A Tale of Two Chemists: Penultimate Blog Post

Penultimate Blog Post

Sunday 2^nd and Monday 3^rdJune, 2024

After coffee on Sunday, we set to work. Taking advantage of the lighter morning winds, we unfurled the genoa and dropped it to the deck. That portion went reasonably well, with only the last few feet binding up it the foil. Once the sail was on deck, things got more interesting. Our genoa is a pretty large sail and the foredeck area is not huge. Somehow we managed to wrangle the sail into some kind of folds and then rolled it up. The result didn’t exactly fit in the sail bag. We had to find a large plastic bag to cover the end sticking out of the bag! The plan was to flake it properly once we were on the dock.

As a reward, we went to Le Phare Bleu resort/marina for lunch. The resort is located in a lovely spot with attractively landscaped grounds. The restaurant was open air with a large covered patio. We sat at table by the water. Shade and breeze—wonderful. After lunch we wanted to walk around the resort but the combination of sun and humidity was too overwhelming. We took a dinghy ride over to Clarkes Court to scope out the dock situation. As we set out back to Cotinga, we could see some dark clouds approaching. The heavens opened before we reached the big boat. By the time we were back aboard, we were totally soaked and the rain had stopped. Dry clothes were required.

Today there were more jobs to be accomplished. First up was to run fresh water through the outboard. To do this Mike removed the “dolphins” so the bottom of the engine (especially the water inlet) could fit into a bucket. The engine was started and allowed to run until it ran out of the fuel in the carburetor. Then came the tricky job of getting the outboard off the rail and below for storage. We took down the bimini and the dodger and brought the genaker below. The aft cabin has taken on the aspect of a storage locker.

In the early afternoon, it was time to motor over to Clarkes Court. As we had some 200ft of scope out, getting the anchor up turned into a bigger than usual project. Somehow, while bringing up the last bit of chain, I stepped on the wrong button for the windlass. A large quantity of chain was spewed onto the deck. When I tried to bring in that excess, the chain kinked and jammed the windlass. Mike went forward while I took over steering. There was a lot of cursing and racing back and forth for additional tools. I felt mortified. I have successfully hoisted the anchor dozens of times on this trip. Why did I have to mess up so completely on nearly the last day? Perhaps it was Murphy’s Law at work. *

The docking went super smoothly. The dock master came to help us with lines. We were soon congratulating ourselves. We scurried off the boat to take our washing to the laundry. We walked around the marina and got hold of the shower codes. All too soon, though, we had to tackle the mainsail. We managed to disconnect all the attachments and reefing lines. By tying the sail up in a bundle, we were able to get it off the boat onto the finger pier. The flaking of the sail was troublesome. The trade winds were not doing us any favors. Eventually, we managed to get the sail into the bag and below. Then the genoa had to come off and be folded properly. Luckily we got this completed before the squall blew in.

I had a quick peak at the “better living” spreadsheet. There’s plenty left to do over the next couple of days. We’ll face that tomorrow.

Gloria

* It was pretty bouncy up on the bow when Gloria was pulling in the anchor and it's easy to imagine how one might accidentally step on the deck button. It wasn’t too hard to free the anchor chain from the windlass. I just needed to use the windlass winch handle to loosen the top plate holding the “gypsy” down (that’s the drum with grove for the chain links) and the chain came free. It was quite satisfying to learn something new, just a bit stressful with the anchor hanging off the bow and a docking imminent!

Mike