The Good, Bad and the Ugly

The past few days have been rather busy. Going through piles of plastic bags and freeing many cushions, linens and, of course, pillows has resulted in a livable interior once again. No surprises after 11 months (no mold or critters). Just a seriously ugly bilge and surface cleaning. So, Humpty  Dumpty is back together again.

imageimageimageSo much for the below decks, up above things are different. Heldeleine is now 1 sail away from being a motor boat. The saga of the top Swivel (please keep up people!) has taken a bad twist. As some of you know the Genoa (headsail) would not come down last year. The boat yard said it was a broken swivel etc….. The swivel was sent to Milan where my wonderfully supportive sister hand carried it to Denver and sent it to be “repaired” in Florida. The guy in Florida said that Nothing was wrong with the swivel. But while he had it there, why doesn’t he replace the ball bearings so it would be good for another 10 years? Why not? Well….the swivel is sent back to Laurie, she hand carries it to Milan and sends it back to yard here in Gaeta. Yesterday we attempted to hoist the Genoa and lo and behold the halyard lines that hoist the sail are CROSSED inside the mast causing them to jam and no way of them hoisting a sail. That is sorted out and they are a bit upset that the crossed lines were the problem and not the swivel. Up goes the sail and furl it does. Awesome. I request that the sail be unrolled and rolled up again as a test. As they unfurl the sail…BANG…the sail starts to come down. WTF!! Yup, the fucking Swivel BROKE!!image

Goddamnit. The Florida tech screwed up the bearing installation on a good swivel and made good into very bad. The Italian riggers almost cheered. It was the Swivel, it was the swivel last year! No, it wasn’t the problem then but is NOW. Shit. Bad Day. So, no headsail for at least half the trip (we might be able to have a new one installed while we go the Rome for 3 days). We will see. For now, we will have an unobstructed view of the beauties of Italy. No damn sail in our way….

I still have one sail, we still have a spinnaker, I am still on my boat and I am still seeing the awesomely beautiful sights of the Italian coast.

What’s not to Love?

Family arrives in 3 Hours. Updates to follow.


Comments

The Good, Bad and the Ugly — 7 Comments

  1. Dan..
    Sorry to hear about the swivel..
    If you want to send it to me, I will hand carry it to Florida and get it repaired and send it back…
    Tom Mayo

  2. Dan–Despite your problems with the swivel, we are looking forward to hearing about your adventures in the land of La Dolce Vita! Our love to you, Mars, Maddie, and Helen–Patti and Scott

  3. Just getting caught up on your posts — “For now, we will have an unobstructed view of the beauties of Italy” might be the best example of a silver lining I’ve read in quite some time 😉

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