Monday 7 October 2019

We were going nowhere today.  The wind howled through all day and there was white water showing even within the harbour.

The sad remains of our jib

No-one rushed to get up, and we were fairly lazy early on.  Subsequently we spent time on the foredeck, clearing up the remains of the jib, and putting it away. Fortunately, we have another jib, so we will not be inhibited for the rest of this year.  The new sail will be ready for the start of next season. I delved down into the darker corners of the sail locker to retrieve the spare jib.  We had known that it was there, but have previously never even taken it out of its bag, so there was a slight concern about the condition that it might be in, but first glance it all looked very promising.

The next job was to fix the furling line. I have done this before, so I am familiar with what needs to be done, but it is an awkward job.  The furling drum that you have to dismantle is under the deck, right at the very bow of Equinox, and it is challenge to get close enough to it to work on, let alone see what you are doing. Everything came apart fairly easily, and we had concluded when we saw where the break was, that there was enough spare on the furling line to just move it all forwards, rather than having to thread a new line under the deck, which was something we struggled with earlier in the year.  It took more than one attempt to put it all back together again, but it was successfully achieved, so we are all ready to re-hoist the sail tomorrow, before we leave.

It rained on and off during the day, so each of these tasks had to be achieved in phases, in the dry spells. There were problems with the electricity supply to the pontoon we were on, and the power kept coming on and going off.  The marina is in the process of rewiring the base units all along the pontoon, and two guys were seen huddling under an umbrella, still working away even during the rain showers.

I wouldn't advise working on electric installations in the rain

By late afternoon, the rain had cleared and we were able to walk around the headland to a “famously beautiful” beach.  It was indeed pretty, with an off-lying island and distant hills in view.  It had some buildings that looked to have dated from about the 1930s, and these had clearly seen better days, and had barriers to stop people entering them. We wondered just how much work it would have taken to get them fully functional again.

Distance covered today	0	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	440	nautical miles
Distance covered 2019	1493	nautical miles

Steve (and Tricia)