Back on the hill for a week or so

Communications may be sparse for the next week. We're back at the old
home place (now referred to correctly as "Cody's house") to get some
big projects done. Before we left the boat on Sunday we managed to
get the second Spin-Tec roller furler installed. I've now lost count
how many times I've been up and down the mast. The steps really do
make climbing it no big deal. And, the climber's harness I bought
yesterday from Oregon Mountain Community should make the whole safety
issue much easier to deal with. I spent yesterday in sweltering
Portland spending way too much money. Amazing to come out of West
Marine with, essentially two shopping bags and be $700 poorer. But it
was all stuff we needed so I guess that's the way it goes.

Lulu spent yesterday recutting the staysail. Have to install luff
tape where the hanks used to be and sew a piece if sacrificial
Sunbrella along the leech and foot of the sail so that, when it's
rolled up, the sail material itself isn't exposed to the damaging UV
rays of the sun. Today she has to re-do some of what she did and
maybe get started on the jib.

I will spend the day in the shop building the engine access hatch into
the cockpit sole (which I brought home). Also will finish up the
sliding hatch and the dorade for ventilating the AirHead.

An aside to you dirt-dwellers out there who don't speak "Sailor": The
two sails on the front of the boat are usually attached to a long
cable ("stay") that runs from the point of the boat to the top of the
mast or thereabouts. The sails are usually attached to the cable with
clips known as "hanks". To change a sail, the sail must be dropped,
removed from the cable, stored in a bag somewhere and then the new
(larger or smaller) sail is "hanked on" to the stay. With roller
furling, the sails are attached to a piece of aluminum ("foil") that
has a track along it's edge. The foil is installed is such a way that
the stay runs inside it. That's what we were doing last weekend. The
sails are modified with a piece if fabric that has a small diameter
line sewn in ("Luff tape") which can then be fed into the track and
which will then hold the sail in place on the foil. Then, instead of
lowering and removing the sail, it is simply rolled up like a window
shade. Roll it up partway and you have a smaller sail. Roll it up
all the way and the sail has been nicely stored without taking up any
valuable below-deck stowage space.

Sole, as in cockpit sole: This is how sailors refer to the "floor".
So I'm putting an opening in the floor of the cockpit so I can gain
easy access to the engine room. A "floor" on a boat is actually
something else and is involved with the actual framing of the boat.

Dorade: This is a kind of vent that is baffled so that, should sea
water enter the vent, very little, if any of it will make it's way
below decks.

End of class.