Almost there

... if 'there' is defined as 'not here'. Which is probably an unnecessarily complicated way of saying 'nearly ready to go'.

Today I retrieved the head-sail from the sailmaker. All repaired and strengthened at the main attachment points. Also had the 'rigger' back to replace some stuff at the mast-head and run a couple of new halyards. My productive contribution was to scrape the old home port information off the stern. So Hellcat no longer boasts of being from "Channel Islands California". I'll get a quote from the local boat-signage people to put "Melbourne" on there, as I suspect it will be cheaper to get it done here than at home.

The last lot of work is for the marine electrician to do a heap of installations. (Autopilot, windlass, separate cranking battery, solar panel.) Can't really finish that until the solar panel arrives next week though. I found a 100 watt panel for about A$250 and ordered (and paid) for it, as it was far and away the cheapest I had seen for that output. Next day, sure enough, I saw the identical panel on eBay for less than $200. Oh well. No point losing sleep over it. At 100 watts it should provide enough to replace all our battery drain, on all but the cloudiest days. I do have to figure where on the boat I'm going to mount the thing though, as it's bigger than what I had intended to get, and wont fit in the old spot. That could take some thinking about.

Off to bed. It's late. But at least I got a new post done in less than a week. Pretty impressive, huh?