After our time away in New Zealand, we returned to Antipole on 14th March to start preparing her for the new season. There has been quite a lot of work to do, mostly planned further development.
We have finally got the life raft mounted more satisfactorily and in a way that leaves better access to the stern deck.
We have fitted a feathering propellor, made locally in Wareham, which gives better control when maneuvering, and which feathers when sailing. The reduced drag should give us an extra knot in lightish winds.
We have also fitted a Rope Stripper on the prop shaft – a kind of mincer to deal with any ropes that get caught around the prop. We had one on Santana and it was a boon. You can see the cutter blades in front of the propellor.
We now have anodes on the centre plate, a water filter for drinking and cooking water, the proper deck fitting for pumping out the holding tank and our registration number on the stern. Then, of course, there was the routine servicing and maintenance.
We were finally launched on April 2nd, and after a day rigging sails, etc., we had a test sail on 4th April – Tony’s birthday. The weather was fair and sunny, if rather windless and chilly. We made it to Shipstall Point, where we anchored for a lazy birthday lunch, followed by some serious relaxing in the afternoon sun until tea time, which was welcome aftre the hard work of the last couple of weeks. Then we had a delightful if gentle sail back to the mooring before heading up river by dinghy for an evening meal in the Duke of Wellington.
We are back home now getting more equipment ready for fitting in late April and May before we head off cruising. We have added a new page Cruise Plans accessible through a tab above, in which we will outline our cruising intentions.
That’s it for now… Tony & Ynskje