Bilges

 Two jobs this weekend. 

1. remove the water tank and check out flexible water storage options. This went well and after seeing what came out of the tank I am very glad I did it. There isn't as much space as I had hoped but I think I can get 30 litres in the space available.

I have taken the cabin sole home so that I can fit a hatch.

2. Bilge pump in the cabin. I have bitten the bullet and fitted the pump in the cabin on the port side. I forgot to take the skin fitting but it is 80% installed and I am happy with it so long as it doesn't leak!

Next job will be to service the engine and then clean the bilge thoroughly.

Gooseneck improvement

 The gooseneck arrangement attracted the attention of the makers of my new sails and rightly so. It was a lash up and not particularly strong. 

So I set about reinforcing it. Phase 1 was to add an eye bolt for the stag horns.

The next modification was to improve the tack attachment.

Still not happy, I decided to find a welder to add a support bracket for the top of the eye bolt. This proved harder than I had planned so I bought a welder and did it my self.

It wasn't so hard and I am hooked on welding now. 

The eye bolt is an M8 eye welded to a 3/8" UNC bolt and the gooseneck slide now has a third bracket. Very happy with the outcome and will hopefully try it in place on Louisa this weekend.

 Fits like a glove 👍😀

Route Planning

 So, I am not planning on going to the Azores, I might end up there though.

I am planning on attempting the Jester Challenge. The start date is 8th May from Plymouth and to make the start I'll need to leave HNYC around 24th April. If I make the start then my plans are to take the southern route thereby avoiding the fog and ice to the east of New Foundland and keep south of the Gulf Stream. The direct great circle route is around 2,800nm but my chosen route will be more like 3,300nm. It will be very weather dependent but my first way point will be 40N, 40W. 

Water (drinking)

Drinking water. I plan on 3 litres per day for all consumption and to use sea water for washing. For an 8 week passage that means 168 litres + a contingency of 20%, so 200 litres. That is a lot of 2 litre bottles! So I could use the boat tank but I am not sure of the 'health' of it. It is a bladder tank of unknown age, maintenance and volume. I mentioned this to a friend and they have been considering the same problem. Their approach is to remove the tank in the keel void on their Twister and fill the space with 1 litre tonic bottles of fresh water. If a bottle becomes unviable: leak or contamination, then they have only lost 1 litre. So cabin sole on Louisa up and bladder inspected and I have a plan. I will pump the tank out and put in a hull liner then fill the void with 5 litre flexible water bags. I will install a hatch in the sole and I am hoping to get about 50 to 100 litres in this space. A note of caution, a 5 litre flexible water bag becomes inflexible with 5 litres of water in it. With 4 litres it remains flexible and can conform to the available space. In addition I have a 30 litre canister for collecting rain water and about 70 litres of bottled water in other stowage.  

To improve water efficiency when cooking I have found the optimum pasta to water ratio by volume to be 2:1 pasta to water. After approximately 2/3 of the cooking time I add the sauce. I am working on this for rice. A tip I was given was to use a silicone spatula as this can be used to wipe any pot or pan virtually clean thereby optimising energy and water consumption and reducing washing up. I have also worked out that adding 10% sea water to water for cooking removes the need to add salt. This ratio is also suitable for rehydration but needs to be used with care. I anticipate that any rain water recovered from sail run off will be contaminated by sea salt but I will try and keep this to a minimum.

I like drinking black tea but tea is a mild diuretic and boiling water uses meths and evaporation increases. So I'll try and limit myself to 2 mugs a day. I also like hot chocolate but I'll save that for motivational purposes.

Keeping track of consumption will need to be a routine task.

 

Catastrophization

Catastrophizing is when someone assumes that the worst will happen. Often, it involves believing that you're in a worse situation than you really are or exaggerating the difficulties you face.

I am at that stage where I am trying to work out what might go wrong and how I would deal with it. This is causing me sleepless nights and unstructured worrying thoughts.

An example of this is the rigging. What is a stay breaks, or worse the mast comes down. It can happen and several boats in the GGR suffered this fate but they pitchpoled in the southern ocean. So risk assessment time. 

1. stay failure: possible but not too serious if caught early. Controls, reduce load on rig and reduce risk by heaving too in storm force winds, check rig regularly and run with inner fore stay rigged. Recovery, repair with onboard parts.

2. mast failure: this is unlikely and if it did happen it wouldn't be fatal unless part of the rig punctured the cabin and hit me or trapped me in the cabin. Controls, as above. Recovery, rig spinnaker pole with storm jib and make for port of refuge.

Whether it will help me sleep better or not I don't know but I intend to formalise this process by working through a range of scenarios.

A short cruise and preparations continue

 A fabulous drift / sail down the river Medway in company with the Deeper Waters group. First go with the cruising chute for my crew and it largely worked. I still need to sort out the tack. For a brief moment we were in the lead, but it wasn't a race!

Work continues on preparations. Forepeak grating dry fit is good so glue up and install next.

Radar reflector was mounted on the mast, it is sort of straight.

Looking good in the afternoon sun, we are still in the first half of January! Loads of other smaller jobs including first fit of modified staysail, midships cleat (need longer bolts and backing blocks), spare windvane oar fits and lifting block attached. Cold but happy.