Wednesday 2nd July
Up with the lark, breakfast aboard and a plan of action agreed. Stewy starts on the bow scrubbing the teak decks, Ian starts in the cockpit and Annie does the spray-hood. Phil soon arrives and goes up the mast to check the rigging. It’s a good job he does - while he’s up there he discovers that the spinnaker halyard roller is hanging by a thread – if this went it would have meant a fairly lengthy repair. He replaces and fixes it and adjusts the tension on the shrouds. It’s a beautiful morning and once we get Amy McDonald blasting out the sound system we’re grafting away merrily. As soon as Phil’s finished with the rigging, he very kindly joins the cleaners and we’re all scrubbing, bleaching and hosing until lunchtime when the work is complete. It’s very satisfying as the boat is now sparkling – what a difference! We go and treat ourselves to a relaxing lunch then back to the boat where Phil and Ian finalise the sail order for the new boat and we do some admin and emailing to agents in Sydney regarding storing and selling Jus’do it 3. While this is happening Stewy goes down the lazarette for a general inspection and to try and fix the cockpit VHF – a good job he does! - he discovers the bearing on the ram of the auto-helm is worn out and needs replaced. By good luck we have a spare and with Phil’s help the repair is completed successfully. It’s been a productive day; we’ve managed to prevent a couple of potential setbacks and the boat is looking great. Andrew calls round for some feedback on what we think of the Arc so far – it’s all positive. Annie mentions her idea for a book “Love on the Arc” and Andrew invites her to write an article (non- libellous!) for the Arc Newsletter. Unfortunately the deadline is very soon, so we’ll see………Once that’s done we decide to reward ourselves with some gin and tonics. Of course this is when the rest of the day starts to unravel; Ann calls round and is hijacked to join us, then Fay, Terry, James, Norfy, Will…….a full session develops and continues until 6pm when we’re due at the Arc welcome drink along the pontoon. As everyone is by now on high dodgem, a plan starts to be hatched to discover whether or not a certain individual wears anything under his plaid kilts…. From there on in the night descends into much rowdiness………singing rugby songs, dancing on the tables ……pretty much the usual…..