Let The Adventure Begin!

So here we are at the end of 2019 and my planned departure date of 13 April 2020 looms ever closer! There still seems like a terrific amount to do but I’m sure that all will be well.

To be fair there are only three major projects left to complete:

  • New standing rigging
  • New sails
  • Holding tank

I took Moon Shadow across to Queen Anne Battery last Thursday to have All Spars replace the standing rigging. This was supposed to be a one day job but…

Taking down the headlining to gain access to the electrical connections that needed to be disconnected we were greeted by an unholy mess of corroded metal. It seems that water had got in over the years and the compression post top plate, which looks like it had been fabricated from mild steel (what the hell?!) was almost completely gone.

Corroded compression post

Of course, this will need to be replaced along with the similar plate at the foot of the post but this time I’ll have them made in stainless! Not only this but the plywood backing for the mast deck plate appears to be shot allowing the deck above to sag causing the deck plate to crack. Oh, joy! So my cost for the re-rig had suddenly increased by the best part of £1000. I guess the “boat” mnemonic (break out another thousand) is just about right. Ho Hum.

But looking on the positive side – it’s better to have found this now than have the deck plate fail out at sea and lose the mast!

The extra expense for the rigging has created a shortfall in the funds to buy the new sails (already on order from Crusader Sails) and either buy or make the holding tank. So I am selling my car. Of course, I was going to do this anyway before I set off so I’m just bringing that event forward a few months. I have a 2013 model Volkswagen Passat 2.0Tdi Bluemotion Sport (177bhp) so if you know of anyone that might be interested please let me know. I’m going to advertise it for £8K but if you mention this blog you can have it for £7500.

As for the holding tank, I have spoken to the very helpful people at Tek tanks but it looks like the space I have for the tank (in the wet locker) simply won’t accommodate a standard tank so I’d have to have one custom made. Of course, this will still be a bit of a compromise and even then won’t be as neat as it could be. Because of this, I’m erring on the side of making one myself. It shouldn’t be too difficult to produce a mock-up from cardboard which can then be reproduced in plywood to use as a male mould for a glass fibre tank. If anyone has any words of wisdom on the subject please pipe up!