Maintenance

It was a lovely day for a sail but we were a bit lazy getting up and in any case we had been waiting for a 'gentle' day to retrieve the topsail halyard. We'd lost it up the mast the last time we'd used it. I really need to improve the attachment point. Its a rectangular runner that slots into a track on the yard and it pops out sometimes when lowering the sail.

It was also an opportunity to replace the peak halyard which is attached to a wire rope strop at the top of the mast. We've already done the throat halyard and the jib halyard.

Alison did a grand job going up the mast on the jib halyard. She took a lot of her weight by gripping the mast with her bare feet and some more by hauling on the safety line. Coupled with the 2:1 purchase on the jib halyard it made my job really easy.

By pulling herself up on the safety line she was able to grab the wayward topsail halyard and bring it down. She also unshackled the old peak halyard so we could get that down.

I re-used the thimble in a new eye splice and Alison went up again to fit it. It took a while to get it running clear, but we now have good rope on all the main hauling lines.

I thought we might get around to giving her a bit of a scrub, but it wasn't to be. Hopefully we'll manage something before the East Coast race next week.

So no sailing, but a lovely day on the water anyway.