I smiled as the launch approached GANNET a few minutes ago after a quick trip to the pier to fill two jerry cans with water because she is again complete. Mainsail covered on boom. Jib furled on forestay.
I bent on the jib at first light this morning. This constant and often strong wind was worrying me. I could picture the jib flogging, the luff tape jamming in the foil groove, repeated dashes to the bow to straighten it. The wind is lightest early in the day. The jib went up easily and quickly. The old jib was always a problem. The new one isn’t.
Once up the sail furled as it should and GANNET is again a sailboat, not a truck load.
I had four things to do today and I finished all of them by 10:00 am.
Bend on jib.
Fill jerry cans with water. Two still have Hilton Head water, so only the other two needed to go to the pier where there is a high volume hose. GANNET now has about 20 gallons/75 liters of water on board. My consumption of fresh water has consistently been .37 gallon/1.4 liters a day. So I have about 54 days of water on board. I’ll buy an additional four or five bottles of water.
Fit split rings in shroud turnbuckles and tape over them.
Tape the fitting through which the mast electrical wires pass through the deck. I had already sealed that fitting with LifeSeal.
All this leaves to do is top up provisions.
While the supermarkets are better on here, the logistics are more difficult. A taxi to and from the supermarket. A long walk out the pier which is long because of 15’+ tides. Into the launch and from launch to deck. Certain supplies were more easily obtained at Shelter Bay Marina, but GANNET was so cluttered and disorganized, I did not want to add to the chaos.
I am not aware of any dock carts here, so I am limited on a single trip to what I can carry a substantial distance.
I will go ashore in a while to use the Internet and have lunch. If I find a taxi driver, I will go shopping.
Now that the boom, boom vang, mainsail, bow sprit and jib, all of which were below deck for the truck ride, are again above deck, the Great Cabin seems spacious. Well, relatively.
