Toilet Fixed

Sunday Morning Walk to the Market

At this point the entire boat has been cleaned with bleach except the starboard quarter berth area which I will be doing in the coming week.  The head and all of its storage above and below the wash basin is clean, as is the interior of the closet, all of the cabin and galley storage, and the navigation station. 

Yesterday I tackled the port quarter berth area in spite of the fact that the cabin was crammed with the material from the V berth area and found that conditions were not as bad as I had expected.  The cover over the mattress was damp but the mattress itself was so dry that I elected to simply leave it out in the sun for the day.  I wiped every surface in that section and found little if any mold.  I washed the cover and hung it out to dry.  In the late afternoon I restored the area so that was more task off my list.

Unfortunately one of the V berth mattresses proved to have moisture in it even after 2 days out in the sun so I slept on the cabin settee one more night and today put the mattresses on deck for another day under the very hot sun.  For the third day the sail lockers were getting a good airing which was a very good thing.

I made a mistake in setting up the boat's electric cable yesterday afternoon rather than walking to the Food Lovers' Market.  When I reached the market at 5 PM it was closed.  This morning I walked back and it was still closed.  Never mind, because it was another beautiful sunny day and the walk around town would do me good.

I walked on the the V&A Waterfront hoping that the market that had been closed during my first visit would be open this Sunday morning, and so it was. I purchased a yummy looking roast beef roll for lunch and a loaf of pure rye bread.  I resisted the ice cream, pastry, chocolates, cheeses, etc and didn't purchase fruit because I still had a punnet of grapes, one mango, and one nectarine in the refrigerator.  For tonight I would have  a tall beer at the club overlooking the boats followed by dinner. I had seen their menu and it was good without trying to overreach.  Their prices are good and I noticed that wine is fairly cheap in SA.

Before leaving V&A I visited the marina and had a very good look for Vinny's boat, from above the marina and from walking two of the jetties.  He was not there so possibly he was allowed to stay at RCYC one more night.

After lunch and a short nap I decided to dedicate the rest of the afternoon to investigating the problem with the Jabsco marine head.  Fortunately it was clean both inside and out because it had not been used for months other than the occasional flushing to remove the stagnant sea water.  I had a choice between starting at the inlet thru hull fitting to ensure that there was no blockage and opening up the pumping mechanism, and fortunately I chose the latter.  The joker valve was in good order so I removed the top 6 screws and lifted the top cover and plunger.  I immediately saw that a hard piece of plastic was lying askew on top of the rubber piece that contained the two small valves.  The rubber and the valves looked good, but I couldn't figure out where to put the plastic piece.  It didn't make any sense because one of the valves had nothing to seal against.  I then removed the entire rubber piece and immediately saw the proper position of the plastic, and now the valve would be able to seal against it.

I could not see any way in which this could have happened during normal operation of the pump and concluded that I must have assembled it incorrectly many months earlier when I had put a service kit through it.  That would explain the feeble action on the upstrokes and my lack of confidence in the unit.  If that's the way it happened then I must have had a really, really bad day when I put the kit through it.

Anyway, the head seems to be performing normally, the rubber components all appear to be in good order, and the thru-hull fittings were cleared in Bracui; so there is hope that I will be able to use the head all of the way to Australia.

While working on the marine head I tried the radio one more time and finally found a rock station to my liking.  Life in Cape Town just kept getting better.




Although it was only 4.30 PM and the sun was still high I decided to call it a day because I had achieved my goal for the afternoon.  There would be a hot shower then a tall glass of beer overlooking the marina followed by dinner.  This was so much better than being pounded for hours in a gale.

Vinny

I met Vinny outside of the boat shop when I was trying to solve my communications problem.  He was sitting on the ground with a crutch on either side and his scruffy terrier beside him.

Vinny is French, was an architect/engineer in a former life until he started sailing in the year 2000.
To date he has crossed the Atlantic 7 times and has found is way to Cape Town in extraordinary circumstances.

His boat struck something off the Namibia coast - he thinks probably a container - and he was forced to take to his life raft with a broken leg.  He was rescued though he was forced to abandon his 50 ft aluminum boat.  I told him that abandoning your boat must be the most painful experience that a seaman can endure.  He shrugged his shoulders and indicated that he simply had to move on.  He had earlier mentioned the great Montessier and I pointed out that he had lost his boat at Cabo San Lucas Mexico and went on to further adventures.

