Mending and clearing

Took the "new" mainsail to Brightlingsea today to get the damage repaired. They were very busy in James Lawrence, and did not get the sail out to have a look, but the white patches are obvious. They will replace them with matching and properly fixed patches. There is no deadline on when this will happen, since they are, as usual, extremely busy, but I did say we wanted it back before Easter.

I talked to Mark about the gaff saddle, and he wondered if maybe the mast tapers too much, so that the saddle does not fit snugly enough by the time it gets up to where it slides round. That could mean replacing the mast is one way of getting round the problem... Seems very drastic!

I then headed to Mersea to take the fore sails off Robinetta, together with the seat cushions, bed infill,sleeping bags..... It was another cold day, 2C, and when I took the floorboards up to check the bilges the water in them was an icy slush. I mopped them out as best I could, since the water in the electric bilge pump tube was too solid to flow. Hopefully the tube is okay!

Today's refurbishment task was to finish dismantling the galley, which I did. The available space looks impressive without the cooker in the way, but I like our cooking capability too much to want to go for something without an oven. It's going to take a lot of thinking to make the most of the space.