Catamaran standing rigging is usually replaced every 7-10 years and ours was overdue. We’d had it inspected in Amelia Island and it got an OK, but after the jumper failure and the crack I noticed, we had it re-inspected. We called Rich, the head installer for Mack Sails who lives aboard at a boatyard that is about a 10-minute dinghy ride from where we’re at now, and whom we’d been to see a couple times about the jumper. Colin Mack, the owner of Mack sails agreed to let Rich squeeze in an inspection Tuesday morning and Rich did a very thorough and expert job of confirming what we suspected – our rig was due for replacement. He gave us a few options and we chose to try to remove the rigging ourselves and then have Mack Sails create the new rigging. We’ll re-install the new rigging and then Rich will come out and help us with the difficult forestay re-rigging and tune the rig (tension the stays properly). I spent yesterday removing the lower jumper, four diamond stays (the diamond stays run from the mast to the end of a spreader and then back to the mast to help shape and stiffen the mast), and then finally the port cap shroud. That was the tense one. We connected two lines to the top of the mast (the main halyard and a spare halyard) then ran those lines through blocks and to winches. We winched the lines tight, and after lots of work finally got the old cap shroud free from the chainplate at the deck without losing the stick. The next step was for me to go back up to the top of the stick on the spinnaker halyard with the two lines holding the mast up from the port side. Once there I finally got the port cap shroud loose and managed to make it down with the 50′ of 1/2″ stainless steel wire without dropping it. Mack just called and they’re done with our rigging so tomorrow we’re try installing the new rigging and replacing the starboard cap shroud. They’ve done a great job of squeezing us into a busy schedule to help us get back underway as soon as possible.

Pura Vida missing the diamond stays and port cap shroud.

The autopilot repair has run into a few issues as well. We decided to switch from the well-undersized wheel pilot that is currently installed to a more robust below-deck linear drive that attaches directly to the steering quadrant and is much more powerful. We’ll keep the wheel pilot as a backup. The first autopilot I ordered was the smaller of the heavy-duty versions and it turns out the bigger one was the better fit. The small one was cheaper, but would have required cutting out a good part of a bulkhead to install. While I was measuring and generally getting more and more frustrated, I realized that some of the previously unexplained features of the port engine room around the rudder & steering gear were actually mounting points for the larger size of autopilot. Soooo, back went the first autopilot. Ed & Suzanne at Intercept Marine in Thousand Oaks, CA were great to deal with and sent the new pilot the same day. They have good prices and offer $30 overnight shipping, which is tough to beat. The install for the new, larger autopilot was just building momentum today when I heard something funny — a couple of loose parts rolling around inside the casing for the brand new drive unit. Raymarine confirmed that this was indeed anomalous; a local dealer/tech will show up tomorrow and hopefully will be able to repair or replace the unit fairly quickly.

So that’s how I’ve been spending a lot of my time in Ft. Pierce. There have been plenty of other highlights as well. Saturday Lauren and I were riding our bikes around just exploring the area when we heard live music from the waterfront. We rode over and found the Sandy Shoes Festival featuring live music at the waterfront amphitheater. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t co-operate and the sparsely attended festival/concert was cut short by a rainstorm (not everyone was sporting a foul weather jacket like yours truly). Boating stores, a grocery store, a first-rate Brooklyn pizza joint, and a local dive called the St. Lucie Inn ($3 mini-pitchers seem to indicate we’ve left So-Cal) are all within biking or walking distance, so we’ve been surviving. We picked up a couple of used folding bikes before we left and they’ve been great. The Dahon Mariner 5-speed is nice, but not the most robust. Lauren’s Sun Rambler single-speed is simple and sturdy and does great on all but the biggest hills.

Lauren cleaning. The trusty steeds are on the dock.

We’re slipping farther behind schedule, but are hoping to get out Friday night or Saturday and make up some time if everything goes really well. The boat should be much more seaworthy when we take off as we’ve slowly been working some of the smaller items we noted on the way down in addition to the big autopilot and rigging jobs. The tentative plan is to make a short stop in Key West to rest up before the crossing the the Yucatan, but we’ll see.