Day 232, Year 5 Working on the Rigging
Date: Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Weather: Partly Sunny with Rain Squalls, Winds SE 15-20 Knots
Location: Ampanasia Bay, NW Madagascar
The weather is not cooperating. The winds were a little less today than yesterday, but it is still very windy. Because we have mast steps all the way to the top of the mast, it was safe enough for Mark to go up the mast and investigate the problem with our inner forestay. It was impossible to tell from below what the real problem was but as soon as Mark went up he could see that the stay was definitely broken. This is the oldest stay on the boat, replaced in 2001, and it is worrisome that it broke. We certainly don’t want the headstay to break. It was replaced in 2003, so hopefully it will be fine until we get home. Mark brought the inner forestay with roller furler and sail attached down to the deck and was lucky enough to find the right Sta-Loc fittings to correct the problem. Getting it back up in these winds will be a little trickier, but Mark has asked Ed to come over and help us with this tomorrow. If it goes back up and everything is just right, then we will once again be a cutter rig and all of the things broken on the trip from Chagos to here will be fixed. Maybe then Mark can relax. He has been working like a madman doing one repair after another. Staying with the rigging theme, we are also re-caulking the deck chain plates. Mark also unscrewed all of the nice little wooden plates that cover the massive chain plate fittings in the cabinetry of the main cabin. The chain plates hold all of your rigging in place and our chain plate deck cover plates were leaking a bit which caused some surface rust on the bolts below. So we cleaned and cleaned and got rid of every spec of rust, sprayed some magic corrosion inhibitor on the plates and then covered them once again. This is the first time I have really seen the chain plates and I was truly impressed with the size and number of bolts that hold down our rigging. This boat is really built like a tank and I like that!
We saw signs of life onshore today. A lone man was working on a sandbar attached to shore at low tide. I took photos and zoomed in and could see that he had arrived in a dugout outrigger canoe. We didn’t see him come or go, but there must be a village somewhere near. As more and more of the repairs are completed, and if the winds do not get stronger again, I am really hoping to make it to shore soon. Constance still has much more work to do and they might be able to take the time to go with us, but I’m going to try and convince them that they need a little break. Hopefully I’ll have something land-based to report tomorrow.
 |
| 100615 Day 232 Ampanasia Bay, Madagascar–Boat Work |
