A busy last few days aboard Splice as we try to get ready for the first sail of the season. The gas alarm is fixed and we have reinstalled the port trampoline after a couple of the grommets were replaced. Chris has been up the rig with Carolyn tailing the 2 safety lines, to check for any visible problems, luckily it’s one of the few times we check for issues and didn’t find any! The fabric man at Casa Angel has delivered the new bimini top only a day later than promised. It was very tight to get on, there were four of us straining to stretch it over the frame and reconnect the side pieces. When that was in place were able to hoist the new ‘Lazy jacks’ Chris had made up (lines to catch and guide the main-sail as it drops) and put the sailbag and main-sail back on the boat. This took most of yesterday as there are lots of fiddly bolts as well as a large amount of sail to lift up into the ‘Lazyjacks’ and sail bag but it all went up and was hoisted quickly during a break in the wind to check it all worked OK.
Of course, it can’t all go smoothly. We had just been to the office and paid the bills for the bimini, moorings and so on, came back and went to close up the zip on the main entrance to the bimini enclosure. The extra stress created by the tension in the new top had got to it and the zip broke. The office had just closed for the end of the week on Friday so what could we do? We are planning to leave on Sunday if the weather behaves so it looks as if we will have to pay for someone elsewhere to fix the zip as we don’t want to wait, we are already behind our original plan.
The dinghy is still deflating but the quotes we have had so far for replacement are in the fanciful range, so we will have to live with it for now, and keep the pump to hand!

Photo: Splice shot from the top of her mast (Carolyn peering up from the top right corner of the boat)