8 November 2016 – River Dunes \/ Grace Harbor, NC<\/p>\n
![\"p1030097\"](\"http:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/P1030097-300x225.jpg\")
A stitch in time saves nine \u2014 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.\u00a0 We had plenty of time to contemplate these words of wisdom.\u00a0 If we had caught the loose thread earlier, or probably if we hadn\u2019t unrolled the staysail a second time yesterday the repair area would have most likely been smaller.<\/p>\n
But, as we unrolled the staysail today to survey the damage, we realized there was a lot more stitching coming undone.<\/p>\n
Borrowing the marina\u2019s 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.\u00a0 Next stop was the hardware store who suggested the sail loft (a business specializing in making and repairing sails).\u00a0 There we explained what we needed and why.\u00a0 The guy recommended using dental floss for thread.\u00a0 What?!?!\u00a0 Are you serious?<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 Flavor doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
We returned to the boat pulled out our regular sewing needles, threaded them with dental floss and began the job of sewing.\u00a0 It was slow going, and it became obvious that a stronger needle would make the job easier.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
![\"p1030096\"](\"http:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/P1030096-300x225.jpg\")
The new needles made the work a bit easier as we proceeded to sew and sew and sew.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Who would have thought at the time that she would need both skills at the same time over 40 years later!<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
When we were done our fingers were sore and covered with bandaids from where we had stabbed ourselves with the sharp needles.\u00a0 (Bob even had difficulty opening his beer because his fingers\u00a0were so sore!) \u00a0We were happy that the foot has been repaired and hopefully the sail is fit to fly again.<\/p>\n
We had noticed a few other tears in the sail fabric, and will be patching those with sail repair tape in the near future.<\/p>\n
We think it might be time for a new staysail\u2026..this might just be our Christmas present to ourselves this year.<\/p>\n
We decided to reward our work with a long soak in the marina hot tub followed by a decadent steam shower.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow we head south to Morehead City, NC hoping to be able to unfurl and sail our newly repaired staysail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
8 November 2016 – River Dunes \/ Grace Harbor, NC A stitch in time saves nine \u2014 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.\u00a0 We had plenty of time to contemplate these words of wisdom.\u00a0 If we … Continue reading A Minty Fresh Sail\u2026<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=895"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":900,"href":"https:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895\/revisions\/900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamtime-sailing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}