Portsmouth, preparing for the Channel Crossing

For days on end the sun desperately tried to shine through the low mist, quite warm but visibility shithouse! Spent some days sightseeing around foggy Portsmouth (enjoyed my first pint) while we addressed issues on the boat.

The filter on the fresh water pump kept leaking … had to wait until a new part was sent from France … and then there was the small fact that the sail doesn’t want to fit nicely into the furling boom … hmmm … well, not without it being a tight fit and requiring lots of tension on the furling line … not a good thing. Poor Liz has been dealing with the French side, and after a lot of conversation with no apparent action, Liz and Rod finally cracked the shits with the French … in the nicest possible way, of course.
Us: Mate … the sail won’t fit into the boom properly … we need a larger boom.
Them: Ah … ve shall see vot ve can do …
Us: Ummm … no mate … let me put it simply … the bloody great Grande Voile does not bloody fit into the bloody crappy boom you’ve fitted! It is … how do you say? … BLOODY UNSAFE!
So, we will bring the bloody thing back to you, and you VILL fix the bloody thing … COMPRENEZ!
Meanwhile … here in Portsmouth … foggy.

We’ve spent some time fitting new stuff to Minyga … had a couple of really nice guys come and fit the wind generator … did a really good job of it I thought … not that I’d know really … wind generators being somewhat out of my purview.
The leaking fresh water system was a problem, having to turn it on and off all the time … and of course, if left unattended, it had a tendency to fill the engine room bilge. Which would have been ok’ish if the bilge pump had not been clogged with a bloody great piece of Sikaflex which the French guys had left behind. And the bilge pump and float switch are situated BENEATH the hot water service in an inaccessible place. Hence the photo of Liz, inverted over the engine, trying to dismantle it.

On the plus side … Rod has purchased and installed his you-beaut amplifier and speaker system … so Minyga is now really the “Boat that Rocks”.