On Sunday 22nd October at 1200hrs with a forecast of dry weather Vicki went down to Elektra to remove her sails and fold up for the winter. Vicki isn’t very able these days, getting down to the creek bed from the road she nearly fill in but I managed to save her, she wouldn’t have been happy if she had got wet.
We used our old Quicksliver 2.3m roll-up to get out to Elektra who was aground and hadn’t floated at high water just an hour before, using the bow lines and then Elektra’s gunnel to get us to her stern and boarding ladder. Once safely aboard we set about taking the sail cover and mainsail off. Vicki working from the cockpit removing the reefing lines and battens, while I removed the luff sliders from the mast grove and the foot from the boom. Vicki hadn’t seen the new battens and was having problems so we did them together after I found the batten tool (a short piece of batten) to release the Velcro, it was a bit of a fiddle but at least we hadn’t lost any battens during the summer. Our old Jeckells mainsail lost the bottom batten every year from 2017 we had lost 4 old battens and one which I made by 2021, in 2022 I didn’t bother putting the batten in! I like Crusaders Sails way of fitting the battens.
With it being a dry day we were able to fold up the sail on Elektra’s coach roof, then it was the turn of the genoa, a lot bigger sail and more of a problem to fold up but we did it eventually! And in the dry, just after we finish it tipped down with rain but by that time the sail was in the bag, few! We sat down in the saloon while it rained, I am glad to say it was short lived and stopped again 5mins later. We packed up some more stuff we didn’t need aboard over the winter.
We then put up the cockpit enclosure, for tomorrow with heavy rain forecasted I am going to finish off the cockpit Flexiteek trims. Then I got down into the dinghy and took the sails bags and other bags from Vicki to ferry ashore, with the sea level only a foot or so deep. Only getting to about midships before going aground. I unloaded the bags from the dinghy to a dry stony area of creek bed and went back for Vicki. It was a long drop down for Vicki from the bottom of the ladder, I think she nearly fell in again, complaining about me moving the dinghy but she saved herself by hanging onto the bottom of the ladder. It was a short trip, about 10ft before we had to get out again, lol, it was less about the depth of water and more to do with the depth of mud under the water! Once we walked up to the side of the creek, I made off the dinghy to one of Elektra’s bow lines and climbed up onto the road to help Vicki up, then jumped down again to lift the bags up. We then loaded the pick-up and drove home.
Love Sailing 