28 November Sail repair

 There was a two day lull between passing fronts where we were able to get our big repairs done. First we moved to anchor in the lee of the town, dropping the anchor within a cast of the old wall we had no more than 5 knots across the deck.

Bigger than I remembered

Our first task was to drop the 150% head sail on deck and assess the damage. The rip was longer than I remembered; 8 feet long along the Sunbrella strip where we'd caught it on the lower spreader when we were close hauled. Our solution was to apply strips of adhesive backed sail repair cloth on both sides and stitch it in place for reinforcement. While we were checking over the whole sail we discovered small areas of wear and loose stitching that required attention and this was the opportunity to do these. It took less than two hours to stitch and hoist the head sail.

Repairs in exotic places

On the main sail we had a seam on the lower part where the stitching had parted. Luckily it was the lowest seam and I could fit it in the throat of the machine. Again, a chance to check all the seams and check for wear and to change the lashings. Time taken – one hour.

Job's a good 'un

Our second planned repair for today was to rewire the anchor / tricolour light. On our bouncy ride here two of the three connections joining the fine LED wire to the heavy duty, and original, wire running up to the top of the mast had come apart. Last week we attempted to push the heavy wire up from the bottom to within grasp at the top of the mast. This failed. Our option to cut the connection and retrieve the heavy wire to the base of the mast also snagged when it caught on some unknown obstruction within the conduit 4m from the bottom.

The cunning plan today was to feed what we had of the original wire, plus a 5m link, up the alternate conduit where we had a fine 'mouse' cord ready to use. I hauled David to the top of the mast and sat ready to feed in while he pulled up. The new connections were liberally coated with silicon to ease their passage, but after nearly two hours of “pull to you” and “to me” we were still 2m short of our target. It was 7pm and dark. Time for David to return to deck level and to retire for the evening.

Next morning I hauled David up again. This time we were lucky. Within ten minutes we'd worked the connector free and pulled it through for David to complete the final connection. By George we did it! Reinstated our lights to full health and reinstated the sails.

In preparation for the next weather window to sail on to Antigua we donned dive kit and cleaned the hull. It was the first time since we left Caymans in June and we were clean. The river algae from the Chesapeake had gone and no barnacles grown.