First Spring sail on Take It Easy – it’s good to be back, even if it is chilly.

There is nothing like a brisk spring sail to blow the winter cobwebs off.  We are back on board Take It Easy after a three months’ absence over winter.  It is still cool, but spring is here, full of promise.  The air is clear, the light still soft, nature awakens, birds and their chicks are about, in particular the Black Swans and their fluffy cygnets.  We even found a Welcome Swallow’s nest in one of the engine boxes!

Holding tank in place, no more bladder… It is now all plumbed in, tested and operational!

Spring is also time to start our maintenance schedule on Take It Easy.  Wade has tackled a shitty job: there is no better motivation than a suspect aroma emanating from the loo and the fear of a hole in the old poo bag, to galvanise you into action!  He has replaced the offending black water “bladder” with a proper holding tank… much better!  Other more palatable but still fiddly jobs included the fitting of an internet aerial to give us better reception  particularly for weather forecasts,  and an aerial for our new AIS system.  For the non-yachties, this is an “Automatic Identification System” that transmits our position, direction and speed together with our boat’s name to any other vessel equipped with AIS, such as commercial ships.  We now won’t need to yell out on the radio “big ship, big ship, can you see us, don’t hit us” when crossing the shipping lanes – far more professional and safer.

Whilst Wade was threading the wires and wiggling in impossibly tight spaces, I was de-moulding the entire boat.  Lots of groaning and moaning could be heard from the two of us…  And then there was the engine lift ropes that were chafing and needed replacing, and countless other little jobs.  As usual it all takes much longer than you anticipate.

Although we spent our 3 day weekend working on the boat, we still had time for a sail or two, and of course plenty of photo opportunities.  We even organised ourselves to get pictures of Take It Easy under sail: I set up the tripod and camera on the Sperm Whale Head Jetty and Wade did a “sail by”  single-handed. We are a wee bit biased, but it really is a good looking boat!

Here are a few images of this first spring boating escape for the season.

Tied up at Sperm Whale Jetty

Bengie very lady like, looking terribly stressed

” Pesky little birds” says Bengie, “Little poop machines” says Wade, they are pretty cute on our mooring line though!

An unexpected find which we had to remove!

Don’t leave me behind!

Sailing under main and genoa