After a couple of recovery days, Alex and the crew of Rusalka were ready to tackle boat jobs and plan and provision for the next stage of the adventure…
…heading to the Auckland Islands group, 300nm south of Bluff, lying in the sub-antarctic region around 50oS. This has been the goal of journey, but always tempered by the knowledge that obstacles such as weather or bureaucracy could prevent the achievement of that goal.
The weather isn’t looking promising until at least Tuesday of next week, when there might be a two day window for them to make the passage. We’ll be keeping an eye on that. The bureaucracy is slowly being managed, with the completion of applications, forms, and risk management plans filed with DoC.
So on to boat jobs. One of the first jobs was cleaning out the huge cockpit locker. One of the diesel containers being stored there leaked a little during the passage (the breather hole lid had become loose) and so everything had to come out and be scrubbed clean.
The next job was to tighten tiller arm on the Hydrovane, which had worked itself loose. The trick here is not to drop any tools over the side! It was a successful 5 minute boat job.
The third job involved a trip up the mast. Alex noticed after they had arrived that the wind indicator at the top of the mast was bent. Not a critical piece of equipment, but he often looks at it to note wind direction. So rather than send one of his petite sized crew up, Alex decided he wanted to go up and check everything else while trying to fix the wind indicator.
Views from above:
He was able to do a temporary fix, but that bit of kit will have to be replaced. Lucy reports that “he was not heavy at all and returned to the deck in one piece.”
With a few days waiting ahead of them, the crew have done a little exploring of Bluff. Jane snapped this mural dedicated to Meri Leask, the volunteer radio operator who looks after the local fisherman and who has been a great help to Rusalka.
