Countdown to Departure

With Brenda safely back in Australia I have turned my focus to departing from Cape Town as soon as possible.  It's not that I want to get away from the city because I would love nothing more than to spend 2 or 3 more weeks of easy living with the wonderful food, wine, climate, and great prices that the Cape Town has to offer.  However, there is that 50-year class reunion in Mobile, Alabama on 8 June that I mentioned earlier, and I need to arrive in Australia with enough time to be able to book a reasonable flight to the USA.

Last week I Terry the Diver cleaned my bottom - or Pachuca's bottom to be more precise.  She did a wonderful job, spending over an hour in the water thoroughly cleaning the hull, various apertures, the propeller and shaft, and the Dynaplate ground for the HF radio.  Fortunately she found that the anodes were at about 50% and were good enough to get me back to Australia.  I had had the anodes replaced in Bracui, Brazil, but the life of an anode can be very short in a marina.  Terry told me of one "hot spot" where anodes must be changed every 3 months.  She confirmed that anode degradation is minimal when out at sea.  Also, Terry told me that the guy doing my anode replacement and hull cleaning in Bracui doing free rather than SCUBA diving had done a good job in replacing my anodes, but had cleaned only to about 4 ft from the end of my keel.  This surprised me because in La Paz I had managed to get my free diving skills good enough to clean the bottom of the keel while looking up from below.  Anyway, it taught me a lesson to always insist that whoever works on my hull cleaning and anode work have SCUBA or HOOKAH breathing assistance.

Well Protected, using leather strip from old dodger

Good Window Cover

Zipper changes to Velcro on Sides.  Note Skirt protecting joins.

Terry reported that the antifouling is in its last legs. I had the boat antifouled in La Paz probably just over 2 years ago.  Gooseneck barnacles were growing down below and I expect to be dragging a bit of wildlife during my approach to Australia.  But on the brighter side, I will be departing with a clean hull and a clean propeller, which will give me maximum drive for maneuvering.

I put together a departure checklist about two weeks ago and am steadily working through it.  Today two big items were crossed off my list, regarding the new spray dodger.  Steve visited the boat yesterday for a fitting of the dodger and found that several adjustments had to be made.  Today he returned and fitted the new dodger.  I looked at the result and it looked OK then got a ride with him back to North Sails to settle my account.  Then back at the boat I took photographs of the new dodger for the blog and inspected it at my leisure.

The dodger isn't what you'd call perfectly made.  The windscreen material has ripples and the sides of the canvas has ripples which indicate a less than perfect fit. The velcro at the ends of the sides does not match very well at the ends, again indicating a poor fit, and the aft zippers have been done very sloppily.  The machinist had missed the fact that the aft zipper had to be made in 2 section due to mid-section supporting bar and had made it as one.  All he had done was to cut the zipper in 2 and cobbled together something on each side which looks very sloppy from the companionway.

That was my grumble, and the fact is that I should have grumbled before signing off on the job.  On the positive side, Steve has taken great care to design and fabricate a spray dodger that will be strong and extremely resilient on the sides.  I am confident that the days of seas hitting the dodger from the side, overwhelming the sliding hatch, and showering either the navigation station or the galley (depending on the tack) with salt water to the point where I had to wear wet weather gear at the nav station are over.  The windscreen material is outstanding.  It is top-of-the-line "Strataglassa" that is unbelievably clear.  And  North Sails has done a brilliant job with everything else. Steve is a top man of integrity and skill and has been extremely pleasant to work with.  He had no hesitation in implementing several suggestions beyond the original specifications at no extra charge. 

Tonight I checked out my navigation lights and they are all working: masthead tricolour, steaming light, and anchor light.  Tomorrow I will fire up the engine.  I will also check out the radar, chart plotter, and send out a test Sailmail message which will exercise the Pactor III and HF radio systems.

The guy who was to check out my radar and wind indicator system never showed up.  David of Action Yachting had warned me that neither of the electronics experts on his books were very responsive, and he was correct.  Not to bother.  The radar has been working after that hiccup during the approaches to South Africa, and the wind indicator seems to have an intermittent problem that has been in remission lately. 

The fact is that regarding Pachuca's electronic systems I'm going with what I've got.  If I discover a problem before my departure I'll send out a notice via email and the blog, but I will go.  I can do without a wind indicator, radar, and even the chart plotter if it comes to that.  I can get down to paper charts and sextant if it really, really comes to that, but it is highly unlikely that it will come to that.

The VHF radio situation is more comfortable.  I have  a backup VHF radio as well as a hand held VHF radio in the vest of my life jacket.  The AIS system hasn't missed a beat so far so I have no reason to question its reliability.

Tomorrow (Sunday) I will clean the boat, in particular the head, refrigerator, and ice box.  I will also clear the deck of diesel and water containers.  I will carry spare diesel and water down below and have a clean deck once again, as is my wont.   On Monday I will make a dental appointment at 3 PM  (I think its a missing filling leaving a jagged tooth) during which I will get a general checkup.  I'll also get a haircut. 

I hope to depart on Wednesday.  I saw Walter at the shower today, and he offered to help me with the lines.  I'm planning on going through the official clearance procedures on Tuesday and motoring out on Wednesday morning (the 6th).   This plan is highly dependent on the wind because if there is a SE wind of over 15 kts I won't go.  My focus is on getting out of the RCYC marina safely.   The conditions that I find outside of Table Bay are secondary, though I'll be looking out for a wind in the arch SW-N.