After fluxgate last weekend (page down for the previous update) Skipper Nigel still found some small spaces to work in this weekend, replacing a battery, the fuel filter and the impeller! All of which involved contorting himself into various positions to get access to do the jobs.
A check of the batteries revealed the need to get right under the sink – funnily enough below the new fluxgate compass…..to replace one of the 3 batteries. We had two replaced when we were in Majorca a couple of years ago now, but one was over 3 years old and a check of it (after it had been removed!) revealed it was a good decision to make the change.
It wasn’t quite as hot as last weekend thank goodness and we got through all the jobs, we also started to load up ready for our trip – hopefully we set sail early next week. This meant that the fenders needed to be re-adjusted because Gemini J is now sitting lower in the water thanks to our provisioning (mainly water, water and more water with the odd bottle of branston pickle and brown sauce) We also took off all our fuel canisters ready to re-fill before the trip.
For the technically minded amongst you, you will notice that there is a slight issue with the impeller shaft, the old one is stuck on! We went to various places to try to get hold of a tool to remove it without success. This was mainly because we were trying to achieve something on the very last weekend in August and pretty much all small businesses were closed. We had to admit defeat and we will start again on Monday. This will be the last job to get finished before we can set sail on another trip. The weather is actually very unsettled this weekend so we wouldn’t have been setting sail anyway. The barometer is ready 1006 which is the lowest we have seen on our new digital weather station.
On Friday we had a small motor boat moor up next to us in the marina, they had to take shelter, they weren’t really planning on an overnight stay but the swell was too much for their little boat Alfie. They were hoping to head back to the shelter of the mar menor on Saturday but they set out and came straight back, conditions weren’t right. Let’s see if they are still there when we return on Monday or Tuesday – it still looks quite stormy to us!
In amongst this I went off on a couple of nice morning walks around Cartagena, but the weather really wasn’t good for sailing with 2m plus waves. Let’s hope it improves next week.
The Adventures of Gemini J 