Repair Day in Coffs Harbour

22/11/11

The sailmaker / rigger arrived at the boat at 8.30am, with two new battens for the mainsail. He had fabricated the longest batten, the bottom on on the main, out of flat batten material, not the round glass reinforced rod which came out, so hopefully, it will last better. The only batten that survived the storm was a similar one I installed at Airlie Beach last year.

The wind was already pushing the 20 knot mark, after howling all night. We managed to get the two battens in place without too much trouble, and then it was onto fitting the new backstay block. Pierre, the sailmaker, was blowing around in the breeze in the bosuns chairs, but managed to get it fitted after judicious use of PVC tape to tape the loose backstay wires  to the stays to stop them flying around and keep everything steady as he worked.

Those jobs were out of the way in about an hour and he was on his way. Carole and I then decided to fix up the no. 2 reefing system. I had fitted the new block on the sail, and had been up to the chandlery to buy 34 m of 12mm double braid to replace the damaged line. We managed to feed it through the boom, blocks and back to the cockpit through the below deck channel, without too much difficulty. So after about 45 mins it was operational again.

Damaged Blocks (I had to attack the reefing block with a hacksaw to release the line)

Next was getting the boom bag secured back in the track on top of the boom. With the aid of the continued strong winds it was now about 50% out of the track, from the mast, halfway back to the stern. We had to "lift" the sail up out of the bag so we could slide the bag out from underneath it. Putting the main up would have been the easiest way, but in 25 knot winds, was not even a consideration. So we wrapped a rope around the main like tying up a meat roast, and hooked the main halyard onto the centreline and lifted the sail with a winch , enough so we could slide the bag out. All went well , we reseated the bag, untied the main and everything is back to normal.

In the meantime, another Hanse (a 371 named Selene from Sydney) had arrived at a berth opposite us and gave the marina pontoon a good nudge on the way in, in what was pretty much uncontrollable conditions. They did well to get in first go. A motor boat a little later on (with a bow thruster) had 3 attempts before success).

Selene with dinghy attached to the transom

The only other loose end now is the autopilot. I have talked again with Navico, located where the fluxgate compass is located, and have been told if I remove it from its mount, I may be able to calibrate it by slowly rotating it by hand through 360 degrees, imitating the boat going in a circle. Access is difficult and i have had enough for today, so will have a go at it tomorrow, if we are still in Coffs.

We went for walk this afternoon and saw the marine Rescue team, rescuing a green sea turtle, that had become jammed in the rocks on the marina seawall. All ended well and it swam away furiously, then returned, surfaced and looked up, almost as if to show thanks, and then turned around and headed out into deeper water.

Video of Turtle Rescue

Whilst the forecast for tomorrow looks suspect, we filled the water tank, and generally got things ready in case we decided to go in the morning.

We went to the yacht club for dinner, watched TV for a while, had a last look at tomorrows forecast, and went to bed, planning to get up at 5 am to see the updated forecast.