The spray hood and bimini Nathan has been working on so diligently has almost been finished. The side and front windows are in and looking great. The zips are stitched in so we can roll the side panels up for more airflow and visibility. Just a few more zips to stitch and tidying up of the hems, but it's essentially finished. Because of the position of the new spray hood, Nathan has also moved one of the solar panels as it would sit underneath and constantly be in the shade. In it's new position, the sun should always be on it.
We also spent a couple of hours painting the Aries Self steering; a nice little break from harder, more labour intents jobs. One half now bears the South African flag and the other has the Australian colours.
The sail mail - the system we will use to send emails while far out at sea - has also been tested this week. It works! Email address to follow.....
In big news, the sails have been sent to the sailmakers to be turned from in boom reefing to slab reefing. Putting the main sail up and down took a lot of time and effort as the turning mechanism in the boom was so stiff. Slab reefing means we do away with that system and hopefully make setting sail a lot easier for both of us. We should get the sails back next week and then spend a few days out in the harbour testing the new system. Hopefully then I can handle the main and mizzen sail on my own.
Our Garmin wind indicator also got damaged when the mizzen mast was re-erected but the awesome guys at Emsworth Yacht Harbour offered to swap it over, so another trip up the mast was in order to bring the old unit down.
Our Garmin wind indicator also got damaged when the mizzen mast was re-erected but the awesome guys at Emsworth Yacht Harbour offered to swap it over, so another trip up the mast was in order to bring the old unit down.
And Nathan also needed to swap over the alternators to a higher output model (which actually don't seem to be putting out any extra amperage).
Last night our other cruising friends from 'Irreversible' who we met at Emsworth arrived so this afternoon we got off the boat and had a much needed catch up with them.
Oh, and remember last week I mentioned we went to Pendennis Castle? Here's a couple of pictures.
So that's about it for the moment. We'll likely be in Falmouth another couple of weeks, testing the new sail setup and waiting for a weather window. The winds blow SW across Biscay but as soon as we cross there, we get a lovely tail wind the whole way down. Anyways, updates to follow....
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