Position: Alongside RSAYS Marina
Wind: W, F7
Weather: sunny and mild

This week we took delivery of a new headsail. This new sail is radial cut and made from a low stretch dacron cloth. Hopefully this will mean that the new sail will hold its shape for longer then the current headsail has. Also I have had the foot cut slightly lower so that I don’t have to reach so high to adjust the leech tension, currently a rather hazardous operation where I have to lean out over the side as the wind is picking up.

Other preparations for the next voyage also continue. I will put in my request to be allowed to depart Australia in December this week, though it looks likely that by then international travel restrictions will have been mostly lifted. Unfortunately the other piece of bureaucracy with the Department of Agriculture has seen zero progress. The person I am dealing with maintains that by leaving Australian waters I will have exported the cat and therefore will need an import permit to get him back in. But the only way to get an import permit is to stop at another country, which pretty much scuttles the whole idea of sailing non-stop around the world. I haven’t given up yet.

And another major challenge is that of storing ship. The first thing I need to do is to create more stowage space for supplies and to do this I need to unload a lot of unnecessary gear such as excess charts and clothing, and probably a few books. Deciding which books to leave behind is going to be a little traumatic for me; however, fortunately my brother, John, has agreed to store some stuff for me until I get back.

All is well.