Blog

We’re back! In a couple of ways. First, because we didn’t post last week. Sorry about that. But we had a good reason: nothing happened. We basically sat at anchor in one spot for a week waiting for our marina date with the rigger to replace our rigging. We did some remote work and fixed a few things (of course) but otherwise… no excitement.

This past week, though, we saw some action! We’ve got new rigging! WooHoo! The mast won’t fall down! First I went up the rig to remove the old lower shrouds and the inner forestay. Kim and I had a huge fight about that, but we’ll pretend that never happened. We’re fine now and everything is heavenly, as it ALWAYS is on board Meraviglia. The next day, the riggers came and installed the replacement shrouds and forestay, then removed the cap shrouds. For those interested, the cap shrouds run from the top of the mast down to the deck. The lower shrouds run from the first spreader to the deck. There are two on each side. Then the inner forestay runs from about 2/3 of the way up the mast down to the deck. In any case, after removing the cap shrouds, the team made up the replacements, installed them, and we were set! They also tuned them. This involves tightening the turnbuckles to put appropriate tension on the shrouds. We measure the tension with a gadget called a Loos Gauge. So, for now, they are all tuned up. Wire rigging tends to stretch over time-usually to the tune of about 3%, so we’ll have to keep an eye on the tension and adjust it as needed. Of course, we need to do dynamic tuning first. When we sit at dock and tension the rig, that is “static” tuning. “Dynamic” tuning is adjusting the tension while under sail. Basically, we put the boat on a close reach and take a look at the shrouds on the lee side. If they are loose, we tighten them while under sail to remove the slack. Then we repeat on the other side after tacking. So, we’ll get around to that. It’s just a great feeling to feel secure in the rig for once. We haven’t felt great about it from the beginning. Even though the prior owner replaced it in 2020, we haven’t been happy. Last year when we discovered broken wires in the forestay and D2 shrouds, I suspected that they had used sub-standard materials in the replacement. Now that even more wires broke this year, I feel sure of it. As the rigger said, we were “very, very lucky”.

But, now we’re good. I hope. And so now, FINALLY, after weeks in Fiji, we can finally take off and explore! We are desperate to go somewhere we haven’t been, so that’s the plan. We want to get to the Lao Group, which is a remote island chain east of Fiji’s main islands. They are extremely remote and less-visited: right up our alley. So yesterday, we rented a car and did a major provisioning run. Two grocery stores, a butcher, and an Italian specialty shop later (gotta have Parmesan, baby!), we are stocked up. This morning we left the marina and motored east for a few hours and now we are anchored off of a deserted beach with no one in sight-PERFECT! If the weather models hold, we’ll have a shift in the tradewinds from eaasterly to southerly, which should allow us to get to Lau. Doesn’t happen very often, so FINGERS CROSSED! Off we go!