Organization and Progress
17 September 2020 | Pension Tiare Nui
William Ennis | Very hot, still
It's Wednesday and we depart the country on Monday. Time is growing short. Conni, the keeper of records, says that we're doing well, and we've been working long, hard, hot hours completing task after task.
Both sails are down, the dinghy is cleaned and stowed, Conni's replaced all halyards with messengers, the main engine and transmission are prepared with oil and filter changes, the outboard and Honda generator are prepared. We've started removing unused items from the boat for which we have room in our boxes. Of course, we keep running records of items that we need to replace or repair for next season, but we've collected those things and they're packed.
We moved to the bungalow the old Raymarine radar in its B&G box. We might give it to a friend or sell it, and that goes for the other Raymarine instruments that we replaced. There's still a market for them as people try to keep the old systems going rather than buying new. The old stuff is larger and heavier than the modern, lightweight and more efficient stuff: it's quite astounding, really. The new radar, for example, weighs pounds less.
We also moved to the bungalow our three blue boxes, our trusty Rubbermaid blue storage boxes that haul stuff back and forth from home. I've got a box of Raymarine electronics, cables, and manuals, as well as the broken stuff that I need to fix or replace. Some things we simply cart back and forth since the heat is so hard on it. Our wonderful Winchrite, the electric device that does all of our heavy lifting, for example. It can stay charged, cool, and dry at home. I'm convinced that some of the LED screen damage that our various electronic devices suffer is from simply being too hot for too long. Since that's true, we wish that we could take home all of our new electronics, but we just can't manage it.
Prior to departing, I made a simple sling system to fit around our various Blue boxes and bags, and we bought a good digital luggage scale a while back. We can check the actual weights of everything and balance loads if needed. Since items over 50 pounds cost considerably more, it's important to measure accurately. We're in surprisingly good shape since our heaviest box is Conni's at 48 pounds. At least we know what it'll cost to get things home.
It's Thursday today, and Conni says that we're mostly done. We have decided to perform some important work for the boat and re-caulk some chainplates. The shrouds that support the mast are connected to the hull below decks, of course, and where they penetrate the hull, water can penetrate. The name, "chainplate" is a holdover from the old sailing days when the shrouds were actually attached by chains to metal plates bolted to the hull or other strong point. At any rate, we've got some identified leaks and we'll spend some time over the next few days in eliminating those leaks. Time and weather permitting, Conni will apply one last coat of varnish, too.
We also have some fiberglass repair that we'll hand to the Carenage staff, the best fiberglass people in the South Pacific, bar none.
We depart on Monday and with luck, we'll have our work completed by Saturday afternoon.