For most of the day the weather was variable, sometimes raining and sometimes not. We made a list of things to do including outside and inside tasks and alternated as the opportunity to work outside arose.
On the inside I finally sorted out my boxes of cables, plugs and other assorted electrical finding a few things I could let go of. I also decided it was an apt time to replace my short wave radio ground plane. The old one was made of razor thin copper which would dissolve through at the touch of a drop of sea water. By now it’s quite a mess in places and will surely soon fail or at least be compromised. For about a year I’ve had a roll of much thicker copper ordered direct from a factory for a fraction of the price marine stores sell it for. I removed all the old copper and replaced about 2/3ds of it. I left the area which covers the stuffing box so that it can be inspected as there is a crack evident in the stuffing and I want a professional opinion on it. I don’t want to have to rip up new copper if repairs are required. Helen focused time on our salon seat cushions which have holes underneath and needed cleaning. She received some good advice on some fabric tape for the underside which we can obtain from town.
On the outside I removed the zincs and the bowsprit – the latter to allow examination of the nacelle later today so we can plan how to repair the cracks and anchor dings there and perhaps to strengthen it. What also took a lot of time was a check out of the navigation lights. My red/green light at the bow failed to come on. I could read a voltage there so at first I thought the long lasting bulb had failed. A replacement bulb made no improvement and when I applied a separate voltage to the old bulb it worked fine. When I measured the voltage at the front I saw it drop when the bulb was attached. That suggested high resistance on the wires going to the front, i.e. corrosion or a break somewhere. Inside the boat where there is a connector I was able to test the bulb and it worked letting me know the problem was forward of that point. In the end I located the fault. It was near the bulb emplacement. It looks like the original wires had not been long enough and someone had twisted extra lengths onto the wire without soldering or crimping. This is the lousiest way to fix wires, particularly at the front in all the spray. There was just about enough room to crimp on some extra wire and properly seal the connections using heat shrink. After sanding all the connections to improve contact all was well. Job done.
On the outside Helen spent a good time cleaning a lot of the outside surfaces. It may have to be done all over again before we leave the yards but it was all quite grubby and the dirt was beginning to track into the boat.
Around midday we took a trip into town to eat and collect some supplies including our last box of wine for Fiji. We still need wine for the balance of our time in NZ but we’re basically done on our evening meal supplies. We also decided to pick up a battery charger so we could charge the batteries without having to make up a new boat cable adapter. While we may be able to last on our own batteries and solar/wind it’s nice not to have to worry. It also means we can use power tools, microwaves and vacuum cleaners aboard the boat with fear of draining the batteries. Towards the end of our stay here we can also start thinking about filling the freezer. I also visited the sail maker to agree the colour of the sunbrella strip on our new jib.
By the end of the day the weather finally turned and we had quite a pleasant evening. We have 5 days of fine weather forecasted ahead of us. Hopefully the yard isn’t too backlogged from the last weeks of rain and will make good progress on Dignity over this week.