Shackles and Slides

Main sheet shackle issue: When we bought Ladybug, the previous owner was not on hand to answer questions and the running rigging had been disassembled and stowed below out of the weather. When I re-assembled the main sheet purchase, I made best guesses as to what shackles to use and I see now that I must have used a shackle designed for a lighter load for the main attachment (see blog from a few days ago about this shackle failing). I found what was probably the original shackle being used to attach a running backstay and have replaced the anchor shackle stop-gap with this one. So apologies for blaming Garhauer for this one :)

How a boat can be like a playground: At lunch time yesterday, we were sitting on the settee when the boat took a huge lurch in the 3 meter cross swells running at that time. I had my feet well braced against the dinette table, but Rani did not. She slid off the settee and all the way across the boat coming to rest under the table. She probably would have joined me in my laughter, for she looked just like a little girl sliding down a playground slide, except that she had been holding a bowl of salad in her left hand. This was now, of course, spread evenly over one of the carpets.