8 November 2016 – River Dunes / Grace Harbor, NC
A stitch in time saves nine — we never really considered what this phrase meant until we found ourselves having to sew virtually the entire hem of the foot of the staysail. We had plenty of time to contemplate these words of wisdom. If we had caught the loose thread earlier, or probably if we hadn’t unrolled the staysail a second time yesterday the repair area would have most likely been smaller.
But, as we unrolled the staysail today to survey the damage, we realized there was a lot more stitching coming undone.
Borrowing the marina’s courtesy car we planned to go to West Marine to get supplies (strong waxed thread for the sail, sturdy needles and sail repair tape) – unfortunately West Marine doesn’t open until 10am and we had to get the car back to the marina for the next reservation. Next stop was the hardware store who suggested the sail loft (a business specializing in making and repairing sails). There we explained what we needed and why. The guy recommended using dental floss for thread. What?!?! Are you serious?
Apparently dental floss is already waxed (making it easier to go through the sail fabric), is strong and the container has its own cutting edge so easy to manage and store. Flavor doesn’t matter.
He sold us a strip of sail repair tape for a few dollars and sent us on our way to Dollar General to purchase the dental floss. All they had was mint flavored so now the next time Bob has to go forward to cut a loose thread with his teeth, he will have minty fresh breath.
We returned to the boat pulled out our regular sewing needles, threaded them with dental floss and began the job of sewing. It was slow going, and it became obvious that a stronger needle would make the job easier. Christina was able to borrow the courtesy car again for a quick run to West Marine before the next car reservation was scheduled and picked up a pack of needles designed for sails and boats.
The new needles made the work a bit easier as we proceeded to sew and sew and sew. It took over 4 hours, and provided plenty of time for random thoughts, remembering our respective mothers who taught us the basics of sewing in our youth, and how Christina took her first sailing lessons and first sewing lessons during the summer of 1973. Who would have thought at the time that she would need both skills at the same time over 40 years later!
We were thankful we were in a marina because this job would have been a lot more unpleasant if we had to make the repairs while underway.
When we were done our fingers were sore and covered with bandaids from where we had stabbed ourselves with the sharp needles. (Bob even had difficulty opening his beer because his fingers were so sore!) We were happy that the foot has been repaired and hopefully the sail is fit to fly again.
We had noticed a few other tears in the sail fabric, and will be patching those with sail repair tape in the near future.
We think it might be time for a new staysail…..this might just be our Christmas present to ourselves this year.
We decided to reward our work with a long soak in the marina hot tub followed by a decadent steam shower.
Tomorrow we head south to Morehead City, NC hoping to be able to unfurl and sail our newly repaired staysail.