Vinny had purchased a 10 meter boat here at RCYC.  He told me that in 2 weeks he had stripped out all essentials: The electrics, galley sink, Jabsco marine toilet, navigation table, and many other things were eliminated.  And he wasn't kidding.  The boat was on the hard stand where workmen were fiberglassing the 3 thru-hull holes of the head and galley sink and Vinnie invited me to have a look.

Vinny's 10 Meter Boat

Sailing companion

Two Toilet Outlets Filled In

Vinny in His Cabin.  Note Candle.  No Boat Electric Lights.

 Inside the boat looked a shambles.  The fiberglass man asked me if I was the previous owner and I replied No, because if I were I'd be crying like a baby.  He laughed and told me that it had been a nice boat 2 weeks earlier.

But latter I saw Vinny on board and he explained the logic of all of his harsh changes snf it all started to make sense through his eyes.  Once I threw overboard ideas of aesthetics and comfort and focused solely on functionality, every change that he had made was sensible and commendable.  Thus he got rid of the nav station in order to store things and he would use the saloon table for his navigation work.  He cut a big hole to access the engine so that he could start it with a screw driver to the solenoid because he had removed all of the electrics.  He removed the galley sink so that he could site the batteries near the engine.  He removed the big sliding doors at the galley because they would be a pain to move back and forth and now has easier access to the setup that he wants.  He removed the Jabsco toilet because he preferred the reliability of a bucket (which is what I had to use on the passage from Brazil).  Etc etc etc.

I told him that the tiller looked a bit short and he agreed, and plans to lengthen it.  I then said that he anchor looked a bit light and he pointed to a heavier one in the area that had been the navigation station.  I then asked him about the sails, their condition and whether there were spares.  This was a weak area and I hope that he does something about it.

Unfortunately he was forced to leave the marina, partly because of the concern over his healing broken leg over the uneven wooden jetties, largely because his dog is not allowed, and technically because having purchased the boat at RCYC he cannot live aboard unless he is a member.  He was given until noon today to clear out and was headed for the V&A marina.  Arnold and I thought it was a good idea that I offer to help him move the boat to V&A but when I asked him about it he told me that there was no need because he already had a friend lined up to help him

Vinny expects to be at VandA for about 2 months so I hope to see him again and see if he still wants my surplus water and diesel containers.  From SA he will push on into the Indian Ocean.  I asked him whether he would visit Australia but he said No because the dog would be a problem with both Australia and NZ.  (Australia would require a 6 month quarantine of the dog, according to my last information on the matter.)  He would visit Indonesia, Thailand, etc. 

I think that the best way to describe Vinny's tragedy is to quote an email that he sent to me.  Unfortunately he left before I could get his permission to publish is email but I don't think that he is the kind of man to worry about that.

The interesting thing is that I remember receiving a Securite from SAMMNet warning of containers of Namibia.

Note the magnificent behavior of the captain of the rescue ship.

"Hi my Friends
Tragic destiny, Yumapi sunk on 22 December at 8.am, bumping against probably a container in half immersion, in 2 hours. Pos 27.19 S 7.34 E 400.nm offshore Namibia coast. By my sattelite beacon, I was safe the day after at 2.am, a very long time to wait in the life raft. The crude oil carrier Maria from Euronav Cpy 270.m save my life in terrible and difficult condition, at first try to wait the life raft drift along the carrier,  but finally make course on me at 1.5 kn. Imagine the bow of the tanker coming on my life raft, the coming alongside was like Indiana Jones movie. But the most difficult was to come on board after hitch the life raft.
A wall high 6 to 10 m because the swell and I have to seize a ladder at the good moment with my broken leg, impossible.
Finally they drop down a boarding step,  but that was very dangerous because the swell, risk to be crush by the heavy boarding step, sometimes in water and sometimes in around 2 m over me.
But I was lucky and the guy on the boarding steps seize me at the good moment. The Maria Crew and Captain was wonderful with me, gave me cabin, clothes... The crew was mainly from Greece and Central America. Maria destination was Houston, but finally changed course to let me in Bay of Cape Town on 25 December. Maria engine consumption is around 70.t per day, Maria weight is 23 000.t, so you imagine the cost of the decision to let me in Cape Town, and they payed the Hotel Southern Sun in Downtown. In bay of Cape Town, the sea rescue launch grabbed me and let me in Waterfront. Problem with the custom, I was considered like a boat people rescue and Maria Captain had to book a flight for Paris on 26 December to got the authorization to let me in Bay of Cape Town !!!!! Finally I got a visa for 3 months and canceled the flight. Today I am still on hotel Southern Sun, because my left knee is really bad, difficult to forget Yumapi, Yumapi is every where, at first I decided to change my e mail....., most important is to recover a good leg, anyway hard 2012, hard days...... Hope see you
All is to build again, build a new home, a little one, to still to be a sea vagabond's world

