2nd Tuesday on the hard

The run of good weather has finally broken. Tuesday was a crazy day alternating between blue skies, freezing rains and gale force winds. While we pushed on with our task list we lost a little momentum almost certainly due to the constraints imposed by the weather. With no further ado, here is what we accomplished :

• Contacted Leu Cat and made joint order for clamshell vents (what I previously called scoops)
• Scheduled rigger for Friday afternoon visit to fix top of forestay
• Shopped to find replacement washers for our prop nuts only to learn this is a bad way to secure the nuts.  This has led to a new project to create holes for locking pins.
• Took dinhy handle to store to order new one and discuss cleaning debris from old handle removal.  Now need to figure out how to get dinghy to them,
• Opened up both stern bunks to allow access to seals and couplings.  Chap came in afternoon to work on port side.  I need to remove more batteries to allow access to starboard side this morning.
• Researched appropriate paint to use on plexiglass and bought some.
• Found alternate source for plexiglass who would supply and cut to size for less than Bunnings.  Cancelled Bunnings order and bought plexiglass.
• Took plexiglass to signwriters and discuss job/choose font for lettering.
• Checked all four plexiglass panels on boat.  Vertical dimension fine.  Horizontal dimension <2mm too narrow.  Probably not noticeable when all is done.
• Lugged all 5 dive tanks out of locker, down the ladder, into the car then into dive store where regulators are being serviced for promised free fill.  Learned they’d have to charge us $100 each for inspection first and another $190 each to research missing ID number required in NZ.  Lugged 5 tanks pack to car, out of the car, up the ladder and back into locker without fill.  Also learned regulator servicing is still awaiting parts which I was told were in stock.
• Removed top of two winches to begin service.  Decided job was to messy in windy/rainy conditions so deferred this to a later day.
• Found a melted fuse holder – probably a dirty contact.  Bought new one.
• Made a list of things needed for ditch bag.  Bought some.

Dan has been continuing the gradual work on our anchor roller and begun looking into creating an improvement to our chain locker which will stop the chain from piling up.  Ross, who’s looking at our seals and couplings spent some time removing the old ones on the port side so he can measure up and order new ones for each side.  Ominously he mentioned he’d thought we had imperial sized components rather than metric which is used on all French boats.  Perhaps he was diverted by the US registration.  This may mean having to wait longer for parts.  Hope not.

While out and about we bumped into Kathy from Attitude.  They’ve been having to do a lot of work on their boat.  She said that it was hard to remember the life on tranquil blue waters anchored off exotic islands.  Sort of feeling that way ourselves at the moment.

We finished the day with a visit to another Indian Restaurant in town for which we had a two for one meal offer.  Turned out we couldn’t bring our own wine in conjunction with the offer and so we didn’t end up saving very much.  Nice to get out though.