Saturday evening the people who had our main and jib to wash and repair brought them back. Bud was upset that they wanted to wait until 5 PM and high tide. The woman said she didn’t want to struggle down a steep ramp to the dock with the heavy mainsail. As it turned out there were five of us and we easily carried the main to the boat. It was harder passing it over from the dock to the boat than getting it to the dock. Once we got it on board, they proposed coming back Tuesday to put it up. I am leaving tomorrow, but they said that was OK. They left and Bud was more upset than ever. He really thought I needed to be there to get the lazy jacks back up. Lazy jacks are lines that go from our stack pack sail bag up about halfway up the mast. They hold the sail in place when it’s lowered, so it doesn’t fall all over the deck. In our case, they guide the sail into the stack pack, which we then zip up. Bud an I did take the time then to wind the jib furling line, raise the jib and furl it.

Today, Sunday, Bud and I decided to try to put the main on by ourselves. We used two halyards. We wrapped the main halyard around the sail (zipped in its stack pack) about halfway to the stern end. Then we wrapped a spinnaker halyard around it towards the forward end. I went into the cockpit and raised the main halyard. Bud stood near the mast and both cranked up the spinnaker halyard and guided the sail. Once we had it at about the height of the boom, I came out and slid the slides into the slot on the boom. We had to stop and let the halyards out every little while so there was enough line to let the sail slide back. Once the sail was on the boom and secured at the foot (bottom back of the sail), we unzipped the stack pack and attached the main halyard to the head of the sail. Then I raised the main bit by bit while Bud slid the cars onto the track. When the main was about 2/3 of the way up, I came out and we just pushed the sail up until all the cars were on the track and we could fit on the piece that keeps them from slipping back down.

At that point Bud hoisted me up in the boatswains chair and I carried the ends of the lazy jacks up and threaded them through the little pulleys on the sides of the mast. As I went up and came down I had to make sure the lazy jack lines were behind the spreaders. Since I go up in front of the mast using two spinnaker halyards (one as a safety line), that meant that Bud had to bring me up to the spreader and wait while I untied the lines from the boatswains chair (one at a time) passed them under and then over the spreader and retied them to the chair. I had to repeat that on the way down, this time passing them over the spreader and back under it. Once the lines were led, we tightened up on the lazy jacks and dropped the main back down most of the way.

Next we had to reattach the reefing lines. Bud worked on the ones in front and I did the ones in back. We wanted to raise the main to straighten our the reefing lines and get it folded better in the stack pack, but as we started to raise it we began to get little puffs of wind from the stern. The wind billowed out the sail so the battens (stiffening rods) were getting caught in the lazy jacks. We decided to just drop it back and tighten up the lazy jacks and zip everything up. It was about 3 in the afternoon by the time we got that done. Earendil is now rigged again. She’s ready to sail except we need new jib sheets, so we only put one on it for now. The photo shows her with her sails back in place.

After a rest and a bite to eat, I did up the dishes and went and took a shower. I still had to do the wash and pack for my trip. I finally left with the wash just after 5. The Laundromat I usually use closes at 6 on Sundays. The woman at the counter directed me up the road to another Laundromat that stays open 24 hours. It was small and crowded and dirty, but I managed to get washers and driers and the driers worked well, so I was done and back not much past 7:30. Now I am all packed, but we still have to deal with whatever they are going to try and do about the prop and the stray current tomorrow. Whatever happens, Bud and I have to leave between 1:45 and 2 PM so I get to the airport on time. We’ll have to quit work about 12:30 to get lunch and a shower.

I’m going to be gone until November 7, so Bud will be on his own again. This time he doesn’t need to move the boat, but there are a lot of jobs still on the list. I’ll keep posting to the blog to update his progress and anything interesting that goes on. I know he and Gary are determined to take the boat out and use it as a deep sea fishing boat. They’ll break in the new Yanmar and throw out a few lines and see what happens.