2013: Year 6 - Work in Lagos

Sopromar Boatyard:

Time to get our hands dirty again!

Bow Thruster.  I’ve just lashed out and had a new one fitted in the bow – I would have liked to have both a bow and stern thruster but the boat doesn’t have enough room in the stern – too much other stuff.  I’ve been sort of avoiding fitting a bow thruster, almost as a matter of pride (plus they’re not cheap) and, after I’ve bumped my way around a marina, I could always say “well, I don’t have a bow thruster like you people.”  I’ve also seen a number of times skippers playing with their bow thrusters, and at the same time getting into difficulties, when they should just be motoring forward into their berth.  However, just about everyone I’ve met that has a bow thruster seems to swear by them.  So, providing mine works okey I’ll not have any more excuses when manoeuvring in and out of marinas.  Its been professionally fitted at Sopromar Boatyard.  No fuss!

We arrived to a new bow thruster (WJ3's now sprouting nostrils)

Spinnaker Furler.  We have a cruising chute which hasn’t been getting enough use because it’s contained in a sock (which is good) but requires a bit of work to set and take down.  We can both envision me getting wrapped up in a chute, going overboard and Galley Slave left to sort everything out, return to pick me up and us both being terribly traumatized by the whole event.  Much better to do everything from the cockpit, just like we (almost) do now.  So, I’m presently trying to purchase a spinnaker furler, which is not as easy as it sounds.  Anti-torsion lines are a real problem to obtain apparently and so I’ve been trying to make this purchase for a couple of months now.   I’ll report on how things turn out later on.

Even Bruce got some attention this year!

And we had time for some local siteseeing

Before Launch Day arrived
(& our mission this year - to cross to Turkey)