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Thursday 21 April 2016

The preparation continues...

'Life begins at retirement' - Author Unknown
On the countdown to the last days of our working life, the myriad of jobs required to prepare Tientos seems to rise exponentially.
The gas guy came aboard and confirmed our system all good and fixed a little problem; I was having problems with stir fries and not enough heat. Apparently the regulator needed a little adjustment.  
The propeller was sent off for testing and returned all calibrated and shiny.
Propeller all balanced
All of the standing rigging, 3 stainless steel forestays, 2 backstays, 4 cap stays, 4 shrouds, was replaced. Nobles manufactured the galvanised rigging and Keith was a busy bee up and down the mast. The turnbuckles and shackles were also replaced.
Keith replacing rigging
Old and new
Whilst he was hanging around up there, he discovered the spreader lights were full of water; new sealed units replaced these and a new block for the main halyard was installed. 
Old spreader lights a little wet
No water coming in on these beauties
The porthole in the forward cabin was a fixed plastic job and needed to be replaced. After bashing it out, a nice new opening porthole is now in place.
The old fixed porthole
Looking messy
Like new
Can't tell the difference
I designed 'passports' for the catz and had them printed; they are now ready to leave the country after their Rabies shots which are scheduled for May. Because Timmy was Mum's rescue cat, we had to make up a birthday, so based on his 'years' calculated by the vet, we gave him Sinh and Bennett's birthday; cakes all on the same day!
Cat Passport (three of them)

The greatest news for our preparation is we will now have a water maker! Our friends Grant and Mary Forbes saw our wish list on the last blog and offered (at a fantastic price) the one they had purchased for their boat 'Endurance of the South'. They never used this as they went on to buy El Gato, a cat the size of a third world nation, which has its own water maker. Many thanks guys and look forward to seeing you up north!
More jobs still to do but hopefully leaving the Marina in the next week or two and haul out planned for the 6th June. Lea will be in Bali for the three weeks the yard nightmare occurs.
Congratulations to Geoff Birch from Miranda I who is taking over from Keith as Lockmaster.

May all your bars be wooden and well-stocked!