The Sail Cover is Back

Denuded Pachuca, sans spray dodger, mainsail

This morning I folded up the Zodiac and put it on the platform in front of the mast then lashed a  plastic tarp over it.  I'll probably move it when the riggers come so that they can use the platform as a staging area for climbing up the mast and for laying out their tools.  I then tidied up the reefing and downhaul lines left free after I removed the mainsail.

It was another beautiful day and I felt almost a duty to make the long walk to the outer breakwater to photograph the colony of sea lions but I just didn't feel like it so I “vegged out” for an hour then put in another 90 minutes with the Spanish course. 

While I was finishing the last lesson for the day I got a pleasant surprise from Pato Salas, who came with the repaired sail cover.  I took the liberty of calling him “Speedy Gonzalez”.   The problem with the sail cover was that the zipper was peeling off because the stitching had been damaged by UV radiation, but also the sail cover had always been too tight, even after Taskers in Fremantle added another 2 inches on each side of the zipper.  Pato replaced those two extensions with strips of material 5 inches wide on each side of the zipper. I expect that extra 6” to transform the zipping up of the sail cover from a difficult struggle that is hard on the fingers to a fast and easy operation the way it should have been all along. 

My task now is to purchase  strong cord then make the lazy jacks as well as the barrier between the mast steps and the shrouds.  Tomorrow, Monday, is a holiday (A commemoration of the invasion of the Malvinas, I've been told.), so I'll get the cord on Tuesday. If I heard right, Thursday and Friday are holidays and many people will be taking the entire week off from work.

Pato is still trying to get the window material for the spray dodger.  He can source a meter of it out of Buenos Aires for 300 pesos (half of which is transport cost), and he is looking around for a better buy.  He hadn't seen the email message that I had sent him this morning about the mainsail, so I told him about it.

People having a good look at the enclosed photo may wonder what is under the red cover at the end of the jetty on the left side of the photo.  The cover is protecting a large, beamy wooden hulled schooner.  A lawyer purchased it to live aboard it in Buenos Aires.  His circumstances changed so he brought it to Mar del Plata and is trying to sell it.  The protective cover must be worth a small fortune.