Nearly ready to go

Julian and I got back to Robinetta on Friday afternoon after a slightly fraught bus journey. The Glasgow-Inverness bus got in 25 minutes late, which was a minute after our connection to Ullapool was supposed to leave. We rushed across the bus station and found our next bus still standing. “You’re lucky we were late,” was the bus driver’s response as she let us on, but as she was also happy to wait for everyone else to change busses as well.

We had tickets for a concert in the Ceilidh Place, so after eating pizza on board we went out again and had a very enjoyable evening listening to The Ape House, a 3 piece traditional music group.

We had visited Gael Force Marine on the way home, and bought a few bits and pieces we needed. Julian’s first job of the morning was joining two pieces of piping in the bilge pump run. They had been joined by a garden hose connector last year, but this had got broken over the winter, and we did not want this to happen again, so splashed out on a stainless steel one. Not cheap, but hopefully a permanent solution.

His next task was fettled the Wykeham Martin gear (see his own post) while I tidied up the wiring for the new cabin lights he fitted on our last trip.

 

After that we turned Robinetta round in the berth so our hose would reach the tap, and refilled the water tanks. We have not disinfected them this year, so our drinking water will come from a bottle rather than the tanks, but we are happy to use tank water for washing up and cups of tea, so we should not run out.

 

In the afternoon we tied on the mast hoops on the main sail, and tightened up the boom and gaff outhauls, as well as checking all the halyards, and the Wykeham Martin gear were working properly.

We might be heading off sailing tomorrow, which would be lovely,