The boom is off!

As you may remember, we broke a weld on the boom (the tang for the rigid boom vang if you're interested) about 1/2 way through our Bahamas winter.  Duane had lashed it handily and we continued to sail for another 1000 or so miles without incident. 

But now we're in the summer-fix-it mode.....Duane does an amazing amount of repairs to everything from watermakers to generators to dinghy motors to my washer/dryer and much much more.....but aluminum welding is not on his list of talents.   So that is going to be left to the experts!

Sailcraft, our local boat yard called today and said they could work on our boom - so we had to take it off the boat!  First time we've done that and it's HUGE!   We had to disconnect and tie up the mailsail.  Then we rigged a halyard to the boom itself to lift it off the boat.

The boom ready for transport!  It's heavy!  about 17' long.

Tied it down to the dinghy trailer and took it over to Sailcraft.

And the welder hooked it up and took it away!  Hope to have it back tomorrow.  Dreading putting it back on!  Plus I have some sewing repairs to do to the sailcover - you'll hear about that, maybe tomorrow if I get around to sitting down and doing the sewing!  (Hint, it includes a 17' long x-large zipper installation!)