I now had a rather lengthy list of
items to attend to before Honey and I could start on our North Island
trip. The main items were to sort the genoa, the autohelm, mount the
wind direction vane and the solar panel, but there were still many
other items to sort – some breakages from the trip up from
Lyttelton, and others that I had made the decision to delay until I
was in the Sounds. Hopai Sports Day, a fun day out for many families
in the Sounds, was on 7th January and I hoped I would be
ready to leave soon after this date or at least within the week
following.
Tim arrived in the Sounds on New Year's
Eve and with Dad and Tim assisting I worked through some of the to do
list. By the time Hopai Sports rolled around I had the spare genoa on
the furler, and Tim had lent me his working gib from Treasure. The
spare genoa is the original, dating back to when Honey was first
built – it even has a South African sail number. It has a lower
foot than the genoa that blew out, meaning I have no or very little
view under the sail. Dad and I had also installed the solar panel –
my wind turbine no longer worked and I had opted to install a larger
solar panel in place of the smaller one instead of a replacement wind
turbine.
With Hopai Sports passed, and the time
I planned to leave fast approaching, I still had a heap to do so it
was time to step it up a notch. The wind was not being kind – with
several strong northerly winds bringing a large chop into the bay,
making work on the boat difficult. One calm morning, Tim, Dad and Sam
winched me up to the top of the mast to tap and screw in the wind
direction vane.
Then I turned my head to the autohelm.
The ST1000 had stopped working again and there appeared to be no
power getting to the main autohelm controller. After identifying that
power to the units was not a problem, we pulled both apart. Sea water
had got into both units, corrosion to the main controller rendering
it beyond repair (that would explain the beeping as I motored into
Kenepuru Sound – I guess salt water was frying the unit). After
considering options, Dad located an identical second hand controller
on Trademe which I bought. While I waited for it to arrive, Tim and I
cleaned up the ST1000 as best we could, took it for a test run, and
it worked again. Great, this will make a good back up!
By the time the replacement main
autohelm controller had arrived, I had worked through almost all the
other items on my list – engine checked over with impeller and
diesel filters changed, broken sail slides replaced, replacement
bulkhead compass installed, hanks for stay sail freed up, bimini
fixed, and the list goes on. I receievd and installed the main
autohelm controller and it powered up, great! Now to test it... but
the drive wouldn't work. After some nervous moments, we found the
drive was working and although all connections looked fine Dad and I
replaced them and after a test run I concluded that I finally had a
working autohelm. Now I felt Honey was ready to go, what a relief!
It is true what they say that the
preparation for sailing takes as long as if not longer than the
actual trip. That has certainly been true for me and Honey, despite
having already completed a circumnavigation of the South Island with
her. It was now Wednesday 18th January and I had hoped to
be on my way several days earlier. Tim had returned to Lyttelton and
I was itching to get underway.
A quick trip to Blenheim to complete
the final provisioning, and an overnight stay with Mum (my last night
on terre firme for a while I hope) and I returned to Kenepuru to stow
the boat, with the aim of getting away late in the afternoon after
the weather bomb had passed.
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