On Sunday we emptied out our store room trying to decide what we needed on the boat and what we could get rid off. A lot of the stuff I had never seen before and would have no idea when or where to use these things. Luckily we met a young guy that was going to open a chandlery in town and he went through each item with us explaining the use and purpose of everything. Afterward we managed to swap some of the things for a second hand outboard motor for our dingy.
By the time we had finished unpacking and repacking the store room it was about two o clock and we decided that we would go off to the yacht club for lunch instead of cooking. We ordered hamburgers and after Rauen found a fly in his patty he couldn’t finish his burger. Don’t blame him actually I am not sure if I would be able to continue eating after finding a fly. After lunch we went for a cool down swim in the pool. When we finished swimming and as we headed back for the boat I felt my stomach start to churn. Both Rauen and I got sick after that, Rauen for about two hours, and me for almost two days.
13 Feb. 11
Well we just arrived back home again today after just ten days on the boat. At least it feels as if we are starting to make some headway on the list of things to do. We had North Sails come out and measure the cut required on the main sail. After they left we removed the main sail and put in it a sail bag ready to go to them for repairs.
We also had to remove the head sail. I have never had to remove a roller furler sail before so I have been trying to find out what to do. At one point I lay on the deck with a pair of binoculars trying to see how the sail is attached up at the mast head. I checked and rechecked the bottom of the mast for a halyard or rope or anything that should be attached at the top of the mast onto the sail. This rope would then be used to pull the sail back up once it has been removed and would need to be released in order for the sail to come down. But I just couldn’t find one anywhere. We even took some photos of the mast head to try and figure out the puzzle. Anyway eventually I decided that I would have to climb the mast and loosen the shackle at the top of the sail and then I would tie a halyard onto the sail. So I climbed the mast and did just that, having to shout a warning to Lola at the bottom of the mast to get out of the way when I dropped the shackle pin nearly killing her. I am just glad it wasn’t the shifting spanner.
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| Up the mast |
After getting down from the mast we discussed our next step only to discover that I would have to climb the mast again to remove the halyard I had tied onto the sail because it would wrap itself around the pole when we unrolled the furler, and the rope was down at the bottom already in any case so me taking it up just to bring it back down again was a pretty stupid exercise. Now the wind suddenly started to pick up and because I still wasn’t sure that the sail would come down I phoned a friend for some advice and he told me that I shouldn’t have removed the shackle as the drum is supposed to come down with the sail. The more he spoke on the phone about a drum and all other goodies the more confused I became since I hadn’t seen anything resembling a drum or a slide or in fact anything that he mentioned up there. Eventually I asked him if the sail would come down if I pulled at the bottom and he said yes but we would have to retrieve the drum afterwards. So before the wind picked up some more and without further ado we unrolled the sail and pulled it down onto the deck.
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| Up the mast again |
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