Brunswick Landing Marina - Georgia
Magic Friday
Phil, Di and Annelise
Tue 20 Jun 2017 17:12
Today IS the day for sails, awoke early to zero breeze, clouds and a few threatening rain clouds but a chance to shake out the spinnaker and main as planned.
First, to the glorious spinnaker (or gennaker in technical terms) - a sail so often unseen in the aft locker (only used on certain wind angles and not in high winds either) - but once up, leading the boat, full flying it is beautiful! (Note the "matching" red shorts!!). Well, it was not intended to be full flying today as we were still tied up to the dockside! This exercise was only to re-set the packing after the last flying had not ended well and we had to hand pack the massive sail on deck into the sleeve. Up went the sock with spinnaker encases, unfolding the line controlling the sock head, raise the sock and out it came - beautiful. Even in the "zero" wind, such a light sail cloth picks up a small breath of air and starts to fill - but all under control. Down with the sock and it is encased and quiet again. As an exercise, we re-set the lines for a port side raised the sock and down again, all was well. Job number one - done.
The threatened clouds arrived with rain, so a short break before tackling the mast. - Aunt Jemma's pancakes for breakfast, what could be better!
Not long before back outside, unfurl the main, also catching some breeze now - which made it difficult to remove the "mega" long battens in order to drop the main (as we were not head to breeze) - the first two battens being over 50ft long! So, instead we decided to part furl the main and I would "pop" up the mast to inspect the missing batten pocket. Smooth operation, batten definitely missing(!), length 8ft plus, no pocket stitching needed - so it remains a mystery as to how we lost suck a long piece of plastic rod - but there it is - not there! Quickly back down as the rain settled in, stopping only to inspect the shorter batten (a mere 5ft), still good. Job number two done, although our spare 5ft batten would not suffice - so it on the hunt with North Sails to purchase a new one (and some foots for the spare). Finally, it occurred to me why the main battens are circular rods and not the usual flat sticks - presumably easier to slip past the mast slot for the in-mast reefing system.obvious really!
The afternoon slipped by packing and cleaning, with one highlight - a rare sighting (Di's claim for the competition): a Rose Spoonbill fishing at the creek side opposite our dock - now that's a first for us in Brunswick and only our second spot of this bird species. Thus to an evening out at the Marsh-side Grill, occupying a "usual" bar position and a basket of "fish and chips" as the shrimper docked alongside and a mist rolled in over the marshes of Glynn.
Phil and Di
