The Radar receiver has stopped working. We’ve checked all the terminals at the base of the mast, and they seem fine. That leaves a small possibility that the radar cable is faulty, perhaps due to water ingress, or more likely and more expensively, that the radar unit is faulty.
The chandler in Kalmar kindly lent us a replacement cable so we could test this, and Karen was hoisted to the cross trees halfway up the mast to attempt to swap the cable.
After several ascents and descents, to try different shapes of pliers, to no avail, we were unable to remove the old cable, it was so tightly fitted and inaccessible from the mast. But we can see that it is very unlikely to have let in any water.
We will have to wait until the mast is lowered to complete the tests, and add this repair or replacement to what is proving to be an expensive season!
And just when we’d taken time to relax and enjoy a few sundowners with sailing friends, there was a massive bang on the side of the hull as a young German couple rammed into the boat at some speed attempting to come into the berth next to us.
Very, very luckily, their bow ladder was at the right height to ram the strongest part of our boat; a few centimètres lower, and we would most certainly have been holed, causing a lot of damage, and rendering the boat unseaworthy until repaired.
As it was, we ‘only’ have a deep gouge out of the gunwale, which hopefully can be filled and restored over the winter. We’ve protected it with waterproof tape for now.
We do feel a bit sorry for the young skipper, who made a long and difficult call to his father who owned the boat, and explained that not only was our boat damaged, but his bow ladder was no longer the shape it was when he borrowed Daddy’s boat.
Wouldn’t like to be his shoes when Daddy sees his boat
Sometimes you just need ice cream!