Vinny"

Photos of 1st Stroll Through Cape Town

Here are some photos that I took on my first walk into the city, last Monday in order to clear Customs and Immigration and still feeling pretty woozy.  They are mainly of the picturesque VandA ("Victoria and Albert") waterfront.  There are two foot bridges that must be swung open to give boats access to the VandA marina.

Gracious Living at VandA Canal

Retired MCycle at Police Office

South Africa boasts 10 Nobel Laureates: 4 for Peace, 3 for Medicine, 2 for Literature, and 1 for Chemistry.  The Nobel Peace prize winners were: Albert Luthuli 1960 (President of ANC), Desmond Tutu 1984, F.W de Klerk and Nelson Mandela 1993.  There is a photo commemorating the four great people.  (See http://gobackpacking.com/photo-favorite-south-africa-4-nobel-prize-winners/)

Looks Like Ship Facility from Early 20th Century

This footbridge draws up

The VandA Marina

Access to Sea at Left

L-R: Lothuli, Tutu, de Klerk, Mandela

VandA Marina

There are several photos of the genteel living along the canals that are part of the VandA waterfront.

Communications and Power

I walked over to Action Yachting chandlery just off the end of my jetty yesterday and asked if they sold telephone cards.  I was told that they used to but did not sell them any more.  I asked the young chap where I could buy them and he went to the back office to ask.  The manager of came out and told me where I could purchase them on Adderley Street.  When he learned that I would be walking he told me that he would get his driver to get them for me in the afternoon.  I told him that I didn't mind walking but he insisted and I thanked him very much.  Twenty minutes later I was back in the chandlery with ZAR600 in cash and a note requesting ZAR500 in international cards and ZAR100 in domestic cards.

The manager came out and when he saw the amount of money I wanted to put into the phone cards he got an unhappy look and said that there must be a cheaper way.  Soon we were talking with a man who had used a dongle which he plugged into his laptop via a USB port and which would connect into the internet via the mobile telephone network.  This was precisely the system that had worked so well for me in La Paz.  I agreed with the proposition and the manager told me to return to the shop just before closing time at 5.30 PM.  I asked him if he needed more money and he smiled and said No.

At 5.30 PM the dongle was waiting for me.  It had cost ZAR400 and they purchased ZAR200 worth of service.  Proof of identity was required for the purchase but fortunately they accepted the information on my identity provided by the driver.  The dongle came with the sim card already installed and has 3GB of storage capacity on board.  I plugged in the dongle, the appropriate driver was installed by the Win7 OS, then the software installation wizard came up and in no time I was connected to the internet.  I have made Skype calls from the comfort of my boat to the USA and Australia with outstanding performance.  As far as I am concerned my communications problems are over.

This afternoon before leaving for a walk into town for some food shopping I decided on the spur of the moment to try to connect the boat to shore power.  Fortunately I had cleared out the port quarter berth in order to dry and clean the area and found the cable stowed underneath.  The plug that I had purchased at Action Yachting a few days earlier was smaller than the one I had used in Brazil, but was of the exact same design, so swapping over required minimal effort, given that the wires were already cut and bared to the correct length.

After cleaning the male plug blades on the cockpit bulkhead with sandpaper I plugged in the cable then went to the dock and plugged into shore power.  There was no electrical explosion so I went into the boat and plugged my workshop lamp into one of the 240V wall plugs and the light came on.  Then came the big test.  In Brazil the 220V system had not been enough to drive the 60 amp Mastervolt charger hard wired into the boat and I had been forced to use what weak power I could get from shore using extension cords, and of course the batteries were not being charged.  I was hoping that SA's true 230V system (as opposed to Brazil's 2-phase 110V) would provide enough grunt to activate the Mastervolt.  I switched on the Mastervolt and it came alive and I noted from my DC meter that it was delivering 28 amps of power into the boat's batteries. 

So now I have unlimited electrical power from either the boat's 240V wall outlets or the boat's 12V battery bank.  The refrigerator will now stay on all of the time, and I'll now power the computers via the 240V outlets rather than 12V inverters.  My electrical problems are over.

2 out of 2 big wins in one day was very satisfying, and with that I went for my walk into the city

Photos of Trip

Here are a few still photos that I took during the passage from Brazil to Cape Town.

The flag is the hacked up Aussie flag that would serve as my courtesy flag for Tristan da Cunha.

There is a photo of Tristan da Cunha that was not as revealing as the actual sight, but unfortunately it is all that I can present.  You can see the dark base of the island at the bottom and perhaps get glimpses of the cloud-shrouded volcano that is the island.

There is a photo of the layout for repairing the Spray dodger.

There is one of the approach to Cape Town before I made the turn into the harbor.

Pachuca's first berth was at the police pontoon where we were trapped for the night.

Her second berth was at the end of a jetty, where you can see her yellow Q flag and a glimpse of the large SA courtesy flag behind it.

Courtesy Flag for TdC

TdC Shrouded in Cloud

Clouds Cascading Down Table Mountain

Pachuca at End of Jetty

Trapped in Police Section

Approaching Cape Town

Repairing Spray Dodger

Then there is a photo of the magnificent Table Mountain with the white cloud spilling over like a waterfall.

Quiet Day, More People

Yesterday (Thursday) I had a quiet day around the marina but nevertheless I was so tired after dinner that I postponed my blogging until this morning.

The internet service has been good  in every way except one.  I have strong 5-bar connection from the boat to the club router and can do my web work very well from the boat.  However, the Skype service has proved so bad that I have given up trying to use it.  Everything is wrong with it: voice fadeouts, long voice delays, echos, frequent disconnections, etc.  I do not blame either the club router or Skype, but rather the internet service provider for the club.  To get onto the internet I must go through their portal and am therefore at the mercy of their capacity and policies.  I am also getting annoying and impossible to eliminate adverts from the service.  I plan to purchase a phone card and make my calls from a pay phone at the club.  Fortunately they have good telephones and a nice antique desk to work on.  It will mean fewer calls from me, but at least they will be of good technical quality.

Yesterday began badly for me.  In Bracui I had put all of my passwords into an encryped thumb drive so that I could have them on hand whenever I was off the boat doing my internet work.  Before leaving Brazil I changed my banking password as a precaution and updated the thumb drive but not the good old reliable paper record that I keep in a notebook.  The flaw in this is that I must have the thumb drive in order to see my passwords, and I spent about 2 hours looking for it all over the boat with no success.  In the end I was forced to telephone my bank in Australia and obtain a new password. 

While visiting the club house to make that call to Australia I met Marcus Reuter, the general manager of the RCYC ( http://rcyc.co.za/).  He walked over to me and asked me if I was from Fremantle because he had overheard me talking with Diane.  He had spent three great months in the SW of WA when he has younger and we had a good chat about the area. 

He spoke about the great organizational confusion over the recent changes (not changes so much as new enforcements) of the government's POE rules which were promulgated with very little preparation and consultation with the yacht clubs, key players in the system.  The club plans to allocate three slips for new arrivals with big yellow signs above them.  I strongly endorsed that, telling him how I had come in not seeing a clear indication of where I should go.  I said that they needed a great big sign with big arrows pointing very clearly to the arrival/immigration slips. 

I told Marcus how I had tried contacting the club on VHF 16 and VHF 77 during my approach, with no success.  Marcus told me that the club has not monitored VHF 16 regularly for years because they are a yacht club and cannot spare the resources.  That was understandable and fine but I told him that the Noonsite web page had informed me to not call the port captain on VHF 16 but rather the RCYC, who monitored VHF 16.  Marcus will have the Noonsite instructions amended, and I could tell that he would do that fast.  The only question I have is why it has taken so long for this to come out.  Anyway, I like to think that in my own small way I have helped future visitors,

Toward noon I began work on cleaning out the boat.  It seemed like such a daunting task that I worked mechanically with no goals, overview, or schedule.  By the end of the day I had cleaned the storage areas on the upper starboard side of the cabin and transferred the wine bottles from the V berth space to the cabin, which enabled me to get rid of several soggy cardboard cartons.  I had also cleared out the entire V berth area, wiped everything with a bleach solution, and opened the sail locker covers to dry and air out the sails. 

