AH! WHAT A WORK DAY! ! ! !

SHIP'S LOG:

Part of the reason you do a shake-down cruise, aside from just enjoying the trip, is to find out what works and what doesn't and what needs to be fixed. What we discovered on Sunday's trip was two small tears in the Genoa and the Main that needed to be repaired. SO today was the day to do it.

The tear in the Genoa was a separation of the sun cover on the edge of the sail along a seam. I had to unfurl the sail, lower it to the deck, cover the split of the seam of the sun cover, re-hoist the sail and then re-furl it. No big deal and a success to boot!

The small tear in the mainsail required going up the mast on the top climber. I have do this a couple of times before but that was in the shelter of a slip in the Mystic Shipyard and the Mystic River. This time it would be in the rolly Thames River with constant boat traffic. The pendulum effect could be rather spectacular, especially with the ferries going by twice an hour. Thankfully the tear wasn't that far up the leech so I only had to go about 12feet off the deck. Still, it was rolly and I had to grasp the mast with my legs to keep from swinging more than I did. To repair the tear, I had to cut a piece of sail repair tape, put the roll of tape and the scissors in the work pouch, peel the backing off the tape, affixing the tape to close the tear, smooth it and do so while swinging back and forth. I had to do this three times on one side and once on the reverse, swinging back and forth. It took a while but it all went perfectly. Indeed, it was interesting to be up that high and look around and considering I have a fear of heights, any height, it was very comfortable and even enjoyable. I was getting some curious looks from people who sailed by as there was no one who had hoisted me up, that I had gone up the mast all by myself. I expected that some wanted to asked how I did it. So far, the TOP-CLIMBER has paid for itself.

We didn't get the mainsail completely furled after the trip on Sunday and I took the opportunity to unfurl it and re-furl it properly. At least that's what I wanted to do and tried to do. However, the Mainsail was jammed. When the sail is furled, it can't all be rolled in the same spot or it is too wide for the furler. It was a mistake made Sunday and there seemed no way to unroll it. I put the outhaul on a mast winch, not enough power. I lead to outhaul line to a cockpit winch, more power but no joy. And to make matters worse, I got a line wrapped around the winch. There was tension on the line and now I could get it off the winch. The suggested way to resolve such a problem is to attach a second line to the one under tension, take the pressure off of it, then unwrap messed up line from the winch. Unfortunately, no matter what I did, I couldn't get the tension off the line. Eventually, with a LARGE screwdriver and a winch handle I was slowly able to back the line off the winch. It was a long and tedious process but eventually it was successful. Still the mainsail was wrapped tight and jammed. The effort must have don something as I was able to unjam the sail and unfurl it and re-furl it correctly. It was if ABISHAG was just running a little problem by me as a test to see what I would do. I hope I passed.

I also got a rode for the secondary anchor. It will be 10 feet of chain and 200' of 5/8 line. I took the opportunity to insert depth marks in the rode and set it in the anchor well. I am going to have to cut an access for the shaft of the anchor if it is going to sit in the bow roller like the plow, but it is one of those projects that goes "on the list."

I didn't go sailing today, but it was a good day.

MASTER'S PERSONAL LOG:

There is something different doing projects on the boat when it is on the mooring. I suppose that it is knowing that so can stop anything you are doing and be sailing in a few minutes. Knowing that I can do this is almost as good as doing it. Almost, but not quite. So tomorrow is a sailing day!