It's a broken forestay
'Sarf & West mate, Sarf & West'
Pete Bernfeld
Wed 22 Sep 2010 18:12
Hauled the Moorings sailmaker up the mast yesterday afternoon and he pretty
much confirmed what I thought when I went up yesterday morning. The wire at the
top, where it goes into the mast fitting had de-stranded. Also, the bit that
attachs to the wire and goes inside the mast fitting was missing, so the
question is 'why did it fail, given that sea/wind conditions haven't been
extreme. Maybe not enough tension, allowing too much movment? Not sure. We tried
to pull the wire down through the furling foil, but we only managed to pull
about one metre through then it jammed on something. Tthis afternoon I'll
be going alongside to lower the whole sail/furling gear combination onto
the dock, then tomorrow we'll remove the sail from the furling gear and
extricate the wire, take measurements and order a new forestay, with necessary
fittings, from New Zealand. Opinion is divided over how long this might take,
another sailmaker reckoned that delivery from Auckland to here would take about
6/7 days via Fedex, the Moorings think it might take a little longer, but then
they don't use Fedex, they have 'their people' hand-carry spares from NZ.
Whatever, we were planning on being here for at least three weeks, maybe longer,
so in the great scheme of things this isn't a 'temporal disaster', a financial
one doubtless, but time-wise OK (hopefully, anyway).
On a more positive note, a local bar was promoting traditional Tongan
dancing last night, so Troutbride, Aurora B & Legend 2 went along. Turned
out that, yes, there was a display of traditional Tongan dancing, but it was a
show being put on by a local school to help fund the kids education. Primary
school education in Tonga is free, but secondary school you have to pay, which
in this day and age (or any other, frankly) is outrageous. The bar owner and
school principal explained that any money donated went straight into a fund
which paid out money directly for school fees to the government, so most people
there were generous. The dancing was different to Tahitian/French Polynesuian
dancing, not as sensuous (if you've watched the facebook videoof the Tahitian
dancing you'll know exactly what I mean) but it was in the main graceful,
with intricate hand movements rather than intricate 'bottom movements' (no,
bottom not bowel movements :) The kids ranged from pre-teen to maybe 17, male
& female, and made up in enthusiasm what they might have lacked in technical
skill. A very enjoyable evening.
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