The material on all of Pachuca's cushions is outstanding.  It is tough and has shown little wear, hasn't faded noticeably, and has not been affected by dampness.  The problem is that the cushion material underneath the covers is not waterproof and acts like a gigantic sponge, and this does not make sense to me in a small and wet boat like Pachuca.  I will address the problem (at great cost no doubt) when I refit the boat in Fremantle.  In the meantime the two mattresses in the V berth were damp and the one on the port quarter berth area is downright soggy.

So I took the mattresses of the V berth section up to the jetty and washed them all in good soapy water using a soft brush.  Afterwards I rinsed them very well, trying to get the fresh water to work its way through the cushion material and flush out the soap.  I then managed to fling the heavy soggy mattresses onto the deck and leaned them on edge against the rails where they dried amazingly well - but not completely - in the last hours of sun.  For the night I lay them flat on the deck with their vinyl backs up to protect them from dew and any rain shower that came by.

That left the starboard settee and the space under the table crammed with material, leaving me with the port settee and a bit of table space for myself.  That worked out OK and if we get good sunshine on this day (10% chance of rain predicted) I may be able to begin sleeping in the V berth area for the first time since leaving Argentina.

While I was at the bow of the boat doing some work I said hello to a man passing by and he asked if I was Robert.  It turned out to be Tom, an old hand in the ham radio scene and other aspects of boating who had heard my communications with SAMMNet (South African Maritime Mobile Net).  He knew the founder of SAMMNet as well as Sam and Graham and no doubt everyone else who supports the network.  I asked if the network was supported in any way by the SA government and he told me that it is 100% resourced by that remarkable group of volunteers.  They purchase all of the equipment themselves and of course put in the many hours of work every day.  I asked Tom if there was any avenue by which I could make a donation to the network for equipment.  He seemed surprised and pleased at the thought and before we departed he suggested that he would arrange a visit to meet Sam.

Tom and his son are experienced sailors, and I know that his son is a boat builder.  He spoke of the biannual Cape Town to St Helena yacht race, and how the race boats are transported back by the cargo/passenger ship that services the island in order to avoid the headwinds of  the South Atlantic high, not to mention the current.

I asked him about Tristan da Cunha.  He had passed it three times.  On one passage they were heading directly for it with a plan to visit but a gale prevented it.  He spoke of the Cape Town to Rio race and how one time it was just him and his son hand steering the boat (which his son had built in only 4 months) all of the way back to Cape Town.

I told him about the savage gales that I had encountered on my way to TdC.  He told me that on one passage from Cape Town they got hit by a gale on this side of TdC with 50 and 55 kt winds that stayed with them for 5 days because they were sailing before it with two storm jibs.  Again it was he and his son steering by hand.  I told him that 55 kts is more like a storm and they must have been exhausted after 5 days.  I also said that I assumed that they were trailing warp for steering stability but no, they had nothing overboard.  (They were obviously in the "dangerous semicircle" where they were moving in the direction of the gale and therefore prolonging their ordeal.  I would have hove to and let it pass over me, but they had their own agenda.)

Tenure, Rules

I started the day by putting in a couple of hours on the internet here in the comfort of the boat, catching up with my email.  I read every comment that had been sent to the blog during my time at sea then through the Christmas greetings from friends and family.  I certainly enjoyed and appreciated those thoughts.

Later I visited Dianne and told her that I would like to stay at the marina until my departure for Australia on about 4 March.  I was willing to pay the entire amount up front but she thought better that I pay for the first month only and deal with the second month later.  For the first month I am entitled to a steep discount under a reciprocal agreement as a  member of the Fremantle Sailing Club.  The charge for 31 days was 2,269.20 Rand, which represents 73 Rand per day.  Using the exchange rate of a week ago that is equivalent to an unbelievably low $8.28 per day in Aussie dollars, slightly more in US dollars.  Afterwards I will pay considerable more.  She showed me the figure and from memory it was not quite twice as much, which is still a modest amount by my reckoning.  Club Nautico in Argentina was charging me $30 USD per day for a mooring which of course offered no electricity, water, or walk on shore access.

Dianne gave the a copy of a very interesting declaration from the Dept of Home Affairs entitled “Yacht Clubs and Immigration Regulations” dated 20 Dec 2012.  The policy is clearly stated and here are some excerpts:

“All vessels entering into South Africa for the first time from a foreign port, whether a South African vessel or a foreign Vessel, must only enter at a designated Port of Entry and must be cleared for entry at such a port.  Such vessels cannot go straight to any yacht club or marina that is not in a designated port of entry.  Likewise in case of any vessel leaving South Africa for a foreign port, such a vessel cannot be cleared for exit except from a designated port of entry.”

