Minor spinnaker repairs on the lawn

The last sail back from Viani Bay was marred by a couple of frustrating moments. First of all we decided to hoist the 'Irish Flag' spinnaker but the thing had got all twisted up in its 'snuffer' sock after a 'challenging' drop last time we used it and so it wouldn't come out to play. Grrrr.

Plan B was to hoist the Big Pot Parasailor instead and that all went beautifully to plan until the wind died and we had to take it down. Somehow, without a breeze to fill it, one of the many thin control lines that connect the bottom of the 'wing' to the rest of the sail got snagged and we broke the stitching holding it as we pulled the snuffer down (and were worried that we might have done more serious damage). Double Grrrr. It was like the feeling you have when you scratch your car in a brief moment of carelessness.

The challenge was to be able to spread out the 125 sq. m. sail to get to the damaged area and that just wasn't possible on board the boat. Today, though, the wind dropped and the rain held off long enough to lay the sail out on the lawn at the Copra Shed Marina.

It's important to tie the spinnaker to a palm tree just in case of sudden gusts!

The successful repair (just some hand stitches) made for good entertainment for those in the bar at lunchtime

We were very pleased to get the job completed just before the rain arrived; it's good to have both sails back in working order (we untwisted the Irish Flag on the lawn yesterday so the locals are probably wondering what tomorrow's entertainment will be).