Morning Coffee on the Heron.

 Although the Heron has been back  in the water for a few weeks now, I haven't really been happy with the rigging and furling. I don't know what I did differently this year, but the roller reefing hasn't worked.

 

On Wednesday evening I bit the bullet and took the mast down again. I decided to do things properly and fit a deflector eye to the mast. It was five minutes with a drill to fit it but a couple of hours taking off sails and the boom and all the other sundry jobs that are part of dropping the mast and raising it again. Still, I was quite chuffed to manage it all single handed.

On Saturday a few boats were off to Anstruther for a race back. I only managed over to the other side of the harbour where I tied up to the wall and hauled the mast over to try to straighten everything out and check nothing was getting tangled. One replacement forestay this season is enough.

It was all looking good but the tide was falling rapidly and Heron soon took the ground. Then the rain started, so I put the little green tarpaulin over the boom and settled in for the afternoon.

In the evening I gave up waiting for the weather to improve and just left the boat alongside overnight.

 Sunday morning and the weather was a lot better. The tide was rising and the Heron had decided to sit a little way off the wall. This was ok as there was quite a swell running out at sea and even in the harbour there was still a couple of feet of movement. I had left a spring from the mast to a ladder so it was no problem to pull the boat back alongside.

First thing to do was get the little kettle going for morning coffee. It's just instant but it always tastes good sitting on the boat, especially when the sun is shining.

Then I set to re tuning the rigging. As the day wore on the local boats started arriving back with a few green faces. I was quite happy to have spent the day pottering around. Another easy Sunday but hopefully this time the Heron is actually  ship shape and ready to do some sailing.