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We were scheduled for a Monday stepping of the mast and had only Saturday and Sunday to get the mast and rigging ready. Luckily, local marine stores were not too far for any unforeseen missing items and to stock up any interesting gadgets one might find. We did get all the rigging set up and actually were ready for the morning appointment at the local boat shop to use their hoist. It still took several hours that we had to wait before it was our turn. The mast was stepped and we were back on our way to the dock. It was quite a different feeling operating the boat with a mast. Even so it was the same weight, the fact that the mast stood proudly raised, changed the handling significantly. The first casualty we encountered was the mooring pole that we apparently forgot at the boat shop and of course was nowhere to be found after we returned. Then it was time to hoist sails which makes this boat a sailboat. Here, we found out that the jib had been equipped with the wrong luff which made it impossible to hoist in the furling groove. We almost could not get it off anymore. And only with the help of some pulleys the jib was freed. Gary, made some quick calls to local sail makers and we had the sail reconfigured with a slightly smaller luff. The greatest surprise came when we could not find the mainsail cars. We turned the whole boat over to see if they had been stowed somewhere non conspicuous. But to no avail. The problem was that the cars were made by Ronstan and none could be found in the US. So, Gary called the factory to send a set at the fastest possible way. Meanwhile we finished other rigging, cleaning and installation jobs to make the boat ready for the trip south. One daunting task was to attach the wind instrument and the VHF antenna. Sure, this could have been done before the stepping of the mast. but the risk was to high to get it damaged. It was either Gary's pounds or mine. Looking up the mast I decided it would be easier to operate the winch then to be hoisted up. Since Gary had to do the tensioning of the stays anyway, the top of the mast was on his way :) and he was elected. After that, Gary headed back to Alameda to pick up the cars and tend some business to join us later in the week. My son and I were left back at the boat during this time for cleaning and some other chores like wiring up the mast lights, VHF, etc. With all that time on hand I had finally some time to take inventory and thoroughly inspect #109 for any problems, go shopping, and enjoy Long Beach reminiscing times when I used to live down there. It was still march, and even so we were in Southern California, it was unusually cool during the night. Almost too late I decided to get some electric heaters in the boat to keep us warm during the night. Since there was no built in wiring for 110V, we lived with extension cords just hanging around, one fact I was planning to correct at a later time (see improvements). |
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