Grenada 2018 Un-Jamming The Main

Under sail

January 2018

We really enjoyed our time in Grenada.  It was fun exploring new areas, trying new things and limin' with good cruising friends.  But it was time to go.  We wanted to go to the Bequia Music Fest again.  It is always held the third week of January.

Before we could leave Grenada we needed to sort our our jammed main.  With a furling main, we have to be sure to furl it in at the correct angle.  At the end of our sail from Trini we didn't exactly have the proper angle when we furled it in.  We attempted to fix it at anchor in Grenada one morning BEFORE coffee aka being fully awake.  We made it worse.

Luckily, our neighbor at anchor was a sailmaker for several years.  Tom asked her if should would mind giving advice / helping.  She said she would be glad.  "I have had to deal with jammed sails many times through the years of working as a sailmaker."  We also got help from Paul off sv Kelly Nicole.

We put sv Honey Ryder on a mooring ball so we wouldn't have to worry about sailing around at anchor or un-anchoring ourselves.  We didn't think it was too badly jammed and it didn't look that way but let me tell you what, it did not want to come undone at all!  I ran the winches and halyards.  They all pushed and pulled and pushed and pulled some more.  And the wind pushed the sail this way and that.... we hoped it would help pop it out.  No.  Tom eventually had to go up the mast.  Even then we could not get the last 5 ft so we dropped the main.  Surely that would do it.  No.  It was still stuck.  It was folded over on itself at the very, very top.  OMG!  Tom had to take off the plates on each side of the mast and they had to work it around from the inside.  Seriously.....what a pain in the arse but they finally got it.

HUGE thank you to Bronwyn off sv Sea Swan and Paul off sv Kelly Nicole.  We could NOT have done it without them.  *Sorry Deb if we caused you and Paul to be late to the dinghy concert.

Going forward, we are super careful that we have the proper angle and all things are lined up for furling.