One step forward, one step back.....



After all the excitement of the gale at the maritime center, we left yesterday to try out the new rigging and quick cover. We sailed out into the channel, with the boat still handling very sluggishly, and successfully flew the genoa which looked very smart with it's new Mediterranean Blue UV strip (though it is missing it's old reef marks). Unfortunately the mainsail did not do so well as the reefing mechanism had jammed (again). This time it was the rivets that North Sails had used to attach padeyes to the boom (the padeyes held the base of the quick cover); these stuck in so far they had jammed the reefing shuttles. We checked into Charleston Harbor Marina (our 3rd marina here) and called North Sails, hopefully they will fix it today. The good news is that we saw a diver on the way into the marina so for $60 we got our prop, bowthruster and keel cleared of barnacles - hopefully we will be a bit faster for the journey north. We also found time to visit the USS Yorktown museum here at the marina which we found very interesting (our conclusion was that the coast-guard is a better bet than the navy - the accommodation and china was much better!!). At least it has given us time to knock a few items off the todo list; Ruth also had time to update her boat blog.

If we get our reefing system fixed today, we will head North tomorrow aiming (appropriately enough) for a boatyard near Yorktown VA.

Posted: Tue - June 5, 2007 at 10:33 AM          

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