Three named storms in as many weekends has put paid to any start of work on Sparrow up to now - the winds have howled and the rain has clattered.. very dis'incentivising...
Which isn't to say that work isn't going on and visits made.. I went down to the club to step aboard Sparrow this weekend just gone (sunny, but blowing a hooley and cold with it) and have been visiting once or twice a week to make sure she's OK...
Bilges were dry (which I find amazing) also the keel voids, everything looking OK, 14.7V in the battery (so it may be grey but the trickle charger continues to work it's magic) - bought home the cockpit tidy and the mini washboard I mount the GPS on for a bit of love and attention.. this is them just after they first got added to the inventory seven (!) years ago ... GPS mount is now the other side (handier for feeding the DSC radio a signal), but both are in good condition...
I had an idea last summer to build a seat into the arrangement as one of the best places to sit when under auto pilot is right there, facing forward, out of any weather, but central and able to get to anything in the cabin or cockpit... thoughts at the moment are to fit a 6" bench type seat on top of the mini washboard, and then test it to see if it is up to the job..
I had an idea to combine both by then bolting the box to the washboard/seat arrangement but I'm leaning towards the idea of keeping it simple and leaving the arrangement as is - I'll give the box another coat of jollop whatever I decide to do
Separately, I have replaced the tender launching trolley with a new (to me) one courtesy eBay - the old one came to me about 7 or 8 years ago for the princely sum of £20 and was well past it's best even then... made of soft steel, it basically has rusted itself to death despite my coating it with paint every 6 months. Last season one of the support struts for the bar that the tender sits on gave way, so the tender had an alarming tendency to throw itself sideways when pulling it up the shoreline... enough already, so we now have an aluminium folding one for a reasonable price..
That'll do, pig...
Insurance is paid (no increase in price despite the engine being stolen last summer), club membership and mooring/storage fees have been paid, Chichester Harbour dues paid and the plaques (to attach to the boats) arrived this morning.. oh, and the life-jackets are being serviced (top).. that'll do for now..
..the countdown clock has appeared - that always focuses the mind..
I agree, best place for a seat. Hopefully the storms that blow dogs off chains will abate and you can go sailing!
ReplyDeleteAlden - "Blow dogs off chains" sums it up nicely... As a sailor you'll be well aware that an integral and vital part of any boating activity is drinking tea with your fellow sailors.. and so it was that on Sunday I was sat on Pete's (Moby to his acquaintances) boat, drinking tea, and asked him why the front of his boat was tied to a mooring block *while in the car park*... turns out he came down some weeks ago during one of the three storms, and the wind had pushed the nose of his boat round 3 feet, almost blew it off the chocks it was sat on.... his boat is a Trident 24... 4000 lbs displacement.. :o|
DeleteThat must have been one hell of a storm gust!
ReplyDeleteYes, tea drinking is inextricably interwoven into the fabric of sailing life - I quite like that really dark tea (I think its called Guinness).