Removing the genoa was easier said than done in the breeze, but with help from Barry and Steph who were taming it with the genoa sheet, Bruce unwrapping the sail and me working the halyard we eventually got it down and folded on the jetty.

Having quickly referred to the manual that came with the furler, Bruce & Barry started to take the bottom part of the furler apart and quickly identified that the problem appeared to have come about because a simple grub screw had worked itself loose allowing the centre spindle to unwind dropping all the bearings in the process. With so much grease near the top and bottom bearings we were fortunate that only 3 were lost overboard and even the grub screw remained.

Thankfully the local 'ferreteria' was able to source 8mm stainless steel ball bearings for us which initially were going to be in late afternoon but subsequently didn't arrive until the afternoon of the following day. This gave us some time to take a look around as well as do the chores.

Wednesday was market day so we took the opportunity to visit our first Spanish open market. It had the usual fruit, veg and bread stalls but was predominately clothes, shoes and handbags - certainly not as large as the French open markets that we've become accustomed too. Still, the smell from the bread stall was irresistible so with little Spanish we pointed to a portion of what we can only describe as 'fruit bread' containing nuts, seeds and grapes. A huge slab came to €3 and the owner then gave us 'gratis' another slab of wholegrain bread which was an unexpected surprise - perfect to accompany tonight's dinner, Galician mussels.



Apart from the very colourful mussel boats that leave in the early hours and return late afternoons we found the town to be lacking something special (we've probably been spoilt having visited Muros) but the town did offer us what we needed in the way of provisions, diesel and ball bearings so we're not complaining. It has a lovely shaded park with several bars and restaurants to while away the hours and town bells that aren't real chimes but artificial - the sound is something that we really can't describe!

Clams are very popular here and we noticed that each morning just off the beach licensed people were wading up to their chest, raking the bottom with toothed wire cages. It looked to be a really back breaking job!



As for the furler, normally when the furler is fitted it's built upside down which would have meant disabling the whole unit which we really didn't want to do as it would most likely result in damage to another part of the system. If we damaged anything then we would need a Selden agent which was back in Coruna or one could be found in Porto, Portugal. Our backup plan if we couldn't get it repaired was to use our emergency stay with a storm sail hanked on or alternatively our cruising chute... so with new ball bearings in hand, Barry and Bruce slowly and painstakingly reassembled it in situ using forceps, grease and a split piece of hosepipe before bringing the two threads together with stud-lok and finally fitting the gub-screw also with stud-lok. Shortly afterwards the genoa was hoisted and rolled away successfully so we're back in action now. Fingers crossed that we don't need to use our emergency stay and storm sail after all. It was definitely a two man job so thanks again both for your help.