26th December

12 00 N
61 46 W

Weather; sunny, wind n/a, waves n/a

BOXING DAY
ONLY 364 MORE SLEEPS - BEST GET PREPARING!

Well this is a different sort of boxing day for us - no going to see the hunt off, no watching the start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race - still can't believe that it has been cancelled for the first time ever, no watching the boxing day test as it's not showing here, no wondering who we can re gift presents to as we didn't get any, no unwanted visitors and just enough left overs for tonight's dinner. So to back track to yesterday's dinner - we had an awesome Christmas lunch, it was a little different all round as Dale and Lorie do Christmas dinner a bit differently to us so we had a medley of dishes - ours very traditional British style and theirs a mixture of side dishes that are very American, it was all pretty good and we ate far too much! There was just enough left over for both boats to have a second meal out of it today - yay no cooking today!
After eating our fill we just sat around chatting and enjoying the peace and quiet of the harbor, watching out for the turtle to put in an appearance, which it obliged us with before the sun started to go down and Gerry and I headed back to our own boat for the night.
With nothing planned for the day on our boat Gerry went across to help Dale out as he was putting a new fuel pump onto his gen set. I don't think Gerry was really needed but it kept the pair of them occupied for a short while. When he returned he decided that we needed to put our dinghy up in the davits as it has been in the water for too many days and he wanted to see how much growth we had going on on the hull, he also wanted to see if the new pully system that he'd put on the outboard lift made it any easier for me to operate (it really didn't make a lot of difference, it was still a heavy lift). Anyway with the outboard and dinghy back in place we were a little surprised at the amount of growth that was on the bottom of the dinghy, there were even some small barnacles clinging on for dear life! We decided that we would let them dry out overnight and begin to clean them off tomorrow - there is no hurry after all, we aren't going anywhere this week! Unable to keep still for more than half an hour Gerry then climbed on the aft rail and took our wind generator blades off, we have noticed an increased amount of vibration going on - evident when the BBQ begins to shudder on its rail! It was time to have a look at the new blades and see if there was anything that was obviously causing the increased vibration. Out came measuring tape, calipers, screw drivers and Allen keys. The first issue for the day was that Gerry managed to donate the Allen key to Davey Jones locker and yes of course it was the only one of that size that we have on board! We have many others so he managed to get the blades off by fair means or foul using an assortment of other Allen Keys in turn. With the blades off he now measured, inspected and adjusted where he thought it needed it then reversed the process and returned the blades to the motor mount and flipped the switch - the result? Nothing changed, there is still a decent vibration happening, time to give this away for today and think about it some more. Next job, well you didn't expect him to stop now did you, he was on a roll! The water tank seemed to be leaking around one of the inspection ports that he had put in, it was a minor leak, only happening as the water tank was full to the brim, but it was an annoyance and we can't have that! Out came the sealer and he put extra around the rim in the hope that it would fix it - time will tell.
By now it was time to have a nana nap followed by the routine of cocktails, dinner and Netflix before bedtime.