Once More Afloat

A boat on the hard is an eerie thing. It's a shell. There's no motion and, more particularly, there's no sound. The slap of the sea against the hulls, the hum of the fans, the call of seabirds, the creak of rigging, the rattle of lines, the whisper (or wail) of the wind, the patter (or thunder) of rain on deck. At anchor, the inevitable hum of someones wretched wind generator. So it was a real joy to feel Django come back to life as we took her out into Prickly Bay and dropped our hook.

Django at anchor in Prickly Bay with her new colours flying

The sounds aboard were a bit greater than usual, due to the fact that her sails had not been bent on. The furler inside the mainmast clattered and banged with every slight movement. WW announced the first order of business: the sails. The noise was making us both a bit cranky.

Up to the top deck and the mast with our two burly bundles of sail. We hanked (tied) on the head of the mainsail to its halyard (not, I might add, without some difficulty as it involved using a shackle inside the mast) and started to feed it up into the furler slot. I hauled on the halyard, WW eased it in. It was surprisingly difficult. Then WW remarked that we hadn't had to place a batten yet. A search for batten pockets then ensued. I wondered how battens go on a furler anyway. (Answer: They run vertically rather than the more usual horizontal.) In a moment of incredible insight, as much into the realities of sail dimensions as into our lubberliness, WW realized we were raising the genoa. Down it came and a far easier time was had hanking on and raising the much smaller mainsail...complete with batten pockets. Bent on, though unrigged, the resulting relative quiet was glorious (bar, of course, that wind generator off our stern).

Next, we bent on and furled the genny (an oversize jib, always larger than the mainsail...d'oh).

WW was very pleased with Django. She was almost ready to go. Both sails on with just the mainsail to rig. Both engines working. Bits and pieces all functioning as intended.

We celebrated with the season's first RPs and dinner aboard (kedgeree). Then WW pulled out the guitar and tested his new strap and picks (both great successess) while we sang any number of songs for which we new at least on verse, but never all.