Brief stop for repairs!

We’ve been deferring a few repairs on the boat, but as we sailed to Cat Island we discovered one that just can’t wait—the shackle at the mainsail tack had started to loosen itself! We safely anchored and made a few decisions:

1. We are on Spring Break. We are so behind on grading from hanging out with friends, transiting, and just exploring that we need to catch up. And we are at a “new” island! Katreina can do French and Geometry (her book is headed to another cruiser as soon as she’s done) and Trent has to read, but that’s it!

2. We need a down day or two. Or maybe just I do (introvert). 

3. We need to fix the mainsail, the macerator, the fridge latch, and the small leak in the dinghy, and we need to make water and do laundry!

We anchored away from other boats in the Bight at the southern end of Cat Island and got to work. Water making started (Trent is about to fully take that job over!), I did laundry, and Frank tackled the crappy job of fixing the macerator pump. We have a brand new spare pump, but the discharge fitting was broken off so he basically used parts from both pumps to create the new one! A clogged blade and broken impeller were the problems, and he gloved up and got it fixed! 

A 💩 job

We spent the afternoon relaxing, playing games, and skinny dipping (adults only!)! It was so nice to have some complete chill time. We ate a simple dinner, watched the sun set together, and watched a movie...it was awesome. 

This morning winds were super light so we tackled fixing the main sail. We had to release the main halyard to free up the shackle, but dang the sail was stuck! We finally worked it free, reattached the shackle, and furled and unfurled it a few times for good measure. 

The issue (left) and all fixed (right)

Next up...a trip up the mast to inspect the rigging and to re-run a spare halyard that we noticed was rubbing on the genoa halyard. Fun fact—we don’t have electric winches onboard, so the wench is hand-winched up the mast by the Skipper! We checked the navigation lights, looked for any broken strands in the standing rigging, ensured all cotter pins were in place, checked chafe points, looked for signs of anything more than surface rust, and just generally looked for anything sketchy! Once we re-ran the spare halyard everything checked out and I took a ton of pics for the boss man to review. And the view from the top of the mast is always great!

Always fun going aloft!

We got underway by sailing off the anchor and are moving north a bit to go do some sightseeing and get some provisions. We are finally ready to enjoy Cat Island!