And voilà, Changabang is back from the yard with a new red bottom paint. It’s rolled on so possibly slower than the previously sprayed on. Hopefully, this Pettit Trinidad HD paint will last a little longer. I started out of Richmond under engine as the forecast called for very light winds. Certainly coming out of SF it was mostly on the nose. After a few hours, we were out of the Bay and headed South. Surprise! The wind was good in the 8-12 range and coming from about 60-70 TWA. I took me a while to get out of my motoring stupor but I hooked up the sails, hoisted them, and was happy to see us doing close to 9 kts or more! Oh, do I love the sound of Changabang planing!
Sadly, we hit a mola mola again. I looked back and it didn’t seem very happy. Being hit at 9 kts gotta hurt! There were whales but they (and I managed) to stay out of trouble. Getting close to Pillar Point, the wind died down and we motored for the last leg.
While the boat was on the dry, I worked on shortening the mid-bowsprit tack to gain one inch or more of luff. I’ve also started replacing the control lines for the jib car (truly a plain low friction ring). Back home, I received the replacement ball bearing for the NKE anemometer. So I’m working to fix that. I purchased 7mm Dyneema line to replace the 6mm. I changed brand for stronger strength so even though I’ll reduce the number of lashing loops (21 to 12), I will gain a 20% safety factor. 12 loops should allow better positioning of the lashing loops on the bow fitting than the 21 loops. And that’s all for now.