Current ports of entry are:

Cape Town Harbour
Saldanha Bay (for crew changes only)
Mossel Bay (for crew changes only)
Simonstown Harbour (naval and research vessels only)
Port Elizabeth Harbour
East London Harbour
Durban Harbour
Richards Bay Harbour

Here is the kicker:

“Harbours, Yacht Clubs and Marinas are required to adhere to the Immigration Act and Regulations and to ensure that all foreign vessels and local vessels from a foreign port will first report to the nearest designated Port of Entry (PoE) for clearance before mooring at a non-Port of Entry marina.”
…
“Any yacht which enters the Republic of South Africa for first clearance and does not enter a designated Port of Entry will have done so unlawfully and any Marina, fishing harbour, slipway or waterfront which allows such an admission will have acted unlawfully.”  (Italics and bold mine)

As I told Dianne when I read the document, “Well, The Party's Over.”

Also, the authorities will begin rolling out more wireless points around the harbor and in future immigration processing of visiting yachts will take place either at the marina or on the boat itself.

I returned to the boat with the plan to do some wet work before the rain arrived.  I connected the hose and the first thing I did was to top up the water tanks.

I had plumbed the starboard tank the day before and reckoned that there were 35 liters of water remaining the the 140 liter tank.  When I topped up the port tank the vent started gurgling immediately and in about 30 seconds the tank was full, so I made the generous estimate of 20  liters of water consumed from that tank.  That represents a total of 125 liters of water consumed over 40 days (the 37 days at sea plus the first few days in Cape Town), which means that I consumed an average of 3.125 litres of water per day during the passage.  This did not surprise me because I was fairly certain that I was using less than 4 liters per day.  Extrapolating from those numbers suggests that I could have sailed for 90 days on those two tankfuls of water.  (Let's not forget that I used 40 or 50 liters of the extra water that I brought in jugs for washing, but I consider that discretionary use.)

I then thoroughly rinsed the two sets of wet weather trousers and the sailing jacket in fresh water, turning each inside out to make sure that they were rinsed inside and out.  By then it was starting to rain but that didn't matter.  I hung them up and would leave then out for days if necessary.  Then I filled up a bucket with soapy water with bleach added to it and washed my bedroom slippers and the sports shoes that had been my sailing shoes since Brazil.  I rinsed them thoroughly and left them on the deck upside down to drain and dry.  The idea was to get the salt out of these garments.   I then gave the boat a good hosing down in the rain, which must have looked ridiculous.  It then stopped raining and I went to the club house for a good hot shower and change of clothes.  

After lunch and a nap I prepared for a walk into the city got purchase enough of that marvelous food at the Food Lovers' Market to last 2 or 3 days.  By the time I was ready to leave the wet weather gear was dry enough to stow inside, but I left the wet clothes from the washing activities hanging on the line.

It took 30 minutes to walk to the market, 30 minutes to do the shopping, 30 minutes to get back to the marina, and another 20 minutes to get back to the boat because I treated myself to a tall glass of draft beer at the club.  The market was as good as I had remembered it.  I filled up three containers with fresh food.  I also purchased pieces of chicken marinated in chutney.  And of course another loaf of bread and more bananas.

It had not rained during my absence so I was able to bring in the clothes off the line and tucked the shoes under the spray dodger.  I expected two days of rain and wind.

Tommy, the chap working on the next boat over, had told me that SA industry pretty well shuts down from the middle of December to the middle of January, as Australia did in the 1960's when I arrived.  He told me that the boat repair and maintenance people would be back at work this coming Monday, so I had a few more days to work on other things before I addressed the issue of repairs.  High on the agenda are the spray dodger and masthead wind unit. 

The radar is an interesting one.  It failed as I was closing in on the SA coast.  But after I made it into the harbour for some reason I restarted the chart plotter, saw that the radar was on Standby, hit the Transmit button, and it started to work.  I was pretty groggy at the time and wasn't 100% sure that it had actually happened, so yesterday I turned on the radar and it worked fine.  Was the problem a software glitch?  An intermittent cable problem perhaps?   All I can do is describe the events to the Raymarine man and get his opinion.  Perhaps we can change the cable on spec or perhaps we can just leave it all as is and hope for the best.