Thu 17 Oct, HHN day 6: Old Avon 310 dinghy ready to sell, new Highfield 340 dinghy in, and decisions made with regards to some of the skin-fittings.
Bitterly cold today, the wind is howling and the boat is moving quite alarmingly in the strong gusts. Not the best conditions for outdoors activities. The adverts for selling the Avon dinghy are ready for display, so Glen launches in the tedious job of cleaning the dinghy and make it as presentable as it can be. Once he is done with it at mid-morning, he steps back and thinks: do we really need a new dinghy? Now that is a dangerous thought, as we made a down payment for a new one!
And before we change our mind, we borrow Ray’s pick-up (thank you again for your help!) and drive off to Annapolis to get our new Highfield 340. It comes perfectly packed, as it had arrived from China, and although we are eager to open it we resist the temptation and keep it as such till we are just about to launch. Maybe we didn’t really need a new dinghy, but we are happy to have one! There will be the usual faff with preparing it for davits (alter the lifting points, glue castles on the rubber ring to hold it in place, make a new cover, etc.) but all in good time – no hurry for those things just yet.
Two more brief stops in Annapolis to Fawcett Marine and M Rigging to inquire on 16mm line to replace the main sheet. No purchase though, as only 14mm on stock.
We then run around in the car putting the “Avon for sale” stickers up. Fingers crossed there will be a passer by who wants our trusty Avon RIB.
Back at Cloudy Bay, Glen has the “it’s Christmas” moment which we always get when unpacking all the deliveries. On this particular occasion it was a huge pile of very heavy boxes from Hallberg-Rassy Parts. We went over the top this summer and ordered all sorts of goodies, like spare windlass, new bimini and spray top (just in case our current ones will fail), and lots of other small items to add to our spares boxes.
Also arrived are the 6 new SunPower solar panels and 100ft solar cable, plus a big heavy box full of our hydraulic furling motors, back from service in Florida. No room for any of that inside the boat yet, so they all remain in the car till we clear some space. The car is now full!!
With the cold wind continuing to howl, time for more indoors jobs. Glen spends a fair bit of time painting around the holes where we removed the skin fittings, to seal the wood. Then he reassess (yet again) all the through-hulls and skin-fittings trying to decide which ones will be out next. Seeing how much good brass is still left on the ones we cut off (>90%), it is tempting to leave all the rest in place.
While in the engine room, lying down on top of the engine, he figures out a new configuration for the through-hulls under the galley sink. We currently have four pipes there (three for the sink and the old fridge coolers, and one for the cockpit drain) with terribly bad access to any of them, crammed deep down the side of the Volvo. After his reshuffling there will be only two, with better access to the valve handles.
Decision made: these four will be drilled out tomorrow and we will glass-fiber 2 of the hole closed.
Meanwhile, I made good progress tidying the galley cupboards and clearing out yet more unwanted stuff. And while at it, updating the food inventory ready for the next big provisioning. Fun times for both of us.
Not much progress towards completing the list of jobs prior to launching, but a good day nonetheless. We seem to be actually doing things, and have a nice new RIB to look forward to unpacking!
