You probably have noticed that we have not posted about sailing for a while…  It is winter, very chilly on the water, and even on sunny weekends when we can be tempted to venture on board our catamaran, only a few short hours are at a bearable temperature! Our little chicken bones don’t like the cold and thus not much sailing is happening. But we are working on our long boat maintenance to-do list and making progress on the cat grooming front.

So here is an update. We now have a data aerial on top of the mast for improved communication – that was an experience!  Fitting a thick cable through a tube inside the mast tightly packed with other cables and wires was an exercise in fiddling and patience!  It took multiple attempts and we got accustomed to winching each other up that tall stick!  And let me tell you, being perched at the top of a 14 meter mast and working with tools up there takes a bit of getting used to! But it was worth the effort: we have gone from 2 ‘bars’ of internet service reception to 5, a clear improvement.

A less successful task was the change of impeller in the toilet, which was supposed to fix the high water level in the bowl. The painstaking and awkward process of disconnecting pipes and electrics, before being able to access the impeller and swap the old one for a brand spanking new one was just a waste of time!  Another long “jobby” and no improvement to show for it. Water level still high… Don’t make a wave!

One thing we are quite pleased about is our order of a successor to “Big Red”, our 106 m² symmetrical spinnaker. After much research on the pros and cons of different systems, we have decided to get Big Red copied.  We love it, the two of us can manage it without wanting to divorce each other, so in the end why not stick with what we know works?  So “Big O” is getting made by UK Sailmakers in Queensland.  It will be orange, white and blue to match our colour scheme. Thanks to yachty friends on Sengo for the name suggestion!  The diagram shows how it will look.

We are also getting our boom bag remade by the same sail makers in bright orange.  The existing one was originally orange, but had faded a lot and turned green – not with envy but with mould!

We have finalised our choice of laminate for the galley benches and bought the new cooktop.  The Eno 3 burner stove and black granite with blue flecks bench tops shown in the Annual Spruce Up post will be installed by our shipwright Tim. And the saloon floor is also getting a face lift: Off with the pitted cork tiles and on with a floating floor. Yeah! Our involvement with laying the new floor will be limited to ripping out the cork.  We are leaving it to our shipwright to cut and lay the new slats.

Wade would normally get quite involved with the maintenance tasks.  But with everything going on in our life at the moment, we are relying on Tim to coordinate the bulk of the work and it is all going to happen while we will be away in August.  Oh yes, we haven’t told you yet, we will be heading off to France to visit my Dad.  More on this in a later post. Hopefully when we come back, Take It Easy will be spruced up on the inside, leaving the outside to be tidied up during spring.

Another type of cat grooming!   =^..^=