Tuesday 5 June 2007

One more time, from the top



We had a very nice evening with Fran and Dave, the previous owners of Fettler. They introduced us formally to Nanette the wind vane, Sven the engine (a handsome old fellow) and the autopilots, Neville and Stan (the Force 6 man). We also found out, among a hundred useful things, that Fettler means “someone who prepares” and that she has pretty much been everywhere we’re planning to stop on the way to Edinburgh. Hopefully that will make navigation easier!
Even the last leg to Scotland will be a homecoming as Fettler spent her youth on the west coast, being an early member of the Clyde Cruising Club (sail number around 260, if I remember rightly).
Since then, we’ve been systematically rummaging through the lockers on board and sorting out little things, like mending the bag for the dinghy, repainting the markers on the anchor chain, installing Nanette and giving her wooden parts a lick of Fettler-green paint.
When we introduced our new anchor, the Rocna, into the clutch of Bruce anchors already aboard, it put us in mind of the old Monty Python sketch, the Philosophy Department of the University of Wolloomolloo (G’day Bruce! How are you, Bruce? Where’s Bruce? He’s not ‘ere, Bruce. You’re name’s not Bruce then? That’s going to cause some confusion… Mind if we call you Bruce to keep things clear?).
Yesterday, we’ve put up some of the halyards and, after having to had to cut the sliders to the right size with the Dremel, slotted our mast steps into position. Jim’s been up the mast a couple of times already – check out his aerial photography.
The hoist in the boat yard is still being fixed and we’re now being told that it will be ready to lift boats into the water by Wednesday, which would work out just fine for us.

1 comment:

Kristina said...

Looks like you are having a great time:) I guess by now you have the boat in its right element - water. Is it floating???