Sunday.
Gray to cream clouds hazy against a pale blue sky seen through the open companionway from Central. The sun has set behind the Opua hill, but light lingers. I’ve had my dinner of freeze dry beef teriyaki accompanied by a plastic of New Zealand sauvignon blanc. A warming glass of Laphroaig will follow later. It is not really cold here. Last night 45ºF/7ºC. Today in the mid-50sF/12C. But cool enough so that my shoulder aches, and a few other joints. I got a lot done today. GANNET is sorted out, organized and ready to sail.
The wind continued to gust yesterday, but I was able to row ashore and wash and dry sodden clothes and sleeping bag.
I measured the distance on an iNavX chart from Gannet to the Opua Cruising Club dinghy dock at 245 yards/225 meters.
I usually prefer places off season. The fleet from the islands won’t arrive until about when I fly back to the U.S. in early November. The dock was delightfully uncrowded with only two other dinghies tied there.
Sleeping bag manufacturers are notorious for packing their products in impossibly small stuff bags. The bag I brought with me may well be the world champion. When I removed it from the dryer I knew it was hopeless. The sleeping bag was at least twice the size of the stuff bag. They must have forced it in with an hydraulic press in a vacuum chamber. I engaged in a brief slapstick, stuffing the bag in here while it bulged out there; stuffing in there while it bugled out here; before accepting the inevitable and rolling it as well as I could to be later tied with a piece of webbing.
The wind eased as predicted today and I was able to bend on the furling jib and new jib sheets, replace a torn cockpit sheet bag with a new one and install a fifth sheet bag, this one at the aft end of the cockpit. Originally this was intended for the end of the backstay adjustment line when I planned to bring that above deck. I’ll find some use for it.
GANNET does not have much surface area for mounting instruments in the cockpit. I mounted the outside TackTick wind display bracket in the center, just below the companionway, and the inside bracket to the port side of the companionway. One of the advantages of TackTick, a complete system of which I had on THE HAWKE OF TUONELA, is that the displays are self-contained, waterproof and can be easily moved from one position to another.
In the Great Cabin, I replaced the old Solar Boost 2000e regulator, which still worked but whose digital readout has failed, with a new one. Comparing them, Blue Sky has made some changes to the circuitry, but fortunately not to the size or input wiring attachments. I took a photo with my iPhone of the six wires running to the old one before removing it which made connecting them to the new one easy.
Monday.
I didn’t complete this last evening. I fell asleep instead. I had a good night’s sleep and am over any lingering jet lag.
Today is lovely. Sunny and warm, which feels good on my shoulder and back. While I try to keep in shape in Evanston, GANNET is a whole other world in which my body is often forced into awkward positions.
I realized almost immediately that I shouldn’t have brought my Apple Watch. I frequently bang my wrist, and other body parts, in GANNET’s close confines. I will wear it ashore occasionally to see what measurements it gets as I walk up the hill or row, but I doubt I will bring it to the boat again.
No wind when I rowed ashore this morning to shower and pick up the new gennaker from Roger at North Sails. It is neatly folded. I’m looking forward to setting it, and trust it will go back in its bag more easily than did the sleeping bag.
I’ve done everything except dig the Torqeedo out of the stern where it is out of sight and out of mind to see if it still runs, and install the pod and move the main sheet traveler. That will wait until after I go sailing, which will have to wait until after the rigger comes on Wednesday, and then possibly the weather.
