Repairs

We were in Leixos for much longer than we expected, but making repairs to the boat is never a timely process. I’m quite proud to say though we managed, just the two of us, to get the broken headstay off, as well as remove the jib and furling gear. In most situations a team in a boatyard would be doing this, but we got the job done ourselves.

It sucked being tied to the pontoon (or in a slip) when the remnants of Tropical Storm Danielle came plowing through. It’s much better to be at anchor. The surge of the storm had us bouncing up and down against the dock, with one cleat/hawse bending from the force (Trip was able to bend it back), fender covers ripping to shreds (though that had started earlier in the season), and one of our docklines losing strands several times because of chafe which required cutting & re-adjusting. No one was going anywhere, and boat neighbors were kind to lend us spare fenders to protect the boat from the dock. Marina staff would come out and check on us multiple times. It was uncomfortable, but never dangerous.

And then the storm passed and the new headstay came in! I hoisted Trip up the mast so he could disconnect the dyneema line (temporary headstay) and connect the top of the new headstay. I thought that would be the tough part, but it went pretty smoothly. It was connecting the bottom part of the new headstay to the boat that turned out to be a nightmare. Several hours, lots of lines, many a curse word, and it was finally on. We opted to wait to put the jib back on the following morning when the sun was up again.