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Free & BrEasy - Zen and the Art of Boat Maintenance



Cruising around the Pacific in a sailboat must rate as one of the most beautiful and romantic of experiences. Boats themselves are lovely creatures that require tender loving and care if they are going to take you anywhere safely. As we spend our third week in Vuda Marina, Fiji, waiting for boat repairs, we have had to remind ourselves of these simple facts. We are becoming at one with Free & BrEasy by meditating deeply on her rigging. What appeared to be a straight forward job that would take only a few days has transcended into a psychic exploration of shroud ends and mast shroud seats. We have been humbled before the Budha of boat maintenance!

Roger in particular has been spending long hours thinking about mast fittings. After days and days of discussion with distributors and manufacturers he learnt that the T bar shroud fittings were only designed for short "coastal" passages while the lollipop shroud fittings were recommended for long distance "bluewater" passages. That was great because we replaced the old fittings with new, lollipop fittings. But why did our new shrouds look wrong? The shroud end fittings stuck out from the mast and were misaligned with the shroud itself. Eventually after much discussion it was revealed to us that the seats in the mast in which the shroud ends fitted were wrong. We have T Bar mast seats but lollipop shroud ends! Very slight differences in the exact shape of the lollipops were sufficient to make the shroud ends seat wrongly. Unfortunately, replacing the mast seats is not a trivial job and probably needs the mast to be taken off. A little grinding of the lollipops and we have been able to achieve an important state of being, "peace of mind" that we can sail safely! The story will not end there as we are considering getting new lollipop mast seats in Mackay, Australia!

We have also been giving lashings of TLC on the engines, fridge/freezers and Alejandro has brought the deck to a whiter shade of white after a lot of dirt brought on by the repairs! Lots of gumption on the boat which should give oodles of "peace of mind", at least till the next problems occur!

Meanwhile our resort Marina has been massaging us into a state of inner peace. There is a long beach fringed with coconut trees to walk along bare foot and let the sand search through the toes, a coastal running track that doubles as a small gauge railway line, a one hole golf course, evening meals under the stars accompanied by excellent live music at the Marina restaurant, and, of course, the quarter finals! Instead of overnight sailing watches, we are up at 4 am to see the cream of world football fail to get the ball in the net. We are likely to miss the semi-finals but hope to see the final match in Vanuatu. An unprejudiced observer might think we were deliberately extended our Vuda meditation only to see the world cup matches. Now could we be so shallow?


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