We're
back. Actually we've been back almost a month. Impetuous weathered
her solo nine moths well and just this afternoon we splashed back into the water.
Our plan is to enjoy the last of New Zealands' autumn; sailing a little
more in the Sounds, the Abel Tasman National park, back to Northland,
then head further North to the Pacific islands in May.
Its
been a long month on the hard, working away at the jobs list, but
nothing compared to last time. The last time we were out of the water
the boat was where we bought her. It was Texas and it was early 2013.
We were at that frantic, exciting time of Impetuous' renovation where
we felt very strongly that this was when we had to go and that
Hurricane season was coming all too quickly.
Four
years is a long time to spend behind the dull side of a paint brush,
it was time for a sail; to reap the rewards we'd been working towards
and to avoid the entrapment of the never ending project. There would
have to be some things we could live with unfinished, undone, or
untackled; for a bit. We'd do odd bits and bobs and maintenance as we
went but next time we stopped for longer, we'd tackle the big jobs
left over. No doubt there would be more jobs by then anyhow. So in
our scrap book we wrote 'The New Zealand List'
We're
delighted that we got this far without incident but the list grew as
we found foibles with what we'd already done. Our waterline was way
off; the kitchen tiles though beautiful at first, do not stand up to
the rigours of salt water and keen cooks. Also having a sprayhood on
this boat is a necessity keenly felt after the third wave has dumped
into the galley and all over the chart table.
We'd
learned an acute distrust of elderly stainless steel whilst still in
Texas. This was only heightened as we met people along our way with
various rigging and gear failures; stainless in a salty hot environment does not last as some would have us believe. We'd made new bronze chainplates
all round after finding corrosion in our originals but had put off
the bobstay and staysail fitting until now.
The
bobstay was a particular concern having been encased in fibreglass
some forty years ago. Its charged with holding up the mast and was unavailable for
inspection. To give an idea of the forces involved, the wire that
links this fitting to the bowsprit should be strong enough to suspend
the boat from. Imagine that 13+ tons of Alajuela just suspended in
space from one wire. One wire attached to a bit of rusty old
stainless.
Then after we'd sent off the pattern we gave it a bit of a polish up and found this, the beginnings of trouble.
Job
number one. The last few weeks have seen us set about learning a new
skill; pattern making and getting the bobstay fitting cast. We have nicknamed it the ice breaker, which caused a little confusion on facebook. In our defence it is what would hit ice first and is
certainly going to be strong, but we're heading back to the tropics
for now.
New
Zealand is a great place to be doing stuff like this. People have
been very helpful and everything we've needed has been available.
We've also been sorting out our starter motor, renovating the anchor locker, mending one of our water tanks, replacing the cutlass
bearing, replacing the bearings in the rudder (which meant removing
it).
The list is by no means complete and plans are afoot for replacing the worktops, building a new staysail and a sprayhood, but once we've got the materials we need we can do these jobs somewhere else. Very soon we will be sailing again.
