The riggers came today to inspect our standing rigging and the loose sail track on the mast. We wanted our standing rigging (the side shrouds, the head stay, the diamond shrouds and the cable that runs between to the hulls in the front of Leu Cat) inspected before we sail across the North Atlantic. We last changed out our four side shrouds in 2011 while in Australia and our head stay in 2010 while in New Zealand. With blue water boats, they have a relatively short life due to the extra stresses they have to put up with when one crosses the oceans. We were told that we should change them every 7 years. Given the long term heavy pounding we took while sailing down the Mozambique Channel while rounding South Africa, we did not want to attempt a North Atlantic crossing without having our standing rigging inspected by a professional rigger.

We are glad we did as the recommendation came back that the diamond shrouds and the longer of the side shrouds should be replaced. We have never replaced the diamond shrouds (these keep downward compression on the mast, making it stiffer). There were a couple of strands that were cracked. Their useful life is 10 years and Leu Cat just had her 11th birthday three days ago.

The riggers said that they could do the work here at Simpson Bay Marina but they recommended that we step down the mast and have them replace the diamond shrouds while the mast is on the ground. It would be faster and cheaper that way. Thus, it looks like we will be running over to FKG’s facility that is right across the bay from us to step down the mast. Removing the mast should just take a day so we are thinking that we will then return to Simpson Bay Marina mast-less and maintain our comfort here while it takes them two or three days to do the work. We would then return to remount the mast when they are done. We should be getting the cost estimate tomorrow.

Regarding our weather watch, I have posted to this blog today’s predicted weather pattern of the North Atlantic for May 13th. You can see that it is a more “normal” in its pattern, especially when compared to yesterday’s prediction. I believe this is because we are getting closer to May 13th and the model is getting a bit more accurate as it has to deal with fewer longer time variables. The atmosphere is still very unstable as this prediction is showing two lows making up the large low pressure cell that is dominating the area. The low pressure area that is to the NE of the cell is very tight and measuring 996 mbars while the larger low pressure area is pretty intense, measuring 991 mbars. While it is possible to have two lows making up a large low pressure cell, I am suspecting that this will actually be just one larger low pressure cell by the time May 13th actually rolls around.

The point of all of this is to underscore how unreliable these weather models are the further out you are from the date you are looking at. This is especially true now with the upper atmosphere being so unstable. Our hope is as May progresses, the upper atmosphere will settle down into its more normal summer pattern, resulting in more stability and allowing better, longer term predictions.