Final preparations

Today was a day for getting things done!

John replaced the engine battery isolator switch and hopes that the loose connection on a small wire (of unknown purpose!) was the cause of our engine starting problems. It seems to start OK now, but time will tell if the fault has been cured.

The new gas detector solved the problem of no gas and the cooker not working.

We fixed the boom! Might sound easy, but there was a clip for the main sheet missing which had, we hoped, gone inside the boom. We took off the sail, shook the boom up and down and round about and thought we could hear a likely clanging inside. Peering inside the small holes didn't help, but we found some rollers that the reefing sheets ran round at the end of the boom which we could dismantle and allow us to see and touch the metal ring we were trying to put back into its hole further up the boom. John tied a weight on to a piece of string, dropped it into the hole and we managed to extract it at the end of the boom and tie it round the metal ring that was still inside the boom. We could then pull the metal ring to its correct position and, with a bit of juggling round a reefing sheet inside the boom, got it into the correct position. J tied it to another clip to prevent it falling back into the boom another time. All we needed to do then was refit the main sail. All good practice and very satisfying to be able to attach the main sheet correctly!

Later in the day, with a complicated piece of car logistics, Alison and I took our car to Ardnamurchan - catching the last crossing back on the Corran ferry, while John and Roger sailed their boat to Dunstaffnage.

All now ready to catch the morning tide and set sail to our summer mooring.

The photo is of one of the ominous dark clouds that dropped rain on us during the day. I like the effect on the water.