Chip & Debbie Willis on s\v Elegant'sea: Sails washed,dried,folded and bagged in Marina Mazatlán

May 2016 - Tied up in Marina Mazatlán, Mexico

Taking down the 130 Genoa and folding on the dock.

The sails got washed, dried and folded along with the stack pack. We took down the "Lazy Jacks" ourselves and washed them.

We hired "Marine Services Mazatlan" to do the work. Of course this did not go smoothly. They came by and we explained what we wanted. We had sent them an email to explain each step of the process that we wanted done and had called before and explained what we wanted. They came by and washed the sails and as we were coming back from a trip to Home Depot they were leaving? They had furled the head sail and dropped the main into the "stack pack" dripping wet. So we had to pull the genoa out at the dock and let it dry. There was not much wind so we were lucky on that. Then we raised the main after the head sail was furled. All dried. Then .. Rick from "Marine Services Mazatlan" came by and said it was a mis-understanding?? At least one of the guys doing the work spoke English and we told him also exactly what we wanted done.

So they all came by the next morning and got the job done. Just the way it is sometimes. In Puerto Vallarta ... we had the same job done on the main sail and Jason from Argos Marine got it right the first time and charged a third less.

On some of our passages this cruising season we got some good spray over the bow. It would get salt water on the mast about ten feet up from the deck. Because we were at anchor for five months straight there was not easy way to clean it. Then get everything all salty again so we did the best we could like every year. We keep things polished and wiped off best we can. So you know the sails also got salt water sprayed. Now they are washed and dried for storage during hurricane season. It also helps to get the genoa off the Harken furler as it can come loose and beat itself to death in a storm while sitting at the dock.