At 8:30am, just after sunrise, I was on the foredeck taking the old foresail down. My intention was to check the tension of the luff against the halyard position. Clive and myself marked the max up position during the recent mast inspection to prevent any potential chafing at the halyard sheaves’ inlet at the top of the mast. If the eye of the halyard is getting too much dragged against the sheave, chafing will happen. Conclusion: Old sail should be okay but limit the tension to the marked position. I think it should work.

Now I was curious about the luff length of the new foresail. Got the damned heavy sack out on deck and then – what a relief – Ulli from SY Beagle was standing next to me giving me a hand, tow actually. We pulled the new sail up to learn, that its luff length is about 15cm shorter than the old sail. Perfect in terms of chafing. New sail down, folded, rolled, back into the sack and dragged  back under deck. Four hands instead of two keep things below grumbling and shouting level. Thanks Ulli!

Two sheaves on the foresail traveller had to be replaced. As you can see on the photo, the sheets have grooved its traces into it and the circularity while turning was not given anymore. Some bolts showed galvanic corrosion. Parts got bedded into a new layer of Tikal Tek-Gel to prevent future blooming.

Besides that I pulled the 20 year old spinnaker halyard out of the mast, gave it a 4 Euro wash in the washing machine to get rid of calima and salt leftovers and routed it back into the mast via a pilot line. The shackle got de-rusted in some phosphor-water-mixture. All becoming sweet, soft and handy again.

Before jumping on the bike for my minimum daily ride to PDC, I fixed a reading lamp, which had a broken internal cable. Some brazing was required, not my core skill but it is back alive.

Following a nice sundowner on SY Beagle with Alice and Ulli, I am now ready to call it a day. Tomorrow, we will focus on the spinnaker pole arrangement and prepare for water maker membrane replacement, which is scheduled for Monday.

Fair winds & good night!