June - July 2017 (RCYC Cape Town)

Well we didn’t have long to bask in the glory of our awesome holiday – the work just never stops!!

Main Sail

Our MaXScene is finally starting to resemble the grand lady we have envisaged since buying her in 2010.  

To compliment her beautiful new black mast and boom she is now the proud bearer of a new main sail, a new genoa (although this was a tad tricky, the first new genoa that was delivered was far too big and the UV protection strip was on the wrong side. 

Genoa

Genoa

 After much discussion, negotiating and a little hard headedness, the manufacturers finally agreed to replace the wrong sail with one of standard size for Island Spirit Catamarans and with the trim on the correct side).  

To complement this outfit we have a complete new set of lines (ropes in marine talk) but will only be putting these in place once we have moved from the harbour, which has proven to be really dirty and which has clogged our lines up with a fine dust that makes them dreadfully hard to use.

Spinnaker from back

Spinnaker from front

Perhaps most beautiful of all is the new addition to the all white spinnaker that we purchased in Durban in 2014, it now carries the eye-catching silhouette which is part of our yachts name and which represents our gorgeous old cat Maxine.

All this lovely new slate trim on the sail pack and UV strip made us take a good look at the colour scheme of our yacht and the decision is unanimous, we are going to replace the blue canvas outside décor that we currently have with black/slate all round.  The cockpit surrounds (sides similar to those of a tent which roll up and down to provide shelter from rain, wind and sun, or roll away completely) will now be made in slate too, production has begun and we are hoping will be complete as close to the end of August as possible.  This change will require a re-production of covers for cushions, life raft, winches, helm seat, etc so soon the smoke will be puffing out of the sewing machine, can’t wait. 

  

Shelves for cupboards

Quality control by Odwa

The final cache of eyebrows

Alfred got to branch out from his normal gel coat repairs to a mini-production line of eyebrows, shelves and a new table top.  Fortunately one of the yacht owners here had the original moulds for the eyebrows and cockpit table for the Island Spirit Catamarans.  We borrowed them and Alfred produced two sets of 10 eyebrows, one for our yacht and one for Des and Jenny’s yacht, Sungazer.  

Cockpit table under construction

Legs attached to table

Eyebrows are a little roof which sits over the port lights (windows), giving shade and protection from rain, allowing them to be left open in most rainy situations without soaking the cabins.

He also had a mould for the cockpit table so we finally have a nice solid table sitting on the two solid steel legs we acquired from Eco Promise. 

Sika is a MUST on a boat

We have finally replaced the leaky old hatch in our galley with a nice new, bigger hatch which offers more light and air and most importantly doesn’t weep when it rains.

The new hatch installed

Kevin installed the second water level indicator and now finally the guess work has been taken out of how much water we have in the water tanks, yahoo!!!

We were getting cabin fever, it was time to take this lot out on the water and shake it up a bit to see how it all (and us) would fare.  On 10 June we took part in the RCYC Portuguese Day rally.  It was a very wet, windy and rather miserable day for sailing but weather is the one thing we cannot control so we put our, well my and Graeme’s, foul weather gear to the test. 

 Round Robben Island in the soaking rain we came stone last but we had a heap of fun, my foul weather jacket and Graeme’s foul weather pants stood up to the majority of the abuse hurled at it, but we really did have the most extreme of situations, we had a shade net roof over the cockpit that leaked water continuously, whilst also collecting water in pockets and dumping them unceremoniously on which ever of us was standing under them.  At the same time we still don’t have a spray dodger yet so the water was streaming off the boom in a fountain into the cockpit, we were properly soaked.  Poor Kevin, who was only in tracksuit pants, takkies and a semi-waterproof jacket really suffered.

The new sail and rigging, however, performed beautifully and we got back just in time for good red wine and Portugese fare, a really interesting day.

Installing new eyebrows

Team work and concentration

Our new hard top bimini (cockpit roof) was late (no surprise).  It was promised to be ready when we got back from Europe, then every couple of days there was yet one excuse after the other.  Finally Fathers Day was the scheduled day and in great excitement Graeme arrived to, amongst one to two other things, help install said very large roof.  Sadly fathers day came and went and the roof didn’t, a serious case of miserable syndrome descended on our yacht and in an effort to lighten the mood we took Alfred and his boys for a quick harbour cruise, they were in awe, especially of the seals in the water.  

Unfortunately this still didn’t make things a whole lot better, some days are just crappy.

My bead animals above the new hatch

Graeme was hugely instrumental in the remounting of my bead animal collection in the galley, I love it.

Arrival at RCYC

Then it was a count down to time to fly.  The morning of Graeme’s departure back to Johannesburg the roof arrived at last.  

Many hands make light work

Up and over?

No refinement in the delivery of our roof, it was held in place on a trailer on the back of a truck with water drums and rubbish.

Lift it with the crane

In place at last

  At first they tried to carry it to the yacht but there wasn’t enough space so next it was picked up by the crane

 (and didn’t crack, as feared) and was plonked in place and secured with ropes, followed by a dash to the airport with Graeme.  

Tie it down don't want to loose it now

Beautiful with its new bimini

Then the wind blew for two days, so only the day before our departure did we manage to get bolts through and secure it down.

A picture of elation

Japanese beer is not bad

Then we also left, Kevin was once more going to Japan for 4 weeks, this time to Yokohama and I to my mom in Durban for two weeks.  

Nasty little static balls

A little mess before the vacuum

Upon my return I got creative and bought some waterproof material for curtains in the bathrooms only it was not the right colour, but rather than waste the material I decided to turn it into cushions for lying on the trampoline. 

 I made the covers, got the material for the inners and finally tracked down a supplier of the little polystyrene balls for the stuffing, only the smallest bag I could get was 2.6kg and I only needed barely ¼ of it.  

New curtain

Resultant - cushions

First attempt at stuffing was not a success I am afraid, I managed to fill the inner without making too much mess with the horrid little, exceptionally static white balls.  Then I sewed the inner together only to find it was too full and the balls are not as forgiving as foam so there was no way it was going into the cover I had made.  Next out came the vacuum cleaner to get rid of the mess only I plugged the hose into the outlet instead of the inlet and the next thing there was a little snow storm in the passage.  Needless to say it took a week to pluck up the courage to do it again, but eventually we have 6 cushions.

Lunch @ Delaire

A very welcome surprise saw a brief stop in Cape Town by Chrissy and Alan, on their way back to Walvis Bay after an action packed visit to the UK.  It was such fun to catch up with them before they headed off to St Helena on 18 July, so exciting that they are on their way.

Removing old door frame

New frame and door

To end the month on a high note, we found a company who, for a very reasonable price, manufactured, delivered and installed a new door frame and solid and sliding door (and they removed the old one).  

Beautiful again

Our view is no longer obstructed by delaminating glass and another leak sees its end!!

So we await the cockpit sides and Kevin has another trip scheduled to Japan before we can plan the moving of our home, yes, we are off again…