Taking inspiration from the wine bottle

The other night we opened a bottle of locally-bought (but Australian) wine - a cheap but quite cheerful little number.

The name has a sailing connotation and, as it happened, proved to be a spookily accurate forecast for when Graham climbed the mast the following day to carry our a routine rig check.

"If Claire Murtagh can do it, I'll have a go!" - Graham at the masthead

The view of the Copra Shed marina and moorings, Savusavu

Whilst at the masthead he noticed that the shackle holding the turning block (pulley) for the Spinnaker Halyard looked a bit worn and so he changed it for a new one, When we examined it in the cabin, it was clear that 2 years' of use had worn it significantly - a breakage wouldn't have been good!

The worn shackle

The coin shows how close a worn shackle was to becoming a broken shackle!

So, in future, we'll study the labels of our wine bottles with more care and it we see one called Shredded Sails we'll definitely stay in harbour.

Tomorrow we're attending a 'chart-marking seminar' rub by an ex-pat called Curly Carswell who has been sailing the Fijian waters for about 18 years. He'll share information on the best anchorages and the places to avoid, as well as tips on how to get the most out of the experience here; should be a useful session. After that we'll stock up on fresh food and head out into the islands.