May 8-9, 2023 - Monday/Tuesday

I posted a few days back about the unusual coincidence of cracking two eggs and finding them both to have double yolks.  Well, I think the yolk is on me...  I appear to have purchased a carton of eggs which are all double yolks.  I had no idea that was a thing.  The packaging must have indicated this, but my Spanish is too limited and I didn't really scrutinize the label.  Anyway, mystery solved.

Immigration paperwork has been a little confusing.  They sent me three electronic documents to fill out - two Word documents and one Excel document.  I filled them out and returned them along with English translations for the text.  I thought that might be helpful for other visitors who don't speak Spanish.  Most of the words were unfamiliar to me, so I had to spend some time translating to make sure I filled them out correctly.  Apparently that was unacceptable.  I was asked to fill the form out as is and send it back again.  No problem, we all have procedures to follow.

After deleting the english row from the spreadsheet, I sent it back in.  The reply I received the next day saying that for some of the data, I needed to select my response from the list provided.  Then it occurred to me that I don't have Excel and the spreadsheet they sent had features available in Excel, but not in my software.  I explained this to the official and he just filled it out for me on his computer.  I'll go back down next week to verify everything is in order.

Harry, my neighbor, helped me put the mainsail on Monday morning.  It is best to do this in the morning when there usually is no wind.  Once the wind picks up it is not safe to raise the sails when you are tied to the dock.  I had lubricated the sail track already, so the sail went up very easily.

Pierless with main up

Once the main was up, I worked on the reefing lines.  Reefing is a way to reduce sail area when the wind picks up.  To reef, you pull the main partway down the mast and fix it in place at the mast, then pull the back side of the sail down using the reefing line.  With reefed sails, the boat can continue moving well in a variety of conditions.  My mainsail has two reefing points, allowing two levels of reduced sail.

My staysail is the smaller of my two headsails.  It is used when the wind is too strong for my large jib sail (a Genoa sail).  When I am using the staysail in strong winds, I need to set up special lines called running backstays, one on each side of the boat.  These attach to the mast and provide support where the staysail is attached.  Only one is used at a time because they cannot be rigged on the side that the boom is on.

Running backs can be a little inconvenient since they need to be moved when the boat is tacked (changes course), otherwise they would interfere with the boom.  This involves going on deck, unhooking the running back and attaching it somewhere out of the way, then going to the other side of the deck and attaching the other running back so it can support the mast.

Running Backstays

I wanted to be able to manage the running backstays from the cockpit, so attached a bungie cord to the upper block and ran it forward on deck.  This provides enough stretch to pull the running back forward toward the mast when not in use - without leaving the cockpit!  It seems to work great.