BOATWORK IN PARADISE: RE-SPLICING HALYARDS ON THE NORTH SIDE OF NUKU HIVA
RE-SPLICING HALYARDS ON THE NORTH SIDE OF NUKU HIVA
Following through after our June 9th article:
Chafe: Find It, Fix it, Get Ahead of it
(LINK????)
Cruising offers so many takes on life.ย Among them "Boatwork in beautiful places" rings true time and time again aboard SV WHIRLWIND.ย 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.ย ย 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.ย 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!ย 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 hisย 'list for sometime'.ย We hadn't had a shackle in at the head of the line.ย We had been attaching the halyard with a bowline.ย Additionally, he put a new eye splice in the bitter end.ย See photos below for Re-splicing inspiration.
SY WHIRLWIND ๐บ๐ธ Maurisa, Mike, Russell & Josea โ Alajuela 48โ
YACHT CARE: HURRICANE SEASON IN PORT IS A GREAT TIME FOR BRIGHTWORK
Last July, SV WHIRLWIND pulled into Vista Mar Marina in Panama and promptly began tackling some much needed boat maintenance.ย Cruising season was so full with the fun of sailing to new ports, dinghying up estuaries, snorkeling with colorful fish, hiking ashore, exploring coastlines, taking in the sunset, eating tacos, and making new friends.ย These activities and more regularly took precedence over certain (dare I say: more grueling) boat maintenance projects.ย During the 'off' season jobs like sanding and recoating the brightwork, re-plugging the teak decks finally got attention they were due.ย And when the projects were complete, the gruel was forgotten because the brightwork looked beautiful and the decks stopped leaking.
WHAT PROJECTS ARE YOU WORKING ON IN PORT OR UNDERWAY?
Share your successes and your head scratchers, projects in port, on the hook, and quick fixes underway.
Send your pictures and stories to Maurisa at editor@panamaposse.com or share with the posse directly in the line ap.
Inspire one another.ย
While we may be spread across oceans and distant shores...we are not alone...and we are all on boats.
