Monday / Tuesday 14 / 15 October 2019

As we have now arrived at our destination and are focused on preparations for returning home, we will cut the frequency that we write the blog to alternate days unless there is something interesting to report. We have prepared a list with about 80 jobs on it that either need to be done now or planned for the winter months, and I am sure that there is not too much that I can say that will make, for example winterising the toilets, sound exciting. It is good to have time to go through the list methodically, and not to have to rush. 

So, Monday morning we started on the list.  A priority was to find out what the problem was with our windlass, as the anchor chain was not put away properly.  It wasn’t my priority while I was dragging the anchor up by hand.  A guy from the yard came, and brought with him a service specialist in our brand of windlass from Alghero. It turned out to be a broken connection, but not in any of the places that we had tried over the weekend. All was soon working smoothly, and later I was able to drop the anchor down to the riverbed, and retrieve it properly, cleaning it with fresh water as it came back on board. Two jobs from the list, tick!

We also managed to retrieve our now decidedly second hand, “vented” jib from the sail locker.  Fortunately, we were able to use the mast and halyards as a crane to lift it out through the narrow entrance.  I had feared when we put it there, that we might have had to unroll it and pull it out bit by bit. It is too heavy and too awkward a space to have been able to just lift it out by manpower alone.  After this we borrowed a wheelbarrow, and took it to the yard’s skip.  RIP (in both senses) old jib. The replacement jib also came down and went back to its place in the sail locker, after a bit of a wrestle with the zips on the sail bag.  The metal runners had just disintegrated in our hands when we tried to open the bag.  The technique for adding new sliders that we developed last year did not work on these, so we will have to think of another way to fix the zip.  In the meantime, the bag is open.

We walked into the village of Bosa Marine, and found the supermarket, which has a fabulous selection of home, pre-cooked meals. We stocked up for a couple of days.  On our return a couple of British guys arrived with their boat, and later we had a drink with them.  They are also leaving their boat here for the winter, and also seem pleased with what the yard was doing.

Distance covered today	0	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	549	nautical miles
Distance covered 2019	1602	nautical miles

Steve (and Tricia)