Preparations for Departure

I had a productive day yesterday and manage to tick off many items in my departure checklist.

The big job was to clear the deck of the fuel containers along the rails.  I stowed the 5 containers still full of diesel in the floor space between the quarter berths, as well as a very tightly sealed container with gasoline.  I stowed two empty containers in the forecastle and gave two others to James on a neighbouring boat. 

I was going to get rid of two of the four 20-liter water containers but I decided that water is precious and useful on a long passage so I stowed them in the head.  I figured that the tradeoff of extra bathing and washing was worth the space and weight.  To avoid straining my back I put the empty water containers in the head along with the two smaller 10 liter ones then passed the hose through the forward hatch and filled them  up in situ. 

Clean Rails

At Center is Zodiac on Platform above Life Raft

I'll be departing with full diesel tanks (140 liters), full water tanks (280 liters), and 90 liters of fuel and 100 liters of fuel in external containers.

After dealing with the containers I took great pleasure in removing the wooden planks from the rails and for the first time since leaving La Paz I had a clean deck as the boat was designed to be sailed.

I then fired up the engine for 20 minutes and exercised forward and reverse gears.  The Volvo electrical system loves fully charged batteries.  At the end of the test run I allowed the engine to tick over at idle speed of 800 rpm and the volt meter stayed at close to 14.4V.   This is in contrast with the situation with a partially discharged battery bank where the sensed voltage drops to 13V and then the battery alarm begins to sound.

I fired up the chart plotter, radar, and wind instrument and they all worked fine.  It's just as well because the electronic technician that I had asked for never showed up to look at my intermittent radar and wind instrument problems.

I charged various batteries for the cameras, handheld VHF radio, Bosch drill, Kindle, etc. 

I also cleaned out the refrigerator and ice box compartments as well as the head.  These cleaning jobs are much more difficult to do at sea.

Since the previous day I had been snooping around the internet looking at air booking options for the trip to the USA in June.  It didn't take me long to conclude that it would be much better to book the fares before leaving Cape Town rather than waiting until my arrival in Fremantle.  Last night I booked a return flight to LA with Qantas.  I depart from Perth just after midnight on 6 June and arrive at LAX at 6.35 AM of the same day.  My return date is currently set at 12 September which, surprise surprise, is after the end of the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Show.  This morning I booked a flight with United to take me from LAX to Mobile, Alabama via Houston.  I land in Mobile at 8.32 PM on 6 June.  Arnold will be waiting with accommodation.

I then renewed my subscription to Sailmail for another year because it was due to expire on 15 April.  After that I notified my bank via secure mail of my departure from South Africa.

I am taking it easy this morning and will focus on a dental appointment this afternoon at 3 PM.  As luck would have it, I noticed last week that a filling had dropped out and in any event a general checkup before the coming 50 day passage would be a good idea.

Tomorrow morning I will go to Pick 'n Pay at VandA to get some provisions.  I did an inventory of my stores yesterday and found that I had more lentils, coffee, spaghetti, almonds, canned fish, etc than I had expected.  This makes my provisioning task much easier, and I will focus on fresh fruit and vegetables, rice, honey, and paper products.

If the wind predictions look good for a Wednesday departure then tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon I will go through my clearance procedures.   Once I have my exit permit I'll have 24 hours to leave.