Don’t you just love it when a store decides to run a big discount on something that’s been on your wishlist for a while? Today is West Marine’s “Friday deal” – which is a tidy 40% off all bulk rope. Whilst it was tempting to go overboard (how many phrases have nautical origins?!) and replace most of the tired lines around the boat, I was able to restrain myself to the “need” rather than “want” list.
The other day on the trip up to Point Reyes we got some nasty riding turns on the jib sheets, partly due to the ancient, flattened and fluffed ropes. So they were up for replacement. I got blue ones thinking that all the other lines aboard were white … making it easier to give instructions – “pull the blue one”. Getting back to the boat I see that the jib furling line is also blue. Oops. Ah well. At least now I’ve got two more tired, end of life ropes hanging around … perfect for holding the kayaks down!
I have no halyard backups to use in an emergency if the jib or main halyards go, and at some point I’m going to be looking for a spinnaker, so it also made sense to get the line for a new halyard too. Ended up with 8mm dyneema. I’m amazed by the breaking strength of this stuff – it claims 7000lb, which means that I just need 3 lines to hold the WHOLE BOAT up in the air.
So, now I have another job for the next trip up the mast; fit a spinnaker halyard crane and run the line. It’s also going to need a cleat on the mast.
Road and Ocean 