Week 29 30
01 September 2012 | Tunisia
Jonathan Greenwood
I must apologise for my long absence from the Blog, especially to Graham, as he is our most avid reader. Holidays and family took up a good part of my time and the rest was used up on Rowdy, Chinook and the new house. Needless to say Sandra and I had a bit on! Since our return to Tunisia on Sunday last, we got stuck in and all week I haven’t had the energy to write anything.
The yard had re-opened the week before and the boys had continued where they left off with the double planking. Now after two weeks back at work, we have completed about 75% of the planking and are on the home straight as far as that goes. I am making good progress placing the deck beams although it really has been a head wreck. The thought of making a mistake has made me triple check every measurement before picking up the drill, and even then doubts come back to haunt me in the evening. Sandra is preparing many items to be varnished such as the butterfly hatches and has several coats on the new bowsprit already. We decided to keep the two existing butterfly hatches having already decided to do new ones as they are not original. But, they are old, of the correct dimensions and built from a beautiful mahogany of a quality hard to find these days. The hinge system is basic and the grills to protect the glass were all wrong. However, in view of the time required to build new ones and the fact that we are having trouble saving old bits of the boat, we think it only fair that they remain aboard. They are now in restoration and will closely resemble the real thing when complete.
The engine and electronics will hopefully be delivered in the next couple of weeks and on Thursday we took delivery of the first items. A box of lovely blocks arrived from Holland built by “Ording Blockmakers”. Have a look at their website at the link to the right of this post. Nice quality and finish and nice price too! We are not exactly ready to hang any of them just yet but quite a few will require leather protection. Sandra’s workload increased the moment she opened the box!
We will spend two more weeks here before heading back to France to make the final preparations for “Les Regates Royales” in Cannes and “Les Voiles de St. Tropez”. Rowdy is heading to the yard next week for a haul out so she is in top shape for the events. I just hope that the crew is not too rusty from lack of racing.
Jono