Today The Cats Moved On Board.. I Inspected The Motor And Sails. Pix Pix Pix

[Robinsvoyage]

Sunday 1 June 2008

I finally got a full night of sleep aboard s/v William Bligh, though I still set the alarm to wake me after eight hours. Then I set about getting some work done. I mounted the EPIRB so that nothing would hit it, but so that it was in a place I could get to it easily if I needed to. Next I began preparing the cabin for keeping the cats, which included making sure that there were no sharp objects anyplace that might come into contact with them. In addition, I had to block off four access holes under the berths so that the cats couldn't either go underneath the v-berth or through the quarter berths to access the cockpit.

Sail Organization:

On the voyage I only intend to use a Main , Jib, Stormjib, and Genny. The boat has two mains, two gennies, a jib, stormjib, and a spinnaker. So to avoid confusion and streamline the task of changing sails, I thought I'd have a look at them. Out of the two main sails, only one of them is heavily reinforced and has reefing points, the other is a very light cruising main, both of them have the East Wind logo on them though, which surprised me. So of the two mains I'll be using the one I can reef, although both sails appeared to be in excellent condition. The genny I took out of the boat happened to be the one that wasn't reefable, but I have decided that I'll use that one first if the winds prove light during any part of the trip… The jib is in excellent condition, and so that'll be in the quick bag, and the storm jib also seems to be in great shape. So for the quick sail bag, I have the storm jib, working jib, and the genny. The cruising main will be kept on the boom, which I have a sail cover for.

Yesterday evening, I took the cover off the Honda 9.9 and inspected it inside the boat… as a novice with outboards I can only say that the oil was very, very clean on the dip stick like that in your car the day they service the motor, and it all seemed to be in tact. I'm not sure of what else I can check on it, and I didn't try and start it, and won't until it's on its mount.

Had dinner Saturday night at a nice little Indian restaurant located in a back alley off the waterfront in Portland … paid a little more for the request of Chicken Vindaloo, which wasn't on the menu.

I know this is a little erratic time-frame wise.. but that's more or less the frame of mind I'm in right now.. jumping forward to tomorrow, my boat may be launched!

Here are some links to pictures.. the captions are ABOVE each one.

Here's a new shot of the port bow with the new Nebraska registration number… also the danforth anchor hangs from the stern pulpet, and is also held against the nose plate with a commercial bungee cord.



Elvira cat up in the v-berth.



Lava and Elvira in the v-berth.\



The two Main sails.. the nicer crusing one on the left, the light one on the right.



The East Wind logo that appears on both mains.



The Storm Jib, left, and the working jib, right.



The unreefable genny.



Like I said, I also have another genny which stayed on the boat and that is reefable, and there is also a lovely blue spinnaker, but they're not pictured because as I said, I left them on board.