7 th March

Weather was good for a few days so went hunting for kitty food.  Spent some hours on the sea but is was not fireworks.  Kitty happy though with some fresh triggerfish treats and a bit for the freezer.

Some goodies arrived from Temu.  

Engine mount came surface mail from China and took 2 months.  Only cost 67 euros and could never make one as good for that price.

Bought a string of 200 country flags and hoped I would get some I could use as courtesy flags.  Useful ones include - Portugal, Poland, France, Spain, Brazil, Morocco,  Bahamas, Aruba, Trinidad, St Vincent, Grenada, St Lucia, Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis, Antigua, Bahamas, Jamaica and Puerto Rico.  I am missing Anguilla, Bermuda and Cabo Verde.  Got hundreds of non usefull flags but only cost 9 euros for the lot with free shipping so very happy.  20cm by 15cm.  Pretty small but just fine for a small boat.  Got a good sized Polish flag for the stern. (Polish registered).  I should be well covered if I get blown off course Or change my mind where Im going on the way😊

A small 3m2 kite also arrived.  Going to play with it to see if it could be useful as an emergency sail in case the mast goes swimming.  Very small and light package.

Clear skies so cold temperatures for epoxy etc. 

  

Trim tabs faired and got their tops with handles epoxied on today.  Keeping kitty company while getting some warmth to cure.  Next job is to give them some coats of epoxy primer before making the support brackets.  I was going to make the brackets with polyester resin but only have a little old polyester resin and plenty of epoxy resin.  Just have to leave out chop strand mat.  

 1 st March

Decided to fit the trimtabs before launching.  They were fabricated and epoxy glassed many months ago but not finished.  I was going to trial sail before fitting more stuff on the transom.  After hearing feedback on the Setka Challenge WhatsApp group it seems that trimtabs are very beneficial especially in downwind sailing. (as expected)

Giving the tabs an epoxy and microbaloon skim before sanding smooth and glassing the support mountings.  Going to use polyester resin and glass for the mounting brackets.  Still cold here in the evenings.  Diesel heater warm air duct blowing over freshly mixed epoxy filler to speed up the cure.  

Made up 1 running pole so far.  Only had a pole length of 2.4m (approx the LP of the jib).  I made this up from used bits that I bought in the Netherlands last year on the way home from selling our canal cruiser.  Going to make another one but got to pick my brains and fiddle on the lathe to make end fittings.  Too expensive to buy fancy Selden (or other) parts.  Got some ideas!  I will also make another stainless steel ring to pop rivet on the front of the mast for the second pole or as a spare.

Nice weather arriving here in the Azores in the next days so fixing roof leaks and hope to do some fishing.

Testing DIY dehydrated meals is working out very well so far.  Just got to decide what I like the best.  Youtube is a great tool but be careful.