Cruising is often described as carrying out tricky repairs in exotic locations and this is the case with Moonbeam. Typically it is the men doing machine and electronic things and the women doing "house" things. I got to do a combination of both - apply my sewing skills to an engine part! Previous repairs revealed that a cylindrical water filter had developed some large holes and required either replacement or repair. We thought replacement might come from one of our rally buddies, Mediterraneo, an Island Packet like Moonbeam but, Murphy's Law prevailed and it just didn't quite fit. So, it was to be repair. We bought some flyscreen mesh and I was tasked with sewing patches on the inside of the filter so that water could still pass through while preventing larger unwanted debris getting in. Sounds easy but it was far from it. You might see from the pic that the cylinder was smaller than my fist and longer than my fingers and closed at one end. This was not a problem fixing the holes at the top of the cylinder but when it came to the one in the middle, I had to get a little creative. After some experimentation, I used duct tape (that wonderful sailor's friend) to keep the mesh in place temporarily and carefully threaded a needle through a very small hole from the outside to the inside. Then I used long-nosed plier to thread it back from the inside to the outside through another very small hole, tie a nice knot and do it over and over again until the patch was secure. I felt like a surgeon sewing sutures! Once all done, removed the duct tape with aforementioned long-nosed p liers and handed it back to the Captain. Capt Ken refitted the filter and we're keeping our fingers crossed that the patches hold! By the way, you'll see we are at sea - our first day. So far so good . . . going in the right direction, making reasonable speed.