazil.  (I had already sent farewell messages to Pato in Mar del Plata and Martin of North Sails in San Fernando.)

After the internet session I attended to the deck light.  I went up the mast with a set of spare bulbs in a small plastic bag but more importantly, a brand new German-made one that I had brought back from the USA.  The eve of a long passage was no time to try to get more use out of a spare bulb of questionable life, so I fitted the new one.  I had another hope too.  The spares bulbs that I had purchased in La Paz had a very subtle difference in the arrangement of the fitting posts, and I had been forced to make do by jigging the bulb around the socket until the light came on.  It was my hope that the new bulb would have a proper firm fit, and so it seemed when I inserted it.  Back in the cabin I noted 2.4 net amps being charged into the house bank and after after throwing on the deck light switch the net amperage went down to 0.7 amps, a good sign and an indication of how power hungry these old fashioned halogen bulbs are.  (They get phenomenally hot after only a few seconds.)  I walked to the foredeck and sure enough the deck light was shining brightly.

The urgency of a deck light had receded somewhat thanks to the donation by Arnold of two superbly designed LED head torches.  (namely a harness that fits over the head like a cap rather than simply a band around the head, and batteries that fit from the side into the main body rather than behind the flip-down bulb section)  Nevertheless the deck light will be very useful and could prove crucial in a crisis.  I have in store a brand new LED deck light with a spare sealed bulb that I brought from the USA, but it looks like I'll wait on fitting it until after I reach Australia.

After lunch the rain came back and it got harder and harder.  The wind picked up, gusting to 20 knots and there was the rumble of thunder in the distance.  I decided to work inside the cabin and had an extremely productive afternoon.  While resting after lunch I had thought of the problem of the Fujifilm camera charger having a US style plug, meaning that I would not be able to charge it because the 110V inverter had broken down.  Then I thought 'Wait a minute, Brenda purchased that camera for me in New Zealand, so it must have had a 240V plug.”  Duh!  I remembered that similarly to computer chargers it was simply a matter of swapping cables. Soon I was charging both the Fujifilm still camera and the Sony video camera from the boat's 240V outlets.  While at sea I'll rely on the 240V inverter, which is still working.

I then thought of charging the hand held 1 watt VHF radio.  I looked for it inside my life vest and discovered that the vest was covered in a sheen of mould.  That vest had seem me around the Horn and I had been remiss in not even rinsing the salt out of it when I got to Argentina.  The VHF radio was not in the life vest then I remembered that it was in the grab bag. 

I emptied the grab bag and familiarised myself with its contents.  Everything was still there: the signalling mirror, EPIRB, VHF radio, strobe light, flash lights, spare batteries, first aid kit, knife, spare batteries, water, etc.  The strobe light was still working but I swapped in fresh AA batteries.  The EPIRB is good as gold for power.  I put the VHF 16 radio on the charger.  I replaced the old fashioned flash light (which was working fine) with one of the two LED lights that I purchased in good old Henry's Hardware in Kingston, Washington.

When lifting out the grab bag I noticed the jack lines and tethers.  I normally sail with a webbing jack line (the proper thing: only licensed specialists are allowed to sew them in Australia) running along each gunwale with a tether clipped on each one and dangling into the cockpit.  When I go on deck I clip the tether to my life vest then climb on deck.  I had removed them after arriving in Bracui to protect them from the weather and UV, and I had forgotten about them.  I spent 30 minutes setting up the jack lines and tethers. 

After sweeping and wiping the cabin floor I turned my attention to the neglected life vest. I removed the strobe light, and personal EPIRB then washed it in a warm gentle solution of detergent and bleach., using a paint brush for scrubbing the material.  While I has handling the vest the pressurised cartridge that inflates it simply fell out.  I screwed it back on to the release mechanism very tightly, wondering what would have happened had I fallen overboard on the way to Argentina.   I then rinsed it and hung it on deck to dry. … And dry it would because by then the front had passed and the sky had burst in wonderful, clear, clean sunshine! 

There are two other life vests on board, the ones that Arnold and Brenda used when they were part of the crew.  However, I am a sentimental bloke, as the Aussies say, and am loyal to the vest that has seen me through since the 4.5 years since I sailed out of Fremantle.

The cameras and VHF radio charged OK and I put them away..  The grab bag is now in order and ready to go.

The wind had shifted and was now from the stern of the boat, trying to push it away from the jetty.  I took advantage of that to alter the mooring line at the bow so that now I have a jib sheet passing through the loop at the end of the mooring line with each end cleated to an anchor bollard.  Thus I am ready for a quick release of the bow line during departure.  The two stern line3s are pretty well ready to go because they are looped around concrete bollards that are practically round.  All I have to do is release the tension the jump on the  jetty and lift out the lines … duh … making sure that I can jump back on board.  Perhaps there will be a marina person at the jetty to cast off my lines, which will make things even easier.