Fit genoa, anchor, microwave

Today was a day of completing a few background jobs ready for the next weekend when we hope to get the frame in for the new motor.

Firstly we fitted the genoa. Charmiane had reduced the genoa cover so we intended just hoisting it back up after the genoa.

First we replaced the spinnaker halyard. This hayard was badly worn and since it will be used for the bosun's chair was essential to be safe. Tim had brought back 200 metres of 12mm Liros braid on braid from the UK. Tim stitched it to the old halyard and we hauled it over the block at the top of the mast and then Tim whipped the snap shackle to the end.

What we had not noticed before we hoisted the genoa was that the spinakker halyard was twisted over the genoa halyard, so when we came to hoist the cover it didn't go up to the top. Which meant dropping the cover, dropping the genoa, untwisting the lines and then rehoisting the genoa and rehoisting the cover. This time it worked well.

Next job was to fit the anchor. We have two anchors, a plow and a Danforth. The Danforth was what was on the boat when we took it over so that was going to be our main and the plow as a backup. So we fitted the Danforth in position using our newly working winch and tried to shut the winch hatch... but it wouldn't close. No way would the winch hatch close over the Danforth. Then we remembered that the starboard winch hatch had been broken. Now we new why!

So we went back for the plow and brought that on board, and that fitted beautifully. However, it's slightly rusty so will need cleaning and painting. A job for another day.

Then we fitted the microwave. A little bit of a fiddle but went in well.

Final task of the day: fit the cooker. The new cooker is smaller than the old one, so we had already made side cheeks which were to be mounted to the galley and the cooker fitted between them. It felt a little like the BBC TV show Blue Peter, 'Here is something I prepared earlier...'

We used threaded rod and nuts on each side, embedded into the wood side cheeks. Not an easy task.

When finally fitted we found that we were still 16mm too narrow, so we went back to Tim's flat and planed down some wood facing for the side cheeks. This will need gluing during the week.

Then cut the cradle for the liferaft - solid teak - and though solid in general we found a crack which needs epoxy gluing. Two steps forward and one back...