BOATWORK IN PARADISE: RE-SPLICING HALYARDS ON THE NORTH SIDE OF NUKU HIVA

RE-SPLICING HALYARDS ON THE NORTH SIDE OF NUKU HIVA

The offended halyard and splicing tools are all laid out and ready for action.

Following through after our June 9th article:

Chafe: Find It, Fix it, Get Ahead of it

(LINK????)

Cruising offers so many takes on life. Among them "Boatwork in beautiful places" rings true time and time again aboard SV WHIRLWIND. Granted this 'grind' is part of the fun of raising our sails, putting miles beneath our keel, watching dolphins surf our bow, sharing sundowners, and sailing for days and days to distant shores.

This week Captain Mike set about to re-splice the portside Spinnaker halyard that had chafed on our Pacific Crossing in May. Once we found the trades en route to French Polynesia we had the opportunity to fly the spinnaker for days on end before the conditions changed and a new sail was required. It was on one of these sail changes that we noticed that the head of the halyard had been chafing on something at the top of the mast. While the cover was shot, the core was fine and we had to put that halyard to rest until now.

(Side note: Redundancy to the rescue! Thankfully, when the conditions called for a spinnaker again, we were still able to raise ours as we have a starboard spinnaker halyard that carried us the rest of the way.)

Getting geared up to Re-splice the halyard where it was damaged, Mike took the opportunity to do a few upgrades that had been on his 'list for sometime'. We hadn't had a shackle in at the head of the line. We had been attaching the halyard with a bowline. Additionally, he put a new eye splice in the bitter end. See photos below for Re-splicing inspiration.

The cover to the spinnaker halyard chafed through. The inner core is still fine...phew!

A luggage tag on the bitter end for pulling up a new tag line to reeve a new halyard in the future.

Et VOILA! As they say in French. Splice is finished and halyard is snapped in place on the foredeck.

SY WHIRLWIND 🇺🇸 Maurisa, Mike, Russell & Josea – Alajuela 48’

by EDITOR

AND THE WINNER IS....

The Ocean Posse sends a HUGE thank you out to all people who participated in our survey earlier this month. Our goal is to improve our posse and our benefits and it is happening! As promised one lucky survey responder has won a $250 gift card.

AND THE WINNER IS...

HEATHER JOHNSON

Lucky Winner raises her courtesy flag aboard her 1986 *Endeavour 42.*

Heather has graciously accepted her $250 gift card that she plans to use to transfer boats parts from her Amazon wishlist to her cart. Describing herself she writes:

My husband and I own SV Consort, a 1986 Endeavour 42, a slight upgrade from our 19' Flying Scot that we sailed and raced in Central Illinois. We originally became interested in sailing while on a vacation in St. Maarten when we took a snorkeling tour aboard a catamaran. While everyone was sitting in the back getting seasick I was sitting on the trampoline laughing and having a blast as we crashed through the waves, catching air, and getting covered in salt! The next day, while sitting poolside I commented to my husband that I'd like to learn how to sail. So, when we returned to Central IL, (I know, not exactly a place known for great sailing) we found a local sailing club and signed up for a Learn to Sail class. We enjoyed it so much we started sailing Lasers, Sunfish, Thistles, Flying Scots, and any boat we could crew on. Unfortunately, the sailing season in Illinois is rather short, as were the boats we were sailing on. We thought that maybe it was time for an upgrade. While we were in Florida for a Flying Scot regatta we decided to start looking at cruising vessels that would offer us a warm, winter retreat. I'd been watching listings on all the sites trying to study the market and find the boat that met our list of wants, needs, and must haves. Since we were in Florida it seemed reasonable to start looking at boats in person but we were NOT ready to buy yet...so we thought. We were in Cocoa Beach and getting ready to depart for a long, boring drive back to cold, wintery, Illinois when my husband said, "It's too bad that boat Consort isn't still for sale." Well, it WAS still for sale and the price had just dropped so instead of driving to IL we turned South and drove to Ft. Lauderdale where we saw SV Consort in person after salivating over her online for a couple months.

Yes, we had no intention of buying a boat yet but the moment we saw Consort we knew she was our boat. She checked all the boxes and it just felt right. We spent the next two days driving back to Illinois trying to talk ourselves out of buying her but in the end, we knew it was the right choice. Five and a half years later, we still love her as much and I'm grateful we listened to our guts.

We've been cruising between the Bahamas and South Florida for the past 5 years. Many people ask why we don't go further South but we have absolutely fallen in love with the islands of the Bahamas and the people there. We have friends we visit on different islands every year and are always greeted with "Welcome Home" and we are treated like family. After sailing the islands for five years we're still discovering new islands, finding remote anchorages, meeting new people, and we look forward to visiting every year.

Heather taking in the view from the top of the mast

by EDITOR