Getting ready to go

So the big news is that I have been out in Empuriabrava for the last few days getting Valent ready to go. Quite a lot of items have been fixed, including a few unexpected ones. The most worrying of those was the flooding in the frd heads area.

This turns out to be caused by an issue with the anti syphon on the tank pump outlet, a fault in the tank control valve and a poorly fitting inspection hatch. We got the valve changed (missing O-ring), know to keep the seacock closed for the tank out and have sealed up the inspection hatch – it is one thing to have clean sea water leaking out, quite another to have the planned contents.

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Next on the list was the fact that whilst we could hear VHF and see boats on AIS, we were not showing and it appeared that our VHF range was about 100M. The wonderful electronics guy, Marcos was sure that the fault lay up the mast. We spent the weekend pondering, sent a man up the mast and decided everything looked good. Come yesterday we did some more diagnostics and discovered a 20cm piece of the aerial wire behind the navigation station had become chafed with some old heat damage. Cut that out, replaced and hey presto, the VHF works very well and we appear on AIS. That all means that you can follow us on the various AIS tracking sites, Marine Traffic being pretty good.

Amongst all of the many jobs on the check list, I decided to strip down and service the inflatable Dan Buoy. We possibly set a new low for the condition of a gas bottle.

We took the Danbuoy ashore, and from a safe distance we did pull the cord, and surprise, surprise the system worked perfectly. The Danbuoy inflated, the light came on and more importantly the Danbuoy stayed inflated. So new gas bottle, and some TLC and we have a serviceable Danbuoy. Other jobs included fitting a lifebuoy, swinging the compass, calibrating the new instruments and generally getting ready. All being well we depart this morning, Tue 6 Oct, once the elusive flares arrive!