More Maintenance & Rig Problems

28th October 2006

Fliss ...................

Just to let you know were still in Gran Canaria.

Pete went up the mast yesterday to put on the baggywrinkles (actually plastic piping on the shrouds) to stop chaffing on the downwind sailing & as I hoisted him up a rivet fell to the deck. On inspection, the Jumper-stay plate is badly buckeld and the rivets are freely popping out. So we need a rigger to come out.

We cannot work-out what has caused this!

The chap recomended is sick so we have to call him back on Monday. Why do you find out these things late on a Friday?

We wouldn't leave anyway as there is no wind and what little there is is a south-westerley (BANG ON THE NOSE) plus the sea condiition is reported to be rough....

Some young kids told us that Gran Canaria is meant to be an unlucky place a bit like the Eagles song "Hotel Califorinia" "you can check in but you can never leave".... were hoping that the rigging gets sorted asap and the winds change so we can be on our way.

It's nice here but very remote & I would relish a change of scenery.

Pete..................

The week has been full-on maintenance. Most of this has been with varnishing the cockpit since, it takes longer to apply the masking tape and remove it all again than it does to actually do the varnishing itself. After 5 coats, I have run out of masking tape so that will have to do until I can find a Ferretaria (Hardware Shop).

As well as this, I have been picking-out the black gunk that seals the teak cockpit floor since there are signs of leaks. Each one takes over an hour to tease-out and then clean and sand in the groove. This is now done and new gunk has been applied. This was a delicate job since the black gunk is like bitumen - get a tiny spot on anywhere and it spreads to cover everything.

The final job was to put anti-chafe on the shrouds and spreaders to stop the mainsail rubbing itself to death on the downwind legs. A usual rig-check and lubricate would then follow. As Fliss has mentioned, we found our problem with the Port-side jumper-stay spreader so we are going to be here longer than expected.

Time then for more jobs! Hmmmm - next most important.....! Paint the outboard motor, strip and paint the thingy that holds it to the rubber dinghy, Varnish the entrance to the companian-way, create copies of passports & ships papers for Cap Verdes officials, fix the catch on the wet-locker door, Haircuts, Henna Fliss' hair..................

Fliss.....

I finally plucked up the courage to get my haircut and the girl next door in the dive-boat suggested a salon in the next apartments to Yumbo.

Pete came with me as he seems to communicate better than me in pidgeon Spanish.

Anyway the salon was a one-man band set in dingy apartments and I had second thoughts about the venue. The hairdresser who, I believe must have been a male before, looked at the picture I had and said "no problem".

The end result was superb and my hair is now back to how I like it (standard bob) I'm really thrilled at the end result.

After that we popped into the shopping centre and bought my favourite face oil, the shop assistant took a bit of a shine to me & gave 200 Euros worth of free testers of expensive face creams. He said that Pete had a double and a guy working downstairs looked just like him, Pete didn't want to check him out as "downstairs" is the gay & transvestite area.