Endeavour of Cork - Day 12 (2)

Day 12 (2)

A bit of an update before I grab a quick lie-down as I'm on watch at 10 (it's 7pm now) it's dark and the engine isn't on - can't let that opportunity pass by!!

Far from hiding below to avoid the sun and read more books, today turned into quite the maintenance day. First myself and Anais re-ran the second reefing line, which had obviously been chafing on something and was badly damaged. It must be one of the longest lines on the boat - she found the longest spare line we had, stitched it on to the reefing line and pulled the lot through - and it was about 3m short. Gah! Pulled it all back through again, and decided that we'd make the new line reef 1 (not quite the same length required), make the old reef 1 the new reef 2, only when we looked properly at reef 1, it wasn't as long as we'd thought. Still with me?? Now what were we going to do? Drawing on Anais's whipping and splicing skills, we sent the new line back through the reef 2 system again, took the end of the downhaul (previously the jib furling line so far too long for its new purpose), stitched that to the end of the new reef line, chopped it off at the required length and bingo, we had the length we needed to bring the reefing line back through the clutch to the winch. Not the ideal or perfect solution, but better than a 3/4 worn through rope for sure.

(If all that makes sense to anyone, well, fair play to ya!)

Then the big radar reflector went up on the spare forestay, where it rattled and banged and swung around and we couldn't quite get the right set-up for it, so that's back in a locker to be looked at again tomorrow. Lets hope there's no fog or mega-squalls tonight (none forecast).

Dermot worked his electrical magic on the badly-behaved starboard light again, so we're back fully legal on a full set of lights again tonight - no penalty points if we get stopped.

Anais went off up the mast again to try to fix the SSB aerial, and found a bent bolt on one of the spreaders - more work for tomorrow as light was fading when that was discovered. We think it must be from crash-gybes during the rough weather earlier on in the trip - we'll have to be careful to avoid those until we can make sure the spreader is fully ok.

I was on dinner duty, and while rooting in an under-seat locker for a tin of veg, an already-open jar of Nescafe coffee made a break for freedom, and emptied itself all over the contents of the locker. So that's one locker that's been emptied out and thorougly cleaned in advance of our arrival in St. Lucia!

To my horror I awoke from an afternoon snooze to hear The Pogues belting out Fairytale of New York up on deck - being a bit of a Scrooge about Christmas myself, I thought being on a boat in the mid-Atlantic was the perfect way to avoid all the hype and build-up that starts far too early these days - but clearly not!!! Denise has promised (threatened) Christmas songs every single day from now on (it's not even December yet!!) so I may have to start wearing the earplugs by day as well as at night.....

We heard today that Rambler have finished and are probably drunk in the bar by now (no libel intended!!) - that is one incredible feat of sailing considering they started three days after us and have sailed a 1000-mile longer course!! Laura is VERY envious - I know what sort of boat she'll be looking for if she ever decides to cross the Atlantic again!

The bad news is that while I've been typing the bloody engine has gone on again - after only an hour being off. The battery alarm to say the voltage needed topping up had gone off. Something not right there. Another job for the "to do tomorrow" list. I also suspect that the wind has dropped, as has been the pattern of the last few nights, so it probably would have gone on anyhow. So much for the peaceful nap. Ah well.

Endeavour, over and out.