Hilton Head Island: reversal; long range forecasts; a passage; changing shape

 I have now had the pleasure of being here a week.  Most of that time I have been confined to the condo waiting for workmen or deliveries.  I have gone down to GANNET several days and accomplished some minor tasks and failed at one.

I bent on the jib early last week.  Kasey had removed the furling line from the drum for the truck transport, something I have not done in the past, and when I replaced the line here I wound it around the drum clockwise.  Somehow that didn’t seem right and back in the condo I checked old photos and found it wasn’t, so on Saturday I unfurled the jib in almost no wind and left it flying while I tediously unwound the line from the drum and then wound it on again counterclockwise.  All, or almost all now seems good.  The almost is because the first lead for the furling line as it comes off the drum is creating friction and needs to be replaced.

The failed task was replacing the ¼”/6mm halyard with one 5/16”/8mm.  The ¼” high tech halyard is more than strong enough for GANNET, but recently the halyard clutch has let it slip a little under load and I though it might hold a larger line better.  The clutch is supposed to handle both size lines, but it doesn’t.  After prolonged effort I am unable to thread the 5/16” line through the clutch.  I may rig a down haul/Cunningham.

I would like to go sailing this week and anchor for the night on the other side of Pickney Island,  but am not sure I can free my busy schedule as condo gatekeeper to do so.

I have continued to download a new 14 day GRIB for the Atlantic Ocean each morning.  With LuckGrib this takes a single click and a few seconds.  I don’t recall ever doing so before and it has been instructive.  To the question:  how much credence can one put in 14 day forecasts?  my conclusion is:  not much.  They are interesting and perhaps bring to one’s attention an event that might happen, but that is all.

The sailing season has come to a close for many of you and if you can’t sail any more this year and want to watch someone who is, my friend, Lee, is about to set off for Hawaii single-handed in his Valiant 32, MORNING STAR.   This is not his first sail to Hawaii.  He participated in the Single Handed TransPac a few years ago, but this is the first that is open ended.  Lee, like Steve Earley, retired this year and no longer has the pressure of time.  As I have noted, that is the greatest wealth.  MORNING STAR is presently anchored off Catalina Island, having been sailed up there several days ago from San Diego.  The last I heard, Lee’s projected departure is tomorow.  I wish him a fine passage.

His tracking page is:  https://share.garmin.com/MorningStar

I continue to read some Louis Gluck each afternoon and continue to be impressed.  

I’m not going to post every poem of her’s I admire, but here are the last lines of ‘Parable of the Dove’:

So it is true after all, not merely 
a rule of art: 
change your form and you change your nature. 
And time does this to us.

You can find the complete poem here:

https://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/louise-gluck/parable-of-the-dove/