Sunday morning. We need to get home today. It is going to be hard to keep track of the days while we are sailing. Alan has one last business trip to Sea Island, Georgia this week. We leave Tuesday so we need to get home and get packed. But first, he needs to measure for sails and finish the job at the top of the mast. Today he rigs both a bucket to haul tools up and a safety line in case he falls. Then back up he goes.
While he was up the mast, I set about rounding up everything that we did not need. This is our last chance to take stuff home. After this, anything extra will go to a thrift shop or into the trash. Every half hour or so there would be a yell from the top of the mast and I would go out and lower the bucket and readjust the safety line.
Finally, finally, finally it was done. Then time to take all the measurements for the new sail. It is to be a mizzen staysail. I am still not sure exactly what it is or why we need it but “everybody says” that we will love it. As far as I can tell, it gives us the potential of having 5 sails up at once. Seems like an awful lot of work to me, as well as a potential for disaster if we suddenly need to get them all down quickly.
A long hot shower and we loaded up all of our gear and headed for the trolley station to catch the train home. I had struggled with the internet, looking for a car rental for days and finally decided just to take the train. Everything worked smoothly until we got to Fullerton, last stop before LA. What should have been a quick stop turned into a 2 hour long delay. Official word was that a car was stalled on the track and they needed to get a tow truck to move it. Then the Track Inspector would have to certify that the track was not damaged before we could be cleared to go. Eventually a bus was sent for people who were making connections to other trains. Then another bus came for those who were going to Santa Barbara. Those of us who just wanted to get to LA were told in no uncertain terms to stay on the train and wait.
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