I wouldn’t have thought that after four months our boat could still surprise us but she does!
Yesterday we discovered that we had an awesome piece of equipment in full working order almost ready for our use!
Since we have arrived this has happened over and over! Just last week we found that several random pieces of equipment that we had found in various different lockers all belonged together and made up an item called an anchor buddy that helps prevent anchor drag. Separately the items didn’t look like anything useful – thankfully we hadn’t given in to the temptation to cast them adrift as not of any particular use! When all put together the items formed a tool that attaches to the anchor and weighs it down – thus preventing or assisting to prevent anchor drag. We had read about them and had intended to purchase one so it was a lovely surprise to discover that we already had one – and - and this is the story with many of the pieces of equipment on Argos- it wasn’t just any old anchor buddy – but a particularly well made, top-of –the-range one.
While there are systems on the boat that have required overhauling and repairs, one of the things we have discovered – especially with original items – is that they are all of the best quality. The original owner of this yacht spared no expense in outfitting her with the best of everything.
So I suppose yesterday’s find really shouldn’t have surprised us at all!
Rory, our earliest sailing instructor friend, who came out with us when we hadn’t been here long and with whom we experienced our first bit if heavy weather ( see Storm dated 6/29/11) has continued to be a part of our life here. We’ve got to know his partner too, Marion, and spent some lovely times with them on and off the boat. So yesterday when Rory and Marion came over we were chatting about the old wind vane that was lashed up on the deck, we hadn’t used it – it looked as if it was incomplete and we didn’t really know entirely how to use it anyway – several times we had thought we’d off load it but something had kept us from doing so – so Rory had a look.
Turns out it was a Saye’s rig self-steering wind vane. Now I’d read about self-steering wind vanes in Jessica Watson’s book – she named her Fleming wind vane Parker after the chauffer in Thunderbirds. Jessica extolled the virtues of Parker continuously throughout her book. Although we have an auto pilot that you can set either to a compass point or to the wind, it uses power and while we are sailing for long stretches it’s good to minimise the amount of equipment that relies on power – and of course if we lose all our power for any reason we have only manual (that means me and Peter!) steering to go on which is okay for day sails but hard for longer hauls.
Apparently this wind vane steering system would be invaluable to us. And not only was it not incomplete it is an amazingly good version of one!
It needs two small items – one metal bracket which wasn’t with the other pieces and a new sail (it has a small sail which is part of how it works) as the existing one has a small tear. So this week we will get the piece of metal to fashion a bracket ( a small job for Peter) and get the local canvas shop to run up the small sail – neither of which will be costly or hard. And then – well then we will have our own Parker! We anticipate making full use of it when we sail from Esperence to Port Lincoln across the Bight but will attach it before we leave here and get some practice using it on our shorter days sailing to Esperence.
It’s funny really – there have been times when it has felt as if so much on board has required attention – things we had been told were fine – and yet despite the things we’ve had to fix and repair, underneath all that is a yacht which has been built to last, set up amazingly well when it was built and while its more recent owners seemed to have let things slide a little, it’s not hard to get all this amazing equipment back in tip top working order.
It feels a little like a garden I once had that seemed very wild and over grown – and yet, as I weeded and tidied I found underneath all the weeds and mess, a charmingly laid out garden, planted it seemed by someone with a real eye for beauty . There were prettily laid out pathways, bulbs that flowered year after year, climbers and bushes that flourished once given room to breathe. I feel like Argos is that beautifully designed and laid out garden and we are the new gardeners. We have been restoring parts of her that were neglected for a while, given her room to breathe, uncovered details planned and arranged long ago. We are sure she will reward us generously, not with flourishing bulbs and plants but with many years of safe and wonderful sailing!