Bigger Wind
03 September 2008 | Raiatea
Randy
We are still waiting to get our diesel fittings all sorted out. In the mean time Hideko and I have been working on other projects such as rewiring the power cable for the washer dryer (the plug inside the unit seemed corroded but certainly was making poor contact and ultimately burned up), cleaning out rarely used parts of the boat, moving all of the food stashes we created for the big Pacific crossing back to the pantry (no need to have potatoes and onions in the bilge anymore), etceteras.
Another item we had been needing to address was the final cockpit canvas setup. We had a cockpit windscreen made by Beaver Brand Canvas in Fort Lauderdale two years ago and this has been wonderful. They used good materials and the windscreen is in great shape for its age. The side curtains on the other hand have had four different shops work on them. We finally have them the way we want them, almost. The side curtains are now square and roll up nicely. The quarter panels that connect the sides to the wind screen can be zipped up to create a winch access area or you can unzip the area next to the side curtain to open a walk trough.
Unfortunately, while the starboard curtain reaches the arch snaps that secure its aft edge the port side does not. Curious that. We didn't have enough cloth for Leonardo, the local canvas guy, to work with so he made us some nifty snap extenders. They are little nylon straps with a male snap on one side and a female on the other side at the other end. This allows us to snap these into the trailing edge of the port curtain and reach the arch snaps. A little hokey but it works. We will of course get the curtain extended properly as soon as we are in a place that has our Sunbrella in stock. The thread available locally is also not UV resistant so some of the recent mods will need to be re-stitched in a couple of years anyway.
It has been raining here and there today but we have left the cockpit enclosure up mostly to keep the wind out. It has been howling for a few days. The wind is fun but if you are not careful it will steal things from your boat. The curtains make the cockpit a nice area you can actually leave things in with the wind up.