Wednesday 4 October 2017 – Certosa Island, Venice

The weather certainly did improve today.  The sun has been shining all day and it even felt warm.  With the better weather my view of the marina has improved.  The best thing is that we have found toilets and showers only 50 yards away!  They are a bit tired, but we had heard that.  They seem perfectly functional and certainly will make our life a lot easier.

We have decided to spend the day sorting the boat out.  We start at the marina office where we try to get a further discount for being a member of the Cruising Association.  As we suspected because we got a 10% discount on the bill for a Boat Show special they are unwilling to give another discount.  Fair enough.  We speak to someone about the maintenance work we want done over the winter.  We need to send him an e-mail with the full details and he will get in touch with the appropriate tradesmen.

I do a load of laundry.  Not a roaring success.  Their tumble dryer hardly dried anything other than the sheets, so the boat was draped in wet laundry all day, but at least the sun was able to dry the stuff.  I am not sure what will happen with the next load or two I need to do.

Richard spends most of the day taking the sails off.  The mainsail is a real problem.  It has always been a problem because it does not come all the way down and Richard needs to go forward to get it down.  Not good in bad sea conditions.  It has got worse with our new sail.  We were told that the sail, being heavier than before would come down better but it does not.  We have tried different carts and that is now our problem.  The current carts were a real pain to insert into the mast.  But worse, Richard cannot now get them out!  After trying to get them out most of the day he gave up and took them off the sail, leaving them in the mast.  The problem with that is that the third cart (which is attached to a batten) was sewn on to the mast and Richard had to cut it free.  So we will need a rigger or sail maker to try and sort it out.  I don’t think there is a solution other than a new mast, which is not going to happen.  We will probably just have to put old fashioned smaller carts in that will work even less efficiently.

Richard has also finally accepted that our water tank may be leaking.  This is going to be another major task.  The tank was put in before the seating in the saloon was installed.  We are told that the only way to replace it without dismantling the whole saloon is to cut it up in situ and to put in a flexible plastic tank.  We shall see.

So most of the technical things are done.  We only now need to neaten the place up and pack away clothes.  That will have to wait until we are about to go.  So the next days will be taken up in trying to live in Venice.

So, I shall probably not bother to do a daily blog about our domestic trials in the city.  I will do a little “epiblog” on the way home.  So here I am more or less signing off.