We’ve been anchored at Ensenada de los Muertos for two days. Weather is
clear, 75 F during the days and 15 knots of breeze in the anchorage. No
swell or waves where we are.

Yesterday was a work day. We needed to repair the stackpack sail cover,
which connects the lazy jacks to the boom before sailing again. We also
needed to untangle the twisted tangle of fishing line that the tuna made
while we were busy sailing and he was being towed. After breakfast we
went over the To Do List (TDL). Besides those items it also included
making yoghurt and desalinating water as well as a few small items.

The stack pack was one that Linda had designed. It’s worked very well
but was never tested in 25 knots gusting to 28. The top of the boom has
a slot running the length of it for a bolt rope on the foot of a sail.
Our sail is loose footed (only attached to the boom at the forward and
aft corners). We had inserted sail slugs in the slot, and through each
sail slug had passed some short lengths of webbing with female “Common
Sense” fasteners at each end. The bottom edge of the stack pack sail
cover had a strip of webbing sewn on it with a row of male "€œCommon
Sense"€ fasteners attached. The webbing survived but the male "Common
Sense" fasteners had been pulled out of the stack pack sail cover.

The fix was to replace the male "Common Sense"€ fasteners with grommets
and replace the webbing straps and female "Common Sense"€ fasteners with
dyneema soft shackles that go through the sail slugs and the grommets on
both sides of the sail cover. Linda had plenty of grommets, and knows
how to make soft shackles from the dyneema we keep on board.

I started the watermaker when the solar input was large enough to keep
up with the load and Rod and I untangled the fishing line while Kay
worked with Linda on soft shackles. By the end of the day we’d finished
all the items on the TDL and were ready to reassemble the stack pack and
lazy jacks. They went together well, and look like they’ll work great.

We celebrated with solar showers then tuna for dinner, again.

After a hard day of sailing and then a work day, the crew wanted a day
off. Linda made the decision by sleeping in, then cooking a large
breakfast. As we were sitting in the cockpit after breakfast, reviewing
the weather and plans for the day, I saw a spout. The meeting was
postponed as we watched a couple of whales cruise through our end of the
bay within a couple hundred yards.

It'€™s about noon now. We practiced raising and lowering the pole with the
new crew, knocked a couple of items off the TDL and now Linda is making
tuna tacos for lunch. On the agenda for this afternoon: reading, naps,
maybe a swim.

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