Mahon

39 53.4N 04 16.5E We arrived here on Tuesday evening but were unable to
contact the rigger until Wednesday; he promised to come in the afternoon but he
didn’t arrive until 1800 and then waited for his pal to come so he could go
up the mast for a look at what was wrong. The result was a new forestay had to
be made. They left at 1930 and promised to return at 0800 today. We were up
bright and early to get the jib down and stowed out of the way. Then it was a
case of winding John up the mast passing various tools aloft, undoing the
bottleneck screws on the main shrouds, loosening the backstay, using the
spinnaker halyards x 2 and the newly rigged jib halyard to hold the mast
forward while the forestay was removed. All a bit scary really. This done the
whole of the foil was dismantled and we were able to see the extent of the
damage to the top of it. The wire had come un wound and you can see the rope
core – so in a blow we would probably have lost the mast and rigging! The guys were back by 1100 and the new forestay duly fitted.
There was a problem with the twin spinnaker halyards tangling in the furler so
this had to be sorted and John had to go back up the mast to do it! We have
been told to use WD40 on the top fitting monthly and to ensure the two
spinnaker halyards are back on the mast before letting out the jib or furling
it in! All complete by 1330 and we all stopped for a nice cold
beer. Now just waiting for the bill. In the process of refitting the furler our bow navigation light
was damaged so we are now waiting for the chandlery to re –open to
replace this. In addition Mario dropped one of his ‘shifters’ over
the side so I had to find a large magnet and go fishing for it! Got it back
after about 20 minutes – along with a good deal of other smaller pieces
of metal from the bottom! In between all of this I managed to walk up to town and get
some shopping – there is a lovely old market area around the Cathedral
and underneath this a small supermarket. I was able to get a taxi back to the
boat with the supplies. We have washed the boat, restocked the water tanks and
charged the batteries so hope now to be set for some anchoring and then our
passage to Sardinia. Paid 3 Euros for a 5 hour internet connection through
Sunseeker. Hence the ability to get messages off easily over the last couple of
days. The showers here are great but no laundry unless you are prepared to pay
30 Euros for 5 kilos to be washed and dried! I did ours in the large black buckets bought in Portugal
– caused quite a spectacle as I did the scrubbing on the jetty while the
tourists walked by, and then of course Arwen looked like a ‘Chinese
laundry’ with sheets towels and clothes hanging all over the place! That’s it for now. Jacky and Rob I
am using the Free version of SPAMfighter. |