Not surprisingly, things are still
hectic. The big accomplishment this week was the bending on of new
sails. The new main is 9.1 oz. triple-stitched Dimension Polyant
sailcloth, made in Germany. It features two reef points (75% and
53%), a cunningham (flattening) reef point and a draft stripe. The
jib is made of 8.2 oz. Dimension Polyant, has two reef points marked
in red tape, and the Subrella UV shield is a color match for the blue
hull. I need to have a new sail cover made to accommodate the
heavier mainsail, but I'm not having any luck contacting my canvas
maker, either by phone or in person. Sigh! I also still need to
order line for the new jiffy reefing and put together the new vang
from Garhauer to finish off the working sails. I got a good enough
price from Ullman Sails on the working sails that I was able to talk
with Gary about a cruising spinnaker (genniker). He had some
multi-color blanks he had gotten from Catalina Yachts that he can use
as the basis for making my custom sail at about half the cost of
starting from scratch. So, it and a dousing sock are now in the
works!
I continued the refinishing of the port
side cap rail and rub rail. It's going fine, but all that sanding is
pretty tiring! Lookin' good, though.
On the HaHa front, there's a bit of
concern that we may be in violation of Mexican law by not checking in
at a port of entry prior to our arrival in Cabo, which oddly enough
is not a port of entry. The port of Ensenada, while a port of entry,
has neither the capacity nor the willingness to handle some 150
vessels from the HaHa coming in all at once. Hopefully something
gets worked out in coming weeks or it will be up to each skipper to
decide whether to stop in Ensenada despite the Port Captain's
reluctance. The event organizers don't seem to have any answers
right now....
