More Home Improvements

Our trip home gave the Bloke plenty of opportunity to hatch more schemes to improve our life afloat. Despite groaning about lack of bandwidth with our mobile internet - 'too close to Murdoch Uni' and in a bit of  'an internet blind spot', he managed to research his project.

In the time we were back in Lincoln there was a flurry of activity on the jetty. Zofia now has a new inner forestay which is now sporting a furler. The little jib was sent to a sail maker for adjustments (hanks removed and UV strip applied) so that it can live on the furler rather than in a sail bag on the deck. Deploying this heavy weather sail will no longer require a visit 'up front' which is exactly where you don't really want to go in 'heavy weather'.  Getting the sail bag off the deck also improves windage issues when at anchor.

The Bloke and the boys had the best fun ever, assembling the furler kit etc.... Big boys meccano! I got the 'pleasure' of being the Winch Bitch hoisting the Bloke aloft with his drills, pop rivet gun etc.... Happy Days!

A safer arrangement.

Furler and furled sail on the inner forestay.

We decided to swap-out our Delta Anchor too and add a Stockless Marsh Anchor to our 'ground tackle' options. It is an Admiralty Anchor variant and much favoured by South Australian mariners as a reliable option in weed. Many of the commercial boats in Port Lincoln use them and one would imagine they are wise to a thing or two. Would such a beast have helped us anchoring in the weed in 30knots in Doubtful Island Bay?  We'll never know, but our hope is that it will make us less dependent on 'finding sand' when it's time to throw the pick down. Since we have ambitions to cruise parts of Tasmania and it's reputedly quite weedy we decided to splash out.

 Zofia's bow looking like a local

I've been enlisted too to make some repairs and 'improvements' to the dinghy cover. The Sailrite industrial sewing machine purchased before Easter was trailed on some small home sewing jobs like taking up the hems on the Blokes winter weight sailing trousers before attempting something more complicated. The whole process was probably quite excruciating for the Bloke who daily lifted the machine onto the cabin table in the hope that I'd get the canvass work done. Just a hint  - "no pressure" he said. Thursday was the requested deadline and I'm glad to report that I delivered, as per contract, by COB.

Reinforcing at the lift points plus a zippered pocket for the drogue. 

Materials all re-cycled from the sail bag.

The cats have also been on a home improvements mission. Easy Tiger, in particular has a repaired propeller, replaced their anchor winch, repaired the sail bag, installed new taps and much, much more. Urchin has had some small gel-coat fixes but generally has come this far with flying colours.

We are all now eying the weather hoping to time the completion of the works program with a suitable weather window to